That isn't the case everywhere though. At CES in Las Vegas, roaming with Vodafone on AT&T was really quite bad, to the point that I almost went and got a local SIM.
Some of it was no doubt due to AT&T's network in Vegas being loaded to the gunwales with connections as Vegas was swamped with visitors.
What made the roaming experience really suck though was the high latency, something I noticed when I tried out the KnowRoaming SIM sticker last year.
It seems the connection from my iPhone was set up as a New Zealand originating one.
This meant traffic to and from US servers was bounced via New Zealand, with huge, 550 to over 700 millisecond delay or latency.
As a rule of thumb, anything over 250-300ms latency makes applications and web browsers unhappy, making them time out and dropping connections.
With over 500ms latency, the internet still works but it's slow, unresponsive and not terribly usable.
Skype was terrible and you could pretty much forget about streaming video. Even when I apparently got 4G LTE in San Francisco on the return leg, the large, 700ms plus latency meant the connection only managed 0.5 megabits per second down, and 0.3Mbps up.
I asked Vodafone NZ's good and responsive help desk if there was some way to fix this, perhaps by using an Access Point Name (APN) setting for a local gateway, so traffic would go via the US instead; I was told there isn't, and to use the normal "vodafone" APN. The AT&T APNs that I tried would not let me connect.
It's not all negative to have a Kiwi connection abroad: if you're in countries with heavily censored and filtered internet access like China, bypassing local networks could be handy despite the performance hit.
Other than that, routing data locally provides a superior service by far. It can be done, both on 3G and 4G networks that support Local Breakout for data, and Vodafone should pick partner carriers that are able to do just that.
Until that's done, the "roam like you're at home" strapline in Vodafone's ads simply isn't true.
Gear: Mujjo 80º case for iPhone 6 Plus
The iPhone 6 Plus is a great phone, but I'd be lying if I said the size of it didn't present a few problems.
One of these being finding a suitable wallet case for for the iPhone 6 Plus. I know, one day soon Apple Pay and similar apps will obviate the need for credit and loyalty cards and folding cash but that's still a while away.
Mujjo from the Netherlands makes some nice looking cases for iDevices, and I tried out the 80º for the iPhone 6 Plus costing a reasonable €41.28 (NZ$61.30 +$12.30 shipping).
The 80º comes in high-quality black leather, fits the iPhone 6 Plus very well with no slippage and doesn't block the camera, buttons or the connectors. It's very nicely made, on par with Apple's own Connolly leather cases and feels like it will last a long time.
There's card storage on the back - I was able to fit in two cards, but only just. One card fits nicely however.
The Mujjo 80º is a nice, well-made iPhone case if all you need is to store one or two cards; if you want more storage - and don't mind a much larger case - check out what Pad & Quill for instance have on offer.
