Monday, April 13, 2015

Sprint Expands Foreign Roaming

Sprint has finally come to the table with an International Roaming package that finally puts them at par with the other major carriers.  Aggressive pricing, paying ETF's and Unlimited Data can only go so far. Now Sprint will offer a competitive International Roaming Value package that allows Text, Voice and Data at reasonable rates.  They also offer a Wi-Fi calling app that puts them into T-Mobile's arena that expands calling abilities to many extreme corners of the house and the globe.

Recognizing overall service improvements, Mountain Wireless has increased Sprint's "MW Rating" from a dismal "6" to a respectable "7".  Positive field reports from Sprint users might even improve that rating again.

We have noted these changes on our Mexico and International Roaming web sites. One odditiy is that none of these improvements include service in Canada.  We hope that's coming soon.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Sprint has finally come to the table with an International Roaming package that finally puts them at par with the other major carriers."

On par? Correct me if I'm wrong, Bill, but this better than anything that AT&T or Verizon currently offers internationally.

Oz Andrews said...

This is certainly better than Sprint's old plans, but not better than other carriers. Look at the Country list: "Eligible countries for International Value Roaming are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia, South Korea, Spain and the United Kingdom."

That's only 3 countries in Europe. This is somewhat made up by the addition of "Wi-fi calling" but other carriers allow you to make a Call/Text anywhere. The Data passes are also a nice addition, but T-mobile offers it for Free. Verizon has similar limitations unless you have a GSM-capable phone, but my AT&T and T-Mobile phones work almost anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Bill. I'm afraid that you've misunderstood what Sprint is doing here. Sprint has always had international roaming that they charged for which allow you to make a call/text anywhere. They still do, however, the country list is for the countries that Sprint offers FREE unlimited data at (2G speeds) and unlimited texting and calls at $0.20 per minute. That is indeed better than what AT&T and Verizon currently offer. AT&T and Verizon don't offer FREE unlimited data in any foreign countries. Yes, a GSM/W-CDMA capable handset is required, but all flagship handsets and nearly every other smartphone (except the most basic smart phones and those usually get banished to Boost and/or Virgin Mobile anyway) that Sprint is releasing these days has those capabilities. Those handsets will work essentially everywhere that your AT&T and T-Mobile phones work it's just that roaming charges will apply (unless you pop in a local SIM card which forces you to have a foreign phone number). However, in the Sprint international value roaming countries, unlimited data and texts are free with no roaming charges and voice calls are only $0.20 and that's with the Sprint SIM card so you retain your own number. Verizon and AT&T are charging you for roaming in every foreign country. Also, your list of countries is out of date; Sprint has also added Honduras, Colombia, Paraguay, Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden and more countries are coming.

Additionally, in the free international value roaming countries, again the data is unlimited but at 2G speeds. The data passes allow access to faster data speeds for a cost. T-Mobile does the exact same thing; they allow international data roaming at 2G speeds and they allow you to buy buy access to faster speeds at a cost. So no, their data passes aren't free.

Anonymous said...

Also add Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Palestinian Territories to that list and, again more countries are coming to Sprint's International Value Roaming plan.