Mobile Adds 20 New Roaming Countries to Simple Global

T-Mobile USA (NYSE:TMUS) added 20 new countries and destinations to its “Simple Global” global roaming program, which lets T-Mobile “Simple Choice” postpaid customers access unlimited 2G data and calling at 20 cents per minute. This means that in 145 countries, eligible subscribers can browse the Web or send SMS at no extra cost than what they would pay while at home, while calls do get charged $0.20 per minute. T-Mobile’s Simple Global scheme, which is part of its Simple Choice offering, started with 115 countries and now covers 145.

Last week, T-Mobile has also announced a significant expansion of its LTE coverage, which now carries 4G signal to more than 290 million Americans. The company reports that the Simple Global plan has been so popular with customers that global data usage has risen by 140 times since 2013, while global texting has risen by more than 10 times.

The latest places to join the Simple Global program are Albania, Alderney, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Bosnia, Georgia, Guernsey, Haiti, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lichtenstein, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Sark, Serbia and Slovenia.

“We’ve just made your travelling even easier in 20 more destinations around the world, expanding Simple Global to cover all of Europe and all of South America”, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said. Of course, T-Mobile would have you believe that it does cost more overall.

A list of countries supported by the new expansion has been provided on the carrier’s website. “The carriers have made billions overcharging consumers who just want to stay connected overseas, and we’ve changed all that!” The no-extra-charge “Mobile without Borders” services cover all T-Mobile customers, whether they are initiating or receiving any calls or texts between the United States, Canada and Mexico on their mobile phones.

The service offers subscribers unlimited data as well as texting coverage. That allotment is in addition to the data in a customer’s domestic data plan. Take a trip with Verizon’s worldwide Travel Preferred Pricing, and you could pay a staggering $250 for just one gig of data, based on their published rate of $25 per 100 MB.