Stay connected worldwide: Introducing Tello International Roaming
The feature you’ve all been waiting for is here: Say hello to new adventures with Tello International Roaming!
We’ve been listening to your feedback and we couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that International Roaming is up and running on Tello.com. We’re now ready to dive into more details and share with you great tips and tricks on how to use it.
Whether you’re exploring the Asian culture, sipping a cappuccino in Italy, lounging on a hammock in the Caribbean or attending a business meeting in London, our International Roaming will be there with you from now on.
🌍 What is Tello International Roaming?
Tello International Roaming is the latest feature that allows you to stay connected worldwide. You will now be able to make calls, send texts, surf the web or stay active on social media while abroad, all while using your Tello number. Tello International Roaming is now available in 250+ countries and territories and it will be your phone’s virtual passport.
While using roaming, your phone disconnects from your wireless network and joins another network (a local provider, that varies between the countries you’re traveling to) through some agreements between those two.
🌍 How does Tello International Roaming work?
Simply put, Tello International Roaming uses Pay As You Go (PAYG), so make sure that you have a PAYG balance with a minimum credit of $5 to proceed with roaming activation.
Also, please note that the Auto Recharge feature will not be triggered by international roaming usage, to avoid unexpected charges. You can manually recharge your account with Pay As You Go credit whenever necessary.
🌍 How to activate Tello International Roaming?
We, at Tello, like to keep things simple. That’s why activating International Roaming is also a breeze.
As mentioned above, in order to use International Roaming, your Pay as You Go (PAYG) Balance should not drop below $5 at the time you wish to activate this service.
There are two settings under My Tello > My Settings that you need to toggle ON to be able to access the international roaming service. Let’s dive into each, to understand what they do:
🔵 Pay As You Go Data
This allows you to use 4G LTE Data charged from your PAYG balance. This setting applies to both domestic and international Data. Your data usage in the US will be charged firstly from your active plan, then from your PAYG balance if you run out of Data from your plan. While in the US, data from your PAYG balance is charged at 2c/MB. When traveling, your data usage will be charged according to the destination (see rates here).
If you only wish to use minutes and texts while abroad or want to avoid accidentally overusing data abroad, toggle this setting OFF.
🔵 International Roaming
This setting allows you to use your PAYG balance for calls and texts while abroad. Together with the Pay As You Go Data setting ON, it will allow you to use international data as well. Rates for each destination are available here.
You can enable these settings from the Tello website or the My Tello app.
Whenever you arrive in a new country, we’ll send you a welcome notification with the roaming rates in that specific destination.
And speaking of rates, we’ve tried our best to give you competitive rates and transparent pricing, so you can roam with peace of mind. Just search here for your destination and enjoy the great prices!
🌍 What’s the great thing about the PAYG balance?
The great news about the PAYG balance is that you’re never going to lose your credit, even if you haven’t used it all for roaming purposes while traveling. You can also use it to call several international destinations from the States and even for domestic calls, texts and data.
Your PAYG Balance rules stay the same, meaning that the credit will expire after 90 days after purchase if you only have PAYG credit on your Tello account.
However, as long as you have an active Tello plan, your credit will not expire.
So, here are the three ways that you can use PAYG:
🔵 For International Roaming (From outside the United States)
🔵 For International Calls & Texts (From the United States to other countries)
🔵 For US calls, texts and data (from the United States to the United States)
🌍 Tello International Roaming vs. Using Tello from abroad with Wi-Fi Calling
We know you love the fact that you can use Tello from abroad, with the help of Wi-Fi Calling. We like to call this the Free Roaming option and we love it too! That’s why this option will stay the same. So, rest assured that you can continue to enjoy this free feature seamlessly.
Tello International Roaming comes to the rescue for those who can’t rely on a Wi-Fi network and need to stay connected. We understand that a stable and reliable Wi-Fi network is not always available everywhere you go. That’s where our new International Roaming feature steps in to save the day! And if you want to save on data while travelling, check out this blog post with tips we gathered for you!
We couldn’t be more excited to roll out this highly anticipated feature, and we want to make sure everyone knows about it! Feel free to share this great news with your Tello friends.
Happy roaming wherever your adventures, business travels or new life chapters take you!
Also, if you have any other questions, check out our Help Center, leave us a comment below or contact our 24/7 Customer Service.
Great new feature!
Just one question, while roaming are incoming calls and SMS free?
Unfortunately, not.
You are charged for both incoming and outgoing calls and SMS.
You can check our rates here. https://tello.com/international_roaming
Please reduce the minimum PAYG purchase. I would like to purchase $5 so that I can use international roaming. $20 is too high and far more than I will use since I am on a monthly plan.
Thank you for your feedback.
We will forward it to the relevant department.
4
Can you do it more affordable? 50 USD per Gigabyte is quite expensive.
Respectfully, 5c an MB works to 50 USD a GB! Ridiculously expensive!
That’s totally true, too expensive!!! Tello is supposed to save us money. Who is affordable to pay $50 per GB?
Also remember TELLO is mostly just giving you access to international roaming; they are not really subsiding it like T-Mobile is, you have to remember that you are using a low-cost carrier and they are not going to give you everything. They are just providing you with that access should you need it.
There’s no perfect solution. I was in Belize during COVID and got stuck down there and I had T-Mobile at the time and they sent me a warning they were going to close my account if I did not return to my domestic service area for 30days because of using the “Unlimited International Data Roaming”. This made me mad that the time but in some ways I understand it. Its meant to be temporary use not “Truly Unlimited” because they are eating the cost of that data.
So to my point that TELLO is a low cost carrier and so they are not gouging us for profit like all the big carriers so there are some restrictions on what they are willing to subsize so they can still turn a profit. If you want a subsidized International Data Plan then you will have to pay for it with a BIG CARRIER that will continually gouge you monthly when your not using it,
There’s an answer for this. I’m a Tello Customer and this is what I do, and it works great. We travel abroad a lot and purchase a second eSim through “https://www.Yesim.app“ this is the website and they have an app for iOS and Android as well. (They are a reputable Swedish Company offering Data eSims) If you turn on the Tello sim and turn off international data roaming on the Tello eSim and purchase the secondary eSim that is DATA only you can use the data from the second eSim you purchased. So you have both eSims on at the same time but you select the second one to pull data from when you are international I did this before Tello offered international roaming and it worked for me quite well. We go to Belize a lot, often for a month or more at a time, and you can purchase 3GB for $26.40, 5GB for $38.50, 10GB for $64.90, or 20GB for $82.50. Mind you the Data in Belize is more expensive that most places because of the Carrier Monopoly but its still a lot cheaper than using Tello’s International Data or paying the carrier locally. Don’t get me wrong it’s nice that Tello Offers this now and I can use it as a backup if I need too but I don’t plan too. The other thing is that since most of the people I contact use Facetime, Facebook, & WhatsApp anyway, they are all Data calls that don’t require the use of minutes and in the rare case that I need to make a local foreign call, I’m good to go and it costs me literally nothing. Also I have and I have Tello’s App on it so with the Data turned on, on the second eSim I can call back to the US for Free from Belize. Its kind of a neat hack for keeping international costs down.
Can you please eliminate the 90day PAYG credit expiration rule. I would be happy to carry a balance on may PAYG to cover me for international roaming whenever I travel (and top up accordingly), but the 90 day expiration with a $20 minimum makes that rather wasteful.
We appreciate your feedback.
It will be forwarded to the relevant department.
For the moment, international roaming was just launched and there will be no changes in the near future.
Can you also launch a discount roaming package like $5/day for 2gb/day similar to Visible’s global pass? That would control the $50/gb cost if we plan to use more data and provide more revenue to you.
We appreciate your feedback, we will forward it to the relevant department.
For the moment, international roaming was just launched and there will be no changes in the near future.
so when I turn on International roaming on Tello site. Do I still leave my phone in wifi mode when abroad, so when I do connect to a wifi I won’t be charged for calls. correct ?
That is correct.
As long as your phone will be connected to the Wi-Fi, then you will be using Wi-Fi calling, not the international roaming.
I agree with other commenters:
1) reduce the $20 minimum
2) eliminate the 90day PAYG credit expiration, or at least extend it to 1 year.
Totally agree!
Is this feature free in Canada and Mexico?
Hi John,
Tello International Roaming is available now in Canada and Mexico, but not free of charge. You can check the costs for each destination here: https://tello.com/international_roaming
Instructions say to change settings under My Tello. Do I also need to toggle on Roaming settings on my physical phone?
Hi Ron,
Depending on your device model, you’ll also have to toggle on the Roaming settings. Please feel free to contact our 24/7 Customer Support and they can guide you through the technical specs.
Crazy expensive. I’ll stick with an eSIM.
Hi, I’m trying to understand how this work…. if I’m in my foreign country and trying to call back to USA. Can simply use the phone number in my contact list or do I have to add numbers to the 10 digit USA phone nbr? Thanks
Hi Alex,
You’ll need to add the international access code (00 or +) and also the US country code (1). You can edit the number when dialing or save the contact with the +1 before the number.
Thank you. I’ve been with Tello for a few years now and appreciate your service, support and business model.
So if I’m in France do I need to add the French country code to call a French number using roaming?
Sure thing!
You need to add the country code regardless the country you are calling to.
$0.05/mb is ridiculous! That’s over $50.00 for 1 gb of data. Other MVNO carriers include roaming in many of their plans. I can get a local eSIM with 100 gb on Orange for less than that! Tello needs to do better.
Like this
Hello and thank you for introducing this new feature. I am slightly puzzled by these two statements though, they seem to be contradicting each other:
“The great news about the PAYG balance is that you’re never going to lose your credit”
“Your PAYG Balance rules stay the same, meaning that the credit will expire after 90 days”
What am I missing? Thanks again!
Hi Martin,
We’ve just updated the info for more clarity.
I’m very happy to see this feature saving me the hassle of getting an e-sim card.
Hi Jacqueline,
We’re happy to hear this!
Hello everyone,
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concerns about the cost of our roaming service. We want to assure you that we are dedicated to providing the most affordable rates possible. Our roaming service is designed to be an optional feature, offering the convenience of staying connected when traveling internationally, especially in emergency situations. The higher cost is due to the agreements involved in providing this service across various networks worldwide.
However, our Wi-Fi Calling feature remains available as a free alternative. This option allows you to make and receive calls over a Wi-Fi network at no extra cost, helping you avoid roaming charges.
I pay a domestic plan with Tello for my cell phone. I will be travelling to Chile soon, you explain that wi-fi calling feature remains available, do I keep same phone number when traveling abroad? please advise. thank you
Sure thing!
You will keep the same phone number while traveling abroad. You can use Wi-Fi calling seamlessly outside the US. As long as you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, you will be able to make/ receive calls and send/ receive SMSes.
I believe credits, when purchased in California, cannot expire. Does your 90-day expiration rule apply to California credits?
Hi there!
The expiration rule does not apply to our Pay As You Go credit, therefore, if you do not have an active plan, the Pay As You Go balance will expire.
Do I get a US phone number?As for International Roaming, can I do 2FA (verification) for banking and some very sensitive logins? Meaning phone is strictly for banking needs and will turn off after receiving verification code.
Hi Mark,
If you want to use your Tello phone number just for 2FA, check out this blog post.
Landed in Belo Horizonte Brazil on 7/5. I activated an Iphone & Samsung phone for International Data roaming before I left the USA. The Iphone has been working fine, the Samsung S24 is not. I’ve been fighting with it trying to get it to work to no avail. On 7/8 I’ll fly to another state in Brazil. Claro is King here and VIVO more so where I will be landing. I’ll see if VIVO likes the S24 any better. I don’t know what companies Tello has agreements with here. The big four are Claro, TIM, VIVO and OI.
Hi there!
If your iPhone worked well with a certain carrier, the Android phone should work too. Therefore, if you encounter any issues again, feel free to contact our Customer Support Team available 24/7.
If I activate pay as you go for international roaming, will my existing account get closed? Also, my existing account is paid automatically every month from a credit card. Can I pay for international roaming the same way and just added to my regular monthly payment?
Hi Joe,
Your account will not get closed if you activate international roaming. Moreover, if you have an active plan, you PAYG credit will not expire, even if you haven’t used it all during your travels.
Regarding the regular monthly payment, as mentioned in this article, Auto Recharge feature will not be triggered by international roaming usage, to avoid unexpected charges. You can manually recharge your account with Pay As You Go credit whenever necessary.
Hope it’s all clear!