T-Mobile Puts 5 GB Cap on International Roaming Plans T-Mobile has announced the company is placing a 5GB monthly cap on T-Mobile subscribers who roam internationally. Previously, T-Mobile customers who visited Canada and Mexico could use their unlimited data plans as they normally do in the States, a PR move T-Mobile received significant praise for. Wireless carriers long impose massive surcharges upon customers who traveled overseas, something that began to shift when T-Mobile launched its Mobile Without Borders effort back in 2015. It was generally well received, though users in our forums did note the advetrising for the program sometimes didn't match reality.

But T-Mobile apparently found its roaming costs didn't add up. A new announcement indicates that starting November 12, 2017 customers on T-Mobile ONE, Simple Choice North America, or legacy rate plans with a qualifying feature will receive unlimited talk, text and data with a maximum of 5GB of 4G LTE data. T-Mobile ONE Plus customers that pass beyond that threshold will find themselves throttled to 256 kbps for the remainder of their billing cycle, while users on all other plans will be throttled to 128 kbps for the remainder of their billing cycle. In a FAQ, the company says it is capping international roaming usage at 5 GB to "prevent usage beyond the intent of the product." "In order to prevent usage beyond the intent of the product, we implemented a limit on the amount of monthly 4G LTE data," says T-Mobile. "Less than 1% of people with this benefit travel to Mexico and Canada use over 5GB a month. After 5GB of high-speed data is used in Mexico and Canada (or your high-speed data allotment is reached, whichever comes first), customers will stay connected with unlimited data at Simple Global speeds (up to 128kbps for most plans or 256kbps with T-Mobile ONE Plus)." The The announcement has more detail on T-Mobile's decision to cap international roaming at 5 GB per month for those interested.







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Most recommended from 34 comments

tpkatl

join:2009-11-16

Dacula, GA 15 recommendations tpkatl Member As usual, the 1% screw things up for everyone else. I understand why TMobile has seen the need to do this. It's too bad in principle, because the international data roaming capability is a really good thing and great selling point. Obviously TMobile did their pricing based on average/normal use, not on the totally-off-the-chart bandwidth used in extreme cases.

Economist

The economy, stupid

Premium Member

join:2015-07-10

united state ·AT&T FTTP

1 edit 5 recommendations Economist Premium Member I was confused for a second Unlike Canada and Mexico, the rest of the international plan is edge or 2X Edge on my One Plus plan and I was like "How the hell are people getting to 5GB?". For 3G or LTE you buy data bundles.



5GB is still very generous for international roaming on 4G. It is supposed to be just that, ROAMING, not a permanent consumption type of thing. If you need a crapload of data, buy a SIM and a pay-go plan in the destination country. Subs so offended by the change are not on a contract and are free to bail for another carrier. ocjosh

join:2013-03-19

Anaheim, CA 1 edit 4 recommendations ocjosh Member Yeah, it sounds like T-Mobile biggest issue. T-Mobile has issues on honoring the some deals.



I had hard time to get T-Mobile to honor "up-to $650/line" when you switch to buy your contract and phone back in 2014. Then Samsung S6 promo, iPhone 6S promo, Magenta Friday promo, Business Family discount, Friends and Family on US promo, all those they didn't honor as promised and they took me almost an year and still fighting on some open cases.



"T-Mobile, pay more." when it goes to those dishonest promotions.



Another thing is Mexico and Canada roaming. Those major cities has mostly 3G networks when you use T-Mobile's mobile without borders until I manually hand pick the network to force to LTE. Of course I use only up to couple of hundred MBs in a visit for holidays.

I actually prefer T-Mobile One Plus' 256 Kbps speed on LTE. It's more stable than anything else when I was in most of Asian countries compared to Mexico's LTE or 3G. Canada is not bad BUT getting 3G networks when you are at the cruise terminals or cities? Wow...

TheToro

Premium Member

join:2003-06-05

Atlanta, GA 209.9 217.5

4 recommendations TheToro Premium Member free mobile The french company free mobile offers international data upto 25GB to all these countries for 15.99 euros a month .