T-mobile USA which has rightly termed itself as the 'un-carrier' has been in the limelight off late due to its aggressive strategies and disruptive pricing. T-mobile is now the third largest carrier in USA after it surpassed the subscriber base of Sprint earlier this year.
Verizon continues to be the largest operator followed by AT&T which is the second largest. T-mobile has changed the dynamics of the USA telecom industry by launching many first of its kind offerings like wi-fi calling and unlimited data and text in international roaming in 120 countries and is currently the only major operator offering truly unlimited 4G LTE data.
T-mobile aims at shattering the tradition of binding a subscriber in a 2 year contract and instead offers contract free plans, no credit check plans and prepaid plans and also offers to buy subscribers out of their existing service providers by paying off the remainder of their contracts with Verizon and AT&T.
In its latest move T-mobile has abolished international roaming charges between USA, Canada and Mexico, the three countries covering the entire North American continent, this is not just for free incoming calls or text messages but for outgoing calls to landlines and mobiles in USA, Canada and Mexico, same goes for outgoing texts and also applies for 4G LTE data. All Voice, text and data usage is deducted from the subscriber's home plan with no international roaming charges.
This offer is available to all new T-mobile subscribers who choose the 'Simple choice' or 'Simple choice prepaid' plans, existing subscribers can migrate to these new plans of equivalent denominations at no additional cost. As reported by LA times, company executives said Mobile Without Borders would eliminate a major pain point for wireless customers in the U.S., saying 35% of all international calls from the country last year were to Mexico or Canada. During that time, carriers raked in nearly $10 billion in global roaming charges at over 90% margins.
"That norm is outdated, it's wrong and it's actually pretty outrageous when you think about it," Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert said. "You drive across a bridge and your data is suddenly 120 times more expensive? It's absurd. So we got together with a totally different mindset."
John Legere, the President and CEO of T-mobile took direct aim at AT&T when he said that AT&T will not be the first operator to provide seamless international roaming between USA and Mexico, T-mobile will do a better job and will also include Canada which currently AT&T does not. This is the first time that a major carrier has implemented RLH on such a big scale spanning 3 countries and an entire continent.
How do you see this in comparison to the Indian context? where operators like Tata Docomo are implementing roaming charges between paired circles like Mumbai and Maharashtra. At a time when global operators are coming together to erase international borders, our operators are busy drawing more boundaries within our own nation. Let us know your views and opinions through your comments.
