A friend of mine recently shared the power of ‘Google Fi‘ and I just pulled the trigger.

‘Fi’ is Google’s cellular data plan and has a few things that might make it my next provider for life. The key points about it are:

• It offers free talk and texts worldwide for $20 per month.
• 1 GB of data is $10. Each GB after is $10/GB with any use over 6 GB being free.
• Automatic shifts from free wifi hotspots and 3 networks using 4G LTE.
• Coverage in over 200 countries around the world.

Naturally, this is a huge time saver for spending long times on the road in multiple countries. Usually, when we travel, I get a SIM card at the airport or train station which takes time and after swapping back to my old SIM, notice some of my map pins are gone and the shifting phone numbers make it difficult for people to contact me for reliable communication. As we’ll be visiting dozens of countries on our trip, it seemed like a no-brainer.

For this setup, I created an account online with my home address back home and used my local area code for a new phone number. This means my folks can call us (and vice versa) easily and listing our new phone number on hotel booking sites means hotels can contact us anytime if there is a change to our booking and I can call instead of email to confirm arrivals and departures.

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