[ed. This is welcome news. I was in Vancouver, Canada recently and didn't realize I still had my phone on and got hit with roaming charges. Called T-Mobile (my carrier) and they helped me dismiss most (not all) of them.]
Often, travelers have to pay an extra $100 to their provider to get any cell service abroad. Or they must sign up for a short-term plan with a carrier in the country they are visiting.T-Mobile US, one of the largest phone carriers in the United States, wants to change that. The company on Wednesday said it was eliminating the charges that a customer normally paid to use their phone number and data service in a foreign country, called roaming fees.
John Legere, T-Mobile’s chief executive, said in an interview that travelers had long been shocked by exorbitant cellphone bills after they traveled, so many people now just leave their phones off.
He said the point of the change was to help the people who would pay $100 for service abroad. But it was also to help “the people who fear turning their phone on.”
T-Mobile customers will be automatically enrolled in the free-roaming agreement on Oct. 31. Those who subscribe to the company’s plan, called Simple Choice, can take their smartphone to a foreign country and pay 20 cents a minute for voice calls. Text messages and data will be unlimited.
The free roaming benefit will apply to about 100 countries, including France, Spain, China, Japan and Russia.
by Brian X. Chen, NY Times | Read more:
Image: Mary Altaffer/Associated Press
