Three of the biggest four wireless carriers in the United States have now added new voice and data roaming options to their respective range of mobile services. The biggest of them all, Verizon Wireless, has decided to to allow its subscribers who are planning a trip to Cuba to use voice, data, text roaming from within the island nation. As for T-Mobile and Sprint, they both have added new countries and territories to their worldwide roaming features, providing their subscribers with even more free text messaging and low rate data and voice calls when traveling across the globe.
Verizon Wireless
The Big Red has revealed that it is now offering international roaming options in Cuba. By doing this, Verizon Wireless has become the first major wireless carrier in the US to have voice, text and data roaming options for customers travelling to the largest island in the Caribbean region. The relationship between the US and Cuba has seen increased improvement in the last decade or so, and Verizon is clearly taking advantage of it, basically giving subscribers who are heading to the island nation the capability to call, text, and access 2G data starting next week.
But it should be noted though that Verizon’s rates are a bit costly. Voice call rates are at $2.99 a minute, while data is priced at a rather high $2.05 a megabyte (use a full gigabyte and you end up paying more than a couple of thousand bucks) and text messaging at (thankfully) regular $0.05 per received text message and $0.50 for each text message sent.
In order for Verizon Wireless subscribers to be able to enjoy voice, text and data roaming options in Cuba, they will need to have a mobile device compatible with the Caribbean country’s cell networks. For those with eligible handsets, they will need to add Verizon’s Pay-As-You-Go International Plan to their standard monthly service.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile first introduced its Simple Global roaming service for subscribers of its Simple Choice plans about a couple of years ago in 2013. Now, the wireless carrier has boosted the list of included territories for the service by putting an additional 20 countries and destinations. Simple Global is now made available in 145 locations around the world, including virtually all European territories and South America. Subscribers will now be able to get access to unlimited text messaging, unlimited 2G data, and cheap call prices (only $0.20 a minute) in the following new countries and destinations:
Sprint
As for Sprint, it has decided to expand its Open World international package, which has now been added with 33 new locations. Similar to what T-Mobile has done with its Simple Global, Sprint provides its Open World subscribers with free text messaging, plus low rate data and voice calls in countries covered, with rates at $30 a gigabyte for data and $0.20 a minute for voice calls. The 33 new locations include:
