Sprint wants your business. Obviously. It's a carrier. So today it has announced a plan meant to appeal to those of you who travel. The package includes free international roaming, unlimited texting, and calls that cost 20 cents per minute when you travel to countries in Europe or Latin America, as well as Japan and South Korea. Think of it as International Value Roaming.
With this plan, Sprint limits international roaming to 2G speeds. If you want something faster, you need to cough up quite a bit of money for a day pass. We're talking $15 for 100MB in a single day. $25 for 200MB over seven days. Big data users can get an entire half gig for $50 to use over the course of two weeks. But lucky you—there are no overage charges! Speeds will simply revert back down to 2G.
It's unrestricted, except you're limited to 3G, and you can't use over this much.
Fortunately, you can add International Value Roaming to your existing plan without increasing your bill. Sprint will also let you call home over Wi-Fi without having to cough up extra.
The full list of supported countries includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia, South Korea, Spain, and the UK.
PRESS RELEASE
Sprint Launches Free Unlimited International Roaming, Unlimited Texting and 20 Cents per Minute for Voice Calls When Traveling to Latin America, Europe or Japan
Both consumer and business customers can get significant savings over AT&T and Verizon
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Beginning today, Sprint (NYSE: S) is introducing International Value Roaming, giving customers the ability to travel to major areas in Latin America, Europe and Japan and roam with up to 2G speeds to read emails and surf the web at no additional charge1 . Additionally, they can send unlimited text messages for no extra charge, and they can call anywhere in the world from these countries for 20 cents per minute. Customers can easily add International Value Roaming to any Sprint domestic plan at www.sprint.com/internationalroaming or by visiting a Sprint store.
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.
In Sprint’s customer-centric culture, we are passionate about listening and understanding customers’ pain points and making changes to enhance their experience. One of the main complaints from customers who travel to Latin America, Europe, and Japan is how shocked they are when they return home to find huge roaming bills. Most consumers don’t want to take that risk, so they end up turning off their data roaming while traveling and miss out on all of the fun and benefits of having a mobile phone. We have removed the pain point by offering International Value Roaming coupled with the ability to use Wi-Fi calling.
If customers prefer to connect their phone to the millions of hotspots throughout Latin America, Europe and Japan, they can use Wi-Fi Calling to enjoy free calls from over 200 countries back to the U.S. Wi-Fi Calling is available at no additional charge when calling a U.S., U.S. Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico phone number2. Wi-Fi Calling is available on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s and select Android devices. This is superior to AT&T and Verizon who don’t offer Wi-Fi calling on the iPhone and their customers who travel internationally still have to worry about getting charged for every gigabyte of data, every text and every phone call.
“The continuous feedback from our customers indicates how important it is to travel without the fear of high roaming charges,” said Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO. “So, we launched free data roaming and Wi-Fi. “Latin America, Europe and Japan are only the beginning. We will continuously add new countries to ensure our customers can use their device virtually wherever they travel.”
Customers looking for higher data speeds can choose from three of our Sprint International Speed Data Roaming options offering up to 3G network speeds3 for one-day, seven-day and 14-day passes, starting at just $15.