It’s been over a year since we broke up with AT&T and made the switch to T-Mobile. We’re enjoying paying $65 less a month for phone service but one of the things we’re most excited about is being able to use our own phones while traveling overseas. This will come in handy when we (hopefully) travel to Japan in 2020, as on past trips we had to rent data-only sim cards for our phones.
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Unfortunately, we haven’t gone a trip outside of the lower 48 states since we got our new plan. Lucky for us, T-Mobile is making some changes to the Simple Global program we get as part of our T-Mobile ONE plan. It looks like the international data plan will be even better by the time we finally get to use it.
Starting on July 22, 2018, T-Mobile increased the number of countries in the program from 154 to over 210. They did also increase the price of voice calls from $0.20 to $0.25 per minute. Since we don’t call people anyway, we’re much happier about the increased data coverage.
What’s changing about Simple Global Calling?
Starting on your first new bill cycle following July 31, the cost per minute for calls within and between Simple Global countries and destinations (and from Simple Global countries back to the U.S.) will be $0.25 per minute, which is an increase of $.05 per minute.
In addition, beginning July 22, we’ll expand the number of Simple Global countries and destinations from 154 to 210+ (see full list below).
In eligible countries, you’ll still get unlimited texts and data (at 2G speed). I haven’t used a phone on 2G for a while so while it’s free data around the world, it might not be the experience I’m used to. That might not be bad. Who wants to look at your phone when you can be looking at this? Of course after looking at it, you’ll take a picture and want to share with all your friends (and for that you need a data plan).
Photo by Thorsten technoman on Pexels.com
Another change coming to T-Mobile is the availability of a high speed data add on with unlimited voice calling. This service will be available on August 1, 2018 at a price that’s half the cost of other providers.
If you DO find yourself wanting high speed data and unlimited voice calls, the new $5 T-Mobile daily data pass gives you 512MB of up to 4G LTE speeds and all the unlimited calls you want to make for 24 hours in all Simple Global countries. To get your passes, simply log into the T-Mobile app or call Customer Care. Customers can also purchase data passes and get information on coverage in their destination by following a link included in the welcome message they receive when they arrive in a Simple Global country.
Having this pass available on a daily basis is fantastic. You’re able to use the free 2G network on one day and the next day you can get the high speed data by paying $5 in the T-Mobile app or by a link sent when you enter another country.
I can’t even imagine what it’ll be like to walk off a plane and turn on my phone without worrying about accidentally turning on my data service and end up having to pay a $750 phone bill for one minute. I’m really glad we switched to T-Mobile, even if it means I have to use Wi-Fi calling in the house cause I only get one bar of service when sitting at my desk.
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