Staying connected with your loved ones while travelling abroad used to be a challenge. Previously your cell phone didn’t work abroad, roaming charges were ridiculous and you may have had to use a sketchy computer at an airport to let your folks keep up with where you are if delays happen. For long layovers, getting a local SIM card may not be practical or even possible. You can use free airport Wi-Fi but that only works within the Airport most of the times. Welcome To Germany Text from T-Mobile In my case with T-Mobile, I get free roaming and texting in over 200 countries, so as soon as I get into a new country, my phone has service! The data is throttled but it is enough to make calls and browse the web to get my boarding pass, itinerary etc. Even after arriving at my final destination, I tried to use local SIM card and buy data plans but they were ridiculously expensive and these expire nightly. T-Mobile offers faster speeds at $5 per day, but I did manage without