This is the biggest hint that roaming charges for cell phone users are a rip off. T-Mobile USA announced it has eliminated wireless data roaming charges for its customers:
“The cost of staying connected across borders is completely crazy,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile US, Inc. “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.”
Of course the devil’s in the details, So here are the details:
T-Mobile tonight announced that it’s expanding the home data coverage for most Simple Choice customers to include more than 100 countries, at no extra charge. Starting Oct. 31, these Simple Choice individual and business customers automatically get unlimited data and texting in more than 100 Simple Global countries worldwide, and they will only pay a global flat rate of 20 cents per minute for voice calls when roaming in the same countries. Eligible customers on T-Mobile’s popular Simple Choice plan won’t have to activate anything or pay an extra monthly fee.
And, for customers in the U.S. wanting a saner, more affordable way to stay connected with friends, family and colleagues worldwide, T-Mobile’s got them covered, too. The company announced tonight its new Stateside International Talk & Text feature for discounted calling and texting from the U.S. to all Simple Global countries. Customers never pay more than 20 cents a minute to any number in any Simple Global country, including mobile to mobile. Calls to landlines in more than 70 of these countries are unlimited and included at no extra cost. Unlimited texting is also included to all countries. Stateside International Talk & Text is available to most Simple Choice customers for just $10 a month.
This seems very reasonable to me. One wonders why the big three in Canada don’t do something similar? After all, logic says that the cost for T-Mobile USA to do this can’t be much different than what the big three would have to pay to set something like this up.
Perhaps T-Mobile will consider setting up shop in Canada to bring this sort of sanity to Canadian cell phone users?