After you activate your Google Fi account and use Fi in the US (territories not included), you can use your phone for calls, texts, and data outside the US. You don’t need to change your phone’s settings.
Important: Fi’s Terms of Service require you to activate and use Fi service primarily in the United States. If you try to activate Fi abroad or use Fi service predominantly internationally, you may have your international capabilities suspended.
Users are able to reactivate internationally. For example, they can switch devices or perform a factory reset.
https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6157794?hl=en
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Welcome to Google Fi
Using the Services
The Services are offered only to residents of the United States. The Services must be primarily used in the United States (territories not included) and are not intended for extended international use. Further, the Services are designed for use predominantly within our network. If your usage outside our network is excessive, abnormally high, or cause us to incur too much cost, we may, at our option and sole discretion, suspend your Google Fi account, terminate your service, or limit your use of roaming.
https://fi.google.com/about/tos/
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Google Fi International Limits
I’ve been a Fi customer since the beginning. Last night, I received the following email from Fi:
Hello traveler!
It looks like you’ve been using Fi abroad for over 6 months, but Fi’s terms of service require you to use our service primarily from a US address. This means we’ll need to suspend your international data roaming capabilities within 30 days, unless you start using Fi in the US again.
If you’re active-duty military, please contact Google Fi support as soon as possible for an exception (you may be asked to provide your 10-digit DoD ID number).
Your phone number is safe on Fi until you cancel service or move it to another provider. If you plan to remain abroad for a long time, you’re free to continue paying for Fi service—you’ll be able to use it for texting and receiving calls, but not for data. You can also choose to move your number to a more local provider or to Google Voice.
Thanks again for choosing Google Fi.
I reached out to Fi support and was ultimately told that the policy is “180 days is the max and it is not intended to use more than 180 days outside of the US” and that it was a new policy.
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Honestly, what OP is describing is a MUCH more fair interpretation of “primary use” that the other carriers have. I don’t think it is unreasonable for them to require you to set foot in the USA once every 6 months if you want to be on a US phone plan.
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Getting a local SIM is far from trivial. In most countries, you need to provide extensive documentation for KYC purposes, so a random person at a phone shop ends up with a copy of your passport (at least).
You also often need to wait until you find a phone shop – you can’t just get a SIM at the airport.
Then you need to wait for the SIM activation and all the brouhaha – for a few friends of mine this took one hour each in Colombia.
If you’re “overseas that much” in one country, then sure, get a local SIM. But if you’re a digital nomad or a frequent traveler staying a few weeks in one country, getting a local SIM is a really annoying headache.
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Most people have known about this [policy for] a long time… except no one really knew how many days it meant. It was speculated at 180 days, but no one knew for sure because it was never enforced.
I currently only use Fi for international travel in between flights and when I am only in the country for a short period of time. I pause it all other times. In most cases, a local SIM is cheaper anyway. I understand you may want to keep your number, that is why I put mine on Google Voice to make it flexible.
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I’m seriously wondering if it’s the amount of time you’ve been abroad or how much data you’re using… because the ToS seems to indicate if you’re using a lot of data and it’s too costly, they can axe you. Us light data users may not have such a problem.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/GoogleFi/comments/dsdcd8/fi_imposing_new_international_limits_on_existing/