Select AT&T customers provided with free roaming into Mexico and Canada as the carrier taps acquired assets and more aggressively targets T-Mobile and rivals
AT&T furthered asset integration, offering up free roaming in Mexico on select rate plans and throwing in Canada roaming for its unlimited data customers that are also tied to its DirecTV package.
The carrier said beginning May 20, customers on its Mobile Share Value plans of at least 15 gigabytes of data will receive free voice, messaging and data roaming into Mexico. For enterprise customers, AT&T said the benefit kicks in on new Mobile Select plans beginning at $20 per month, while current lines will be migrated to the new plans.
AT&T Mobility last year launched an option for Mobile Share Value plans allowing customers to add the Mexico Roaming Bonus feature at no additional charge and receive unlimited text messaging from Mexico to anywhere in the world and unlimited calling within Mexico and to the U.S. The plan also provided 1 GB of data access when in Mexico, with additional gigabytes priced at $20, and those data gigabytes are not shared between lines.
In addition to the Mexico roaming upgrade, customers on AT&T Mobility’s recently launched unlimited data plans will be provided with free roaming into Canada. Those customers will be required to separately add the carrier’s Roam North America for smartphones and Roam North America Data feature for tablets to their rate plans to receive the free roaming option.
AT&T did say it may curtail the roaming plan if customer usage of the feature exceeds 50% of their total usage for two consecutive months. The carrier also noted around 20% of its postpaid customer base travels to Mexico or Canada at least once per year.
The unlimited data plan was launched earlier this year tied to customers also selecting one of the carrier’s pay television services, including its DirecTV service it acquired last year for $48.5 billion. AT&T Mobility does state it could limit speeds for unlimited data customers in some situations if they exceed 22 GB of usage per month.
The Mexico roaming option looks to take advantage of AT&T’s move into that country through its acquisitions last year of Iusacell and Nextel Mexico. The carrier has since said it planned to invest $3 billion into those assets in launching LTE service and expanding coverage.
The AT&T Mobility option does fall somewhat short of T-Mobile US’ Mobile without Borders program, which was launched last year and provides nearly all postpaid customers with free voice calling, text messaging and unlimited LTE-based data services when roaming in Canada and Mexico.
Verizon Wireless last year updated its TravelPass option to allow customers to access their calling, text messaging and data allotment for $2 per day when traveling in Mexico and Canada and $10 per day when traveling in 65 other foreign destinations. The price is per line and is charged only for the days a customer accesses those services.
Sprint’s Open World feature includes various roaming services in 34 countries, with the biggest hook being free access to 1 GB of 3G data for customers traveling in Mexico, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay. Those customers also receive unlimited voice calling and text messaging in those countries. After the 1 GB of 3G data is used, customers can purchase additional gigabytes for $30, which is billed in kilobyte increments.
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