Are there any downsides to using a roaming phone plan in Korea?

[dancingpear]

The suggestions in this forum tend to focus on either getting a SIM or pocket wifi. Assuming that cost isn't an issue, are there any downsides to using a roaming phone plan in Korea? I have a work-provided phone plan that includes roaming.

Edited December 6, 2021 by dancingpear

[Jabba]

It depends upon your carrier, but roaming can be very expensive no? You can probably get a roaming plan for $10 USD per day, but that's $100 already for 10 days. While you can get a local sim with a local number and data plan for around $30 to $40.

[prochronism]

Previously there were issues with roaming phones working at all in Korea. Some providers didn’t work because their tech didn’t support service in Korea at the same capacity as you might need for an acceptable data speed (for ex, your plan allows roaming in Korea but is slow and limited to 3G).
Nowadays more phones are being released worldwide on carriers that support korean sims and their UMTS, LTE bands even if it is different than the ones used in their home countries. A couple years ago my T-mobile iphone didn’t work in Korea but now it does. 

someone can probably explain this better than I can, but if you have international roaming for south korea available with your provider and your phone is relatively new, it should work and you don’t need a sim/wifi egg alternative. 

[Cleeye]

On 7/12/2022 at 6:42 PM, prochronism said:

Previously there were issues with roaming phones working at all in Korea. Some providers didn’t work because their tech didn’t support service in Korea at the same capacity as you might need for an acceptable data speed (for ex, your plan allows roaming in Korea but is slow and limited to 3G).
Nowadays more phones are being released worldwide on carriers that support korean sims and their UMTS, LTE bands even if it is different than the ones used in their home countries. A couple years ago my T-mobile iphone didn’t work in Korea but now it does. 

someone can probably explain this better than I can, but if you have international roaming for south korea available with your provider and your phone is relatively new, it should work and you don’t need a sim/wifi egg alternative. 

I have T-mobile too. How was your roaming data speed? How recent was it? 

[prochronism]

13 hours ago, Cleeye said:

I have T-mobile too. How was your roaming data speed? How recent was it? 

I went a month ago and I found it fairly normal, maybe a little slower than a local phone