Adamant to change the way the world uses their phones, Deutsche Telekom-owned U.S. wireless carrier, T-Mobile USA, on Thursday announced that it will make available cellular data service in over a hundred countries around the world, at no extra charge. It’s no secret the industry’s been charging huge fees for data roaming. “What’s most surprising is that no one’s called them out,” T-Mobile’s boss remarked unapologetically.
Indeed, the telco’s deal represents a significant departure from the exorbitant roaming fees wireless carriers typically impose and is a positive step toward providing global data coverage on fair and reasonable terms. The only drawback: only T-Mobile’s slow 2G data service is included in the promotion…
This won’t mean much to power users who surf the web, share a bunch of photos or access data-hungry content in roaming, but should be enough to use iMessage and other instant messaging applications, post status updates, check what’s happening on Twitter and so forth.
According to a media release, starting October 31 all individual and business customers on T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan will be automatically enrolled in unlimited 2G data and texting in 100+ supported Simple Global countries, at no extra charge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LInAyNmblqw
The telco says this development has made its home data coverage area “larger than AT&T’s and Verizon’s combined”. See coverage and all of the countries included in the deal here.
T-Mobile’s outspoken CEO, John Legere:
The cost of staying connected across borders is completely crazy. Today’s phones are designed to work around the world, but we’re forced to pay insanely inflated international connectivity fees to actually use them. You can’t leave the country without coming home to bill shock. So we’re making the world your network – at no extra cost.
You won’t have to activate anything or pay an extra monthly fee. Placing voice calls in roaming will set you back $.20 per minute for in-country calls. Additional terms, fine print and international services can be found on T-Mobile’s website.
Moreover, the telco announced a new $10 a month Stateside International Talk & Text feature that includes $0.20 a minute calling from the U.S. to all Simple Global countries, including mobile to mobile. In addition, the feature includes unlimited texting and unlimited landline calls to 70+ countries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJPXdj7cDI
Finally, T-Mobile last night said its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network is now nationwide, reaching more than 200 million people in 233 metropolitan markets across the United States.
You can check out T-Mobile’s coverage map here.