The Nomad Stack: How We Stay Connected (Phones, Numbers & Data)

After a decade+ of full-time travel across 120+ countries, Lisa and I have tried pretty much every approach to staying connected by phone. We've been ripped off by roaming charges, locked out of bank accounts, and spent entire mornings at airport kiosks trying to get a SIM card activated in a language we don't speak.

We've also figured it out.

This is our phone stack — the setup we've landed on after years of trial, error, and one memorable incident in Vietnam where I couldn't access our bank account for three days. (More on that in a minute.)

The Phone Itself Barely Matters

Let's get this out of the way first: your phone doesn't matter much. Any modern smartphone that accepts a SIM card — which is basically all of them — will work fine internationally.

That said, there's one thing worth paying attention to.

Get a phone with both an eSIM and a physical SIM slot. Most of the world has moved to eSIMs, and they're great. But physical SIMs are still cheaper in some countries. Vietnam is a perfect example — a physical SIM costs less than an eSIM for the same data. We're talking small amounts of money, and yes, you're a person who's spending thousands on flights and hotels and somehow gets wound up about saving $3 on a SIM card. (I see you. I am you.)

Here's the catch: if you buy your iPhone in the United States, it doesn't have a physical SIM slot anymore. Apple killed it. My most recent iPhone was purchased in Europe specifically because the European models still include one. Is that overkill? Maybe. But having both options has saved me hassle in a handful of countries where eSIMs were either unavailable or overpriced.

A few countries in Africa and parts of Asia still don't offer eSIMs at all. That number shrinks every year, but if your travel plans include off-the-beaten-path destinations, the physical SIM slot is nice insurance.

One more thing: make sure your phone is unlocked. If you bought it outright, you're almost certainly fine. But if you financed it through a carrier or got some kind of promotional deal, there's a chance it's locked to that carrier's network. Check before you leave. Getting locked out of using local SIMs because of a carrier restriction is a completely avoidable problem.

The Two Things Your Phone Needs to Do

International phone use really comes down to two separate problems:

1. Voice — Can people call you? Can you call them? Can your bank send you a verification text?
2. Data — Can you get on the internet?

These are different problems with different solutions, and most people mash them together. Let's pull them apart.

Voice: The Problem Nobody Thinks About Until It's a Crisis

Here's the Vietnam story I promised.

I needed to log into our Chase account. Chase wanted to send a verification code to my phone number. My number was on Google Voice. Chase looked at it, decided it wasn't a "real" phone number, and refused to send the code.

No code, no login. No login, no access to our money.

Three days. That's how long it took to sort out.

This is the thing that will ruin your trip. Not the data. Not the roaming charges. It's the moment your bank, your brokerage, your health insurance portal — any service that uses SMS verification — decides your phone number isn't real enough.

Google Voice numbers are VoIP. So are most of the cheap virtual number services. And an increasing number of institutions — banks especially — will not send verification codes to VoIP numbers. They just won't. No error message, no explanation. The text simply never arrives.

The $3–$5/Month Solution

Port your real phone number to Tello or Ultra Mobile PayGo.

Both are real carrier numbers on real mobile networks — not VoIP. Banks recognize them. Verification codes arrive. Your number works.

Ultra Mobile PayGo is the cheaper option at $3/month. You get 100 minutes, 100 texts, and 100MB of data. It runs on the T-Mobile network, same as Tello. The catch: you need to buy a physical SIM card (available on eBay from Ultra's official seller for about $10–$13). No eSIM option for PayGo.

Tello is $5/month and also gives you 100 minutes plus free texts. Tello supports eSIM activation, which is more convenient if you don't want to deal with a physical card.

That's it. That's the whole thing.

Port your existing number, pay $3–$5 a month, and you never have to worry about being locked out of a critical account because some fraud-prevention algorithm decided your number looks suspicious.

One important note about activation: If you're already overseas, this gets trickier. Tello has been cracking down on overseas activation — recent reports suggest they may block it, though some people have gotten it to work with a VPN. Ultra Mobile PayGo, on the other hand, has confirmed through customer service that they still allow overseas activation with their physical SIM. Either way, the smart move is to get this set up before you leave the country. Test it. Make sure your bank can text you. Don't figure this out at the airport.

Is $36–$60 a year going to break anyone's travel budget? No. Is it worth the peace of mind of knowing Chase, Schwab, your health insurance company, and every other service that insists on texting you a code will actually be able to reach you?

It's the best money you'll spend all year.

The Case for Google Fi and T-Mobile (For Shorter Trips)

I used Google Fi for a long time. It was great — voice and data, works internationally, reasonable price. T-Mobile is similarly strong: their qualifying plans include unlimited texting and data (albeit throttled to 256kbps on basic plans) in 215+ countries, with calls at $0.25/minute. Their higher-tier plans include 5–15GB of high-speed international data before throttling kicks in. No setup, no SIM swaps, just land and go.

For trips of one to three months, these are genuinely excellent options and probably the simplest path. You don't have to change anything about your plan. You don't have to learn about Tello or Roamless or any of this. Your phone just works when you land, and the price is baked into what you're already paying.

Here's where it falls apart: both services have policies that restrict your international data if you stay outside the country for extended periods. T-Mobile's terms explicitly say the service is "not for extended international use" and they reserve the right to restrict service for excessive roaming. Google Fi has similar limits. I've had my data cut off by both services. They actually enforce this.

People in nomad forums will cite the specific time limits and argue about how strictly they're enforced. Don't waste your energy. The limits exist, and if you're gone for three months or less, you're almost certainly fine. If you're gone longer than that, you're rolling the dice.

The bottom line: If you're already on T-Mobile or Google Fi and you're traveling for a few months, don't change a thing. Use what you have. The Tello/Roamless approach is for people who've blown past those time limits — or who know they will.

The All-In-One Solution: Popcorn

After years of cobbling together separate voice and data solutions, Lisa and I switched to Popcorn. It's $69/month per line. We each have one.

What you get:

• Unlimited voice calls
• Unlimited texts (including those precious bank verification codes)
• Unlimited data
• Works in nearly all countries
• You keep your real phone number

Is $69/month the cheapest option? No. It works out to about $2.30 a day. But here's what I don't do anymore: I don't buy SIM cards at airports. I don't configure eSIMs. I don't wonder if my data will work when I land. I don't worry about whether my bank can reach me.

I land, I turn off airplane mode, and everything works.

For someone who spent years being the guy who knew every trick for saving $4 on a SIM card, I'm now the guy who happily pays for the convenience of not thinking about it. That's what years of travel does to you — it teaches you what's actually worth optimizing and what's just noise.

The Budget Approach: Voice + Local SIMs

If $69/month feels like too much, here's the approach that works and won't leave you stranded:

Step 1: Get your number on Tello or Ultra Mobile PayGo ($3–$5/month). This handles voice and text verification.

Step 2: Buy local SIM cards or eSIMs for data as you travel.

For physical SIMs, you can usually grab one at the airport or in the city when you arrive. Prices vary, but you're typically looking at $5–$15 for a chunk of data that'll last a few weeks. In Southeast Asia, it's often even cheaper.

For eSIMs, there are dozens of services that'll sell you one online. You buy it before you arrive, follow the setup instructions, and you're connected when you land. I got to the point where I could set one up without thinking about it. Other people find it maddening. You know which one you are.

The downside of this approach is that if you're moving between countries frequently, you're buying and configuring a new SIM every time you cross a border. That gets old.

The Middle Ground: Roamless

This is the option I wish had existed when I started traveling.

Roamless is a single global eSIM. You set it up once, and it works in 200+ countries. No swapping. No configuring. You cross a border and it just connects.

You pay by the gigabyte — either through their pay-as-you-go option (credits that never expire) or fixed data plans for specific countries. Pricing varies, but you're generally looking at somewhere between $1.25 and $4 per gigabyte depending on the country and plan type.

This fixes the biggest annoyance of the budget approach: constant SIM swapping. And because you're paying for what you actually use, you're not throwing away half a 20-gig SIM card every time you leave a country early.

The catch: Roamless is data-only. No voice, no phone number, no texts. So you'd still want Tello or Ultra Mobile PayGo handling your phone number.

What About Just Keeping Your Verizon/AT&T Plan?

If you're traveling for two weeks? Just do this.

Both Verizon and AT&T offer international day passes for about $12/day. AT&T even caps it — you only pay for the first 10 days per billing cycle, and the rest of the month is free. So a month of AT&T international roaming maxes out at $120.

Everything works exactly like it does at home. No settings to change, no SIMs to buy, no apps to download. Your phone just works.

For a two-week vacation, you're looking at maybe $150 total. Is that worth more than the hassle of setting up a foreign SIM card on what's supposed to be your relaxing holiday? For most people, absolutely.

But for full-time travelers? $120–$360 a month (depending on your carrier) is a lot when better options exist.

The Decision Framework

Here's how to think about this:

Traveling for less than a month? Keep your existing carrier and pay the daily roaming fee. Don't overthink it. Enjoy your trip.

Traveling for 1–3 months? If you're already on T-Mobile or Google Fi, just use your existing plan. This is what those international benefits were designed for, and you're well within the time limits where they won't shut you off. If you're on AT&T or Verizon, you could switch to T-Mobile or Google Fi before your trip, or go the Tello/Ultra Mobile route ($3–$5/month) plus Roamless for data.

Full-time nomad? Popcorn ($69/month) and stop thinking about it. Or if you want to save some money and don't mind a bit more hands-on management, Tello or Ultra Mobile PayGo plus Roamless.

On the tightest possible budget? Tello or Ultra Mobile PayGo ($3–$5/month) plus local SIM cards bought as you go. Cheapest option, most hassle.

The One Non-Negotiable

Whatever you do, make sure your phone number is a real carrier number — not a VoIP number — when it comes to receiving verification texts. This is not optional. This is not something you can figure out later.

The day your bank needs to verify your identity and can't reach you is the day your trip goes sideways. It happened to me. It'll happen to you.

Tello or Ultra Mobile PayGo. Three to five dollars a month. Just do it.

This is part of our Nomad Stack series, where I document everything we use to live and travel full-time. Got questions about your own phone setup? Drop them in the comments.