I meant this (from the same article):

> When outside the United States, cellular phone calls cost $0.20 per minute, data costs the same $10 per gigabyte (i.e. there are no extra data charges outside of the US), and texting is free

By that measure every M(V)NO with roaming agreements is 'global', albeit Google is one with particularly good international rates.

Sorry, $10 per gigabyte? That's ludicrously expensive.

In my international travel, where I used to (a) carry an unlocked phone, then (b) used to use the second (physical) SIM slot once that became available, I would buy SIMs from local carrier shops or kiosks (whichever costs less), and found that $10/GB is really not ludicrously expensive in first world markets.

It's difficult to get SIMs that work in local places around the world that do everything you need to do and cost much less than that. Plus the ones you buy locally have different numbers.

Eventually I switched this around, I put my US carrier in my SIM slot, and I use eSIM on the phone to get decent digital plans "in market". Some are digital via apps, some are QR codes from shops or kiosks.

eSIM seems to have better or at least competitive pricing for the last 4 years or so.

// Note I'm generally using a lot of data, so cost matters. The only thing I've found much cheaper is to get a local carrier who also offers free unlimited WiFi from local APs. Anywhere this works, that naturally beats any cell-only plan. You usually won't find this except by searching local language sites or going into local carrier stores and asking.

> But 5G on iPhones has been "coming" for years

iPhone 12 series was the first to support 5G - launched in Oct 2020. That’s barely over a year ago?