AT&T, the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier, last December started offering international LTE roaming to customers traveling abroad. The deal initially launched in partnership with Canada’s Rogers Communications and later expanded to UK’s EE.
Today, the company announced an expansion of LTE roaming agreements in partnership with an additional thirteen carriers around the world, including Australia, France, Japan, Spain and Singapore…
Announced at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain today, AT&T’s LTE roaming is now available to customers traveling to Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Guam, Hong Kong and Antigua & Barbuda.
AT&T claims it has agreements to allow for LTE roaming in a total of over 200 countries and says it remains the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer international data roaming on LTE networks.
Rival T-Mobile said last October it was dropping roaming fees in over a hundred countries, but the announcement came with some strings attached as it covers only data roaming over slow 2G networks.
Despite AT&T’s agreements with the world’s carriers, data roaming is still prohibitively expensive so world travelers are better served buying their devices unlocked, which allows them to pick up a prepaid SIM and buy data from local carriers, at local prices.
AT&T is also offering the free AT&T International Travel App to track estimated data usage, display information about your current international roaming package, set up custom alerts when you approach your allotment under the plan and more.
More about AT&T’s packages for world travelers can be found here.