T-Mobile has announced the third phase of its Un-Carrier initiative and the third phase makes the most compelling case yet for switching to the carrier and its Simple Choice plan lineup.
Beginning on October 31st, T-Mobile will add unlimited international data roaming to its Simple Choice plan lineup at no additional charge and will also roll out add-on options for international calling and texting from the US starting at $10 on top of the monthly rate on the same day called the Stateside International Talk & Text add-on, which will include unlimited calls to landlines in 70 countries and mobile calls to 100 countries starting at $0.20 per minute with unlimited messaging also included.
T-Mobile will also add additional options to the included international roaming service for additional packages that allow for more texting and faster data for an additional charge without any overages called Speed Passes. The daily pass costs $15 and includes 100MB of 4G access, the weekly pass costs $25 and includes 200MB of data, and the monthly pass costs $50 and includes 500MB of 4G data access. Data access is otherwise unlimited when roaming, but capped to 3G speeds.Countries included in the offering consist of Europe, most of South America, China, India, Japan, Russia and 98% of destinations most frequently traveled by Americans.
This is a complete change in thinking regarding international roaming and availability, which was almost exclusively the domain of business travelers and those with expense accounts. In essence, T-Mobile is bringing international roaming to the masses using the same marketing push that has made its Simple Choice initiative so successful and removes the need to purchase local SIMs and unlocked devices for the majority of travelers, unless one wants to take advantage of local rates.
Below, the first ad from the announcement of international roaming featuring new spokesperson Shakira, who has signed a multi-year agreement with the carrier to promote products and services:
