T-Mobile on Wednesday delivered a series of announcements as part of the third phase of its “un-carrier” campaign. The carrier announced the completion of its 4G LTE nationwide rollout, a partnership with Shakira, and, most surprisingly, unlimited data and texting worldwide at no extra charge.
“Today’s phones are designed to work around the world, but we’re forced to pay insanely inflated international connectivity fees to actually use them. You can’t leave the country without coming home to bill-shock. So we’re making the world your network – at no extra cost,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile.
To that end, T-Mobile is expanding its data coverage for Simple Choice customers to include more than 100 countries worldwide at no additional charge. Unlimited texts and data will be completely free, and voice calls will cost a flat rate of 20 cents per minute while roaming in these countries. The countries covered span across the globe, from China to India to Spain and the UK. You can see a complete map on T-Mobile’s site.
You’ll need a global-compatible device for international roaming, and you’ll be limited to 2G data speeds at max, but that’s a pretty incredible deal if you travel a lot. You don’t even have to add a separate feature to your plan or call customer service before you travel – as long as you are on a qualifying plan, you’re good to go. If you want faster data, the carrier will also offer temporary plans to boost your data to the fastest speeds available in that country.
And if you want to stay connected with friends around the world, T-Mobile introduced a new Stateside International Talk & Text feature that allows you to make unlimited calls to landlines in over 70 countries for just $10 per month. Mobile-to-mobile calls, and landline calls to additional countries in its global Simple Choice coverage area will cost 20 cents per minute.
Back in the US, T-Mobile announced that it has completed its nationwide 4G LTE rollout ahead of schedule. The carrier now covers more than 200 million people across 233 metro areas. T-Mobile also claims that its network delivers 4G LTE speeds more consistently than AT&T, Sprint and Verizon
Finally, T-Mobile announced a partnership with pop singer Shakira, working together on marketing initiatives to raise awareness for T-Mobile’s services, as well as Shakira’s charity, The Barefoot Foundation. Additionally, T-Mobile will work to promote and market upcoming Shakira albums and singles. As the first part of this partnership, Shakira performed at T-Mobile’s announcement event in Bryant Park in New York City.
This was the third (and presumably final) phase of T-Mobile’s Un-carrier announcements this year. If you remember, the first phase saw T-Mobile make a switch into the contract-free space, while phase two introduced the early upgrade program Jump. So far, it looks like these moves, along with T-Mobile’s introduction of the iPhone, have been working out quite well for the company. It’ll be interesting to see if phase three can keep the momentum going, but it sounds like it still has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve.
“Every two or three weeks for the foreseeable future we’ve got something to tell you, so we’re going to make it interesting for you,” Legere said.
Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.