Here’s some bad news for T-Mobile customers who like to travel around North America while streaming Netflix. As of next month, the carrier is ending one of its more interesting perks on most plans: Unlimited LTE data in Canada and Mexico will no longer be available. [More]
international roaming
T-Mobile Makes Deal For Roaming In Cuba, Cheaper Calls To Island
By 5.9.16
If you’re one of the travelers planning a trip to Cuba now that direct flights and cruises will be available and you’re a T-Mobile customer, you’ll be able to roam inexpensively on the island. In addition, T-Mobile customers in the United States will also get to make cheaper calls to Cuba, costing $.60 per minute with an international calling plan. [More]
T-Mobile Plans To Cover Canada & Mexico At No Extra Charge, But You Must Opt-In
By 7.9.15
We’ve heard numerous stories over the years of Americans who unwittingly or inadvertently tallied up huge voice and data bills while roaming internationally in Canada or Mexico, and wireless providers have been perfectly happy with the substantial fees they earn each year off callers traveling north and south of the border. Today, T-Mobile announced that, starting next week, all its Simple Choice plans will cover calls and data usage in many areas in Canada and Mexico. [More]
AT&T Now Has LTE Roaming In Canada, But Oh Boy Could It Cost You
By 12.9.13
Thinking of visiting our neighbors to the north? If you’re an AT&T customer, you may be interested to know that the company is now offering LTE roaming, and AT&T is currently the only American wireless provider with such an arrangement. But what you need to know is that it doesn’t come cheap. [More]
T-Mobile Drops Fees For International Data & Texting In 115 Countries
By 10.10.13
It’s always the opposite of fun to realize you forgot to turn off your mobile roaming or sent a few too many texts while traveling out of the United States — fees for text and data can pile up into the the hundreds or thousands of dollars if you’re not careful. T-Mobile customers on its Simple Choice plan won’t have those worries when visiting 115 or so countries, as the company announced it’s ditching international fees in certain locations. [More]
Verizon Sells Me An International Phone That Calls Everyone Except My Friend In Italy
By 10.31.12
Jerrod was making a grand gesture: taking a surprise trip to Italy to propose to his girlfriend, who is serving in the Navy and stationed there. He acquired a phone from Verizon Wireless that he could use in that country in emergencies, but that plan had a flaw: he couldn’t test whether the phone worked in Italy. After all, before traveling to Italy, he wasn’t in Italy. Despite assurances from employees and good online reviews, you can’t be sure that a phone works at your destination before you get there. Jerrod’s phone worked just fine…except to call the one phone number that he needed it to. [More]
Woman Racks Up $1,558 In International Roaming Charges; Claims Phone Was Off The Entire Time
By 10.3.12
A Verizon Wireless customer says that when she returned from her recent 12-day cruise of the Mediterranean, she turned on her phone and suddenly saw text messages warning her that she was incurring all sorts of roaming charges. In fact, as she was soon to find out, she’d somehow tallied up $1,558.95 in roaming charges, all while she claims her phone was turned off. [More]
Who Is Making Hourlong Roaming Calls On My Phone Every Time I Travel To China?
By 8.14.12
Heather travels to China regularly for work, and she has to bring her phone with her. It’s a Blackberry on AT&T. What she doesn’t understand is why lengthy roaming calls made from China appear on her AT&T bill when she’s out of the country. She never makes 90-minute cell phone calls, so she certainly wouldn’t do so while paying international roaming rates. Still, AT&T insists that she is the one who made the calls, and is responsible for the roaming fees. “[AT&T] can’t tell me who these calls were actually placed to,” she writes, “but [they] assure me that they know I made them.” Well, I’m convinced. [More]
T-Mobile Waives $1000 In Roaming Charges, Then Un-Waives Them
By 12.22.11
While visiting the Philippines with her grandson, Esther had a family emergency and needed to use her T-Mobile phone. She expected a larger than usual bill when she got home, but didn’t expect it to be more than $1,200, including data roaming when Esther doesn’t have data service on her phone in the first place. A friendly customer service representative told her that she would only have to pay $296.14 due to a billing error. Then T-Mobile turned around and told her that yeah, they needed the entire $1,200. [More]
Call T-Mobile Customer Service And Reality Will Shift Beneath Your Feet
By 11.16.11
At what point is a company responsible for the things that its customer service reps tell customers? Gus got a new T-Mobile smartphone on an unlimited plan, then took a job in the oil industry that requires him to travel out of the country frequently. While he could have a company phone, he’s still under contract. He chose to keep his T-Mobile plan with a company subsidy, and not pay an early termination fee. When he called T-Mobile to find out how much roaming in Colombia would cost with his plan, the startling answer was that he wouldn’t have to pay any roaming fees at all. He quadruple-checked this with the customer service rep, who confirmed it. But he should have just hung up and broken through the walls of reality to reach another rep, who would have told him something entirely different. [More]
