I'm getting HSPA on the MY MAXIS network in Penang, Malaysia. None of the other networks would connect.

I will be transiting via Hong Kong tomorrow and will try the Smartone trick in the interests of science :D

Added: Could not get a network connection on Smartone with the phone in GSM mode or LTE/HSPA mode

As of today, Vietnam has disappeared from the list of covered countries so free text messaging and 20c voice calling are not included there. When looking up Vietnam in the roaming section of their website, it shows :

VIETNAM
Data unavailable
Text send - 50c each
Text receive - charged against package (so free for me)
Voice - $5.99/min
http://www.t-mobile.com/optional-services/roaming.html

Too bad, I am going there today.

As far as I can tell, this is the first "large" country that has been removed from free coverage by T Mobile.

American Express - Free Fee
 

Or you can avoid these charges "Boingo" if you have an American Express... I dont know which versions offers the Free Boingo Account but the Platinum does...

The last 3 times I have gone international (which I do nearly every week) I have had major problems where one of the 2 TMobile phones (both on the same account) I carry is refused from the network. I not only have a business account, but I pay $100/phone/month to have 1G of international 4G (which of course doesn't include any LTE because TMobile doesn't have LTE roaming internationally yet) Every time I go through the same exercise, where I call 611 on the phone that works, and the tech swears to me that everything is set correctly on the account, and it MUST be my phone that is the problem. Every time I escalate until either I get a level 4 tech who fixes the problem, or, this last time, I press for escalation until they open a ticket with the NOC who fixes the problem at some point while I am on yet another plane. Its BEYOND frustrating to be told over and over again that the problem is my fault, when in the end its their programming. It has come to the point where I am strongly considering dropping one of my TMobile phones, just so that I have another method of roaming internationally without having to buy a SIM in each country.

When was the last time that you replaced your SIM card? I had some problems with international roaming working properly until I got a new one.

As other poster suggested, NOT normal if they are coming off the same account this may be a SIM that for one reason or another is just problematic (older generation or just bad OTA SIM update previously)

Easiest way to fix is to get a new SIM (from any TMO retail store) and go here PRIOR to swapping the SIM's
http://www.t-mobile.com/SIM

Once logged in you can do the SIM swap yourself and normally replacement SIM is up with in 1-2 mins (sometimes longer); you should only ever do this when on the US T-Mobile network (e.g NOT roaming international or roaming Domestic)

This fixed other odd issues with one of my devices 2 years ago; support may be chasing something that isn't fixable on their end.

Also are you getting a network at all or NO data? If no network then I would suspect the SIM and/or plan on the failing device may not have refreshed as a valid roaming plan (one thing to try if that is the case, is have customer service remove the plan and re-add it)

Has anyone had issues adding a data pack after making a plan change? I switched data plans on my line, and no longer have international data packs available to add, while all the other lines on the plan that weren't changed do have them. Wondering if it's related to the "pending" change that shows on the data pass page.

I remember once, my wife did some changes on the plans we had while I was abroad. I only got 1 day without service because I had to turn off the mobile and restarted.

Not a big issue if you are aware of the changes.:D

There is some web provisioning issues on some plan types and if certain devices are on your account. I've brought this up to TMO support escalation. In those cases you can ALWAYS dial 611 for free and ask a CSR to manually add the data pack and they can activate it right away. Also if you make errors in adding the data pack more than once online (I did so on a bad connection once - they can remove the pending non activated one)

After I posted yesterday I went onto the mobile data portal from my phone, and the option to provision the data pack was there. I've never tried adding it directly from the device -- can you set the effective date from there, or does it assume you want it to activate immediately since you're on your phone?

For on device if you go to http://t-mo.co/4G-Data, click "View International Roaming On-Demand" It will provision a selected datapack right away, it used to ask for future time setup before.

I'll bring this up with T-Mobile as it gives no warning on immediate provison

For now if you need to pre-date a pack activation do it with my.t-mobile.com (with full account login, under services, select "Add a data pack" for specific device) or call a CSR.

Charged Int. roaming data for Ipad
 

Last month I made a swing through Manila, PI with a stopover in Guam.

I had turned on 3gb of data for the primary line and the on demand 9200mb free for life) with match phone data option for my iPad.

International roaming data and texts for my phone were not charged. I got the text message announcing included unlimited web in PI and on Guam.

However, in Guam I wound up using 3.3mb of cellular data on the iPad when wifi was not available resulting in a charge of $50.90. Tmobile CS informed me that the data sim in the iPad was not eligible for international roaming data.

I did a search of this thread and some people report using iPads successfully with international roaming cellular data, without incurring the usual huge roaming data charges.

Is there a specific data package I should have purchased for the iPad sim / data line?

Found the answer here: you have to select an iPad data plan that specifically includes international roaming. The 200mb free and match your phone line data plans do not roam internationally.

I guess $50 is a cheap lesson considering that I got free international data and texts on my phone!

Jim

3.3 MB for $50?

Not a cheap lesson.

Cheap in comparison to the charges that I might have run up!

Not cheap on a per mb basis.

Jim

Jimquan since there are no contract commits you CAN switch the iPad to the paid intl roaming eligible (e.g. non free 200MB plan) prior to a trip and switch it back if you have no further trips.

I updated the wiki to highlight this on free data devices