T-Mobile’s unlimited international roaming is bold, but it didn’t hit close enough to home
There are many people who were excited to hear about T-Mobile’s third UNcarrier phase. After all, starting October 31, the carrier’s international-travelling customers will be able to use unlimited 2G data and international texting in over 100 countries. While that isn’t nearly as good as unlimited 3G data, it still takes away one of the worst parts about travelling internationally: the ridiculously high international roaming rates.
Really, I’m not here to complain about that aspect: in every single way, T-Mobile has just outdone every other US carrier by effectively cutting hundreds of dollars worth of cost to those who travel internationally quite frequently – I don’t think anyone can argue that’s a bad thing. But what I think is a bad thing is what T-Mobile missed out on: the customers back in the States who may never be able to use this unlimited roaming.
As a T-Mobile customer, I see firsthand every day just how lacking T-Mobile is in terms of its own coverage. At most, I am in a T-Mobile coverage area for four of the seven days of the week; the rest of the time, I’m roaming on AT&T’s vastly superior network. This means that while I pay for an unlimited data plan, I am limited to only 50MB of data when I’m not in a T-Mobile service area.
I might as well be paying nothing.
I finally switched to T-Mobile after realizing that I’d rather pay far less and suffer through roaming than pay incredibly high amounts at any of the other three national carriers, but if T-Mobile wanted me to consider it a true UNcarrier, it would’ve extended that unlimited roaming to the United States. The price would be high, but so would the demand for cheap, fast, and unlimited nationwide coverage. Inevitably, more customers would’ve flocked to T-Mobile, and the price the carrier would pay for roaming would be easily taken care of by the new users who were intrigued by what the company was doing. And as more money rushed into T-Mobile’s hands, more towers would go up – with one move, T-Mobile could’ve truly taken the industry by storm.
I still believe T-Mobile is the best carrier in the United States in terms of doing great things for the customer, but it’s not the best carrier for people who want coverage everywhere they go. I’m disappointed that the announcement wasn’t even just a little bigger, but maybe this is the last announcement millions of Americans were waiting for. Maybe that massive influx of cash is coming anyway, and we’ll start to see an even bigger rollout of T-Mobile coverage as the year draws to a close.
What are your thoughts on T-Mobile’s latest announcement? Is it enough for you to finally make the switch, or are you still waiting out on a few things to make T-Mobile your knight in shining, magenta armor?
