If the newer phones allow you to use a burner sim card while you're overseas, then I'd say go for it.
I'm beginning to understand why T-Mobile's Simple Choice plans are so expensive.
We no longer have a landline. When we're on the island, our smartphone pretty much gathers dust on the kitchen counter and imitates a landline. I don't carry it around. I remember to check it a couple times a week or maybe we'll get a call. Most of the ringers are turned off. (Most of our family, friends, & neighbors know to e-mail or Facebook us.) It's a beat-up iPhone 5c that's failing gracefully and will probably need more repair or replacement in a year.
Wen we travel for a few months (usually internationally) then I'm suddenly living with a smartphone in my pocket for route planning, navigation, coordinating meetups at one end of a marketplace, using Google Translate, taking photos, and maybe checking e-mail (via a cell network, not Wi-Fi) before calling or texting the rental apartment's property manager. I'm also taking a call every few weeks from my father's care facility (or my brother) to discuss Dad's health or a financial question. I might take a rare phone call from our tenants, which is when they find out that their landlord is overseas and will help them via a local handyman.
All of that needs to be transparent (and reliable) to the caller, so I find it easier to stick with the same phone number instead of switching out a SIM and then checking our first number's voicemail via an app or a website.
My spouse has assigned me phone-tech duties, so I'm not going to get much cooperation from her about switching SIMs or phone numbers or calling procedures every time we change time zones. It's getting more inconvenient to walk into places with a backpack (depending on their security concerns) so I'd prefer to stick with a smaller smartphone instead of a tablet. If "using the phone" is more complicated for her than a TV remote control then nobody's happy.
Then we get home and the phone is abandoned on the counter again.
I've tried upgrading & downgrading T-Mobile's plans as we travel, but the last couple switches have been a bureaucratic tech nightmare of standing at the neighborhood store service counter while the sales rep patiently explains to T-Mobile Galactic HQ what I want to do. Part of the issue involves switching from pre-paid to post-paid plans, which involves a credit check, and it's clear that they're not interested in people who want to switch calling plans every time they go on travel or return home.
#FirstWorldProblem. But it's a niche issue so I don't see much about it in the media or tech websites. We have enough money to continue with the T-Mobile plan, although I try to avoid wasting money when I can substitute a cheaper equivalent. Emphasis on the equivalent.
RW seems to have one of the few phone plans where you can easily upgrade or downgrade as your situation changes. I was hoping to discover that would work internationally as well as locally.
But if none of the cell companies are there yet then I can continue with T-Mobile indefinitely-- or at least until some other company is willing to accommodate our random travel.
