I would be really surprised if T-Mobile didn't have to pay for more volume of data consumed by its subscribers roaming on other carriers' networks.

Maybe not so much for T-Mobile in Germany but why would Orange in France not charge more by the amount of data consumed?

I'm not saying these carriers have real costs when roaming consumes more data. It's just a revenue source that they depend on.

That is why it's taken so long to have continent-wide roaming with no extra costs, as we do in the US.

Which hasn't really been around that long, and for the most part just consists of 4 major networks with (roughly) nation-wide coverage. There are still some rural areas where rather than roaming, you're just SOL if you're not on the one carrier that works there.

But no on on Flyertalk would go to a place like that....;)

Some reports of international data still not throttled in the UK after the summer promo was over:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...9#post16719759

Right now wholesale rates between carriers are averages 10 dollars for 1GB of data - YES - you heard that right. The markup on top of that for carrier billing to another carrier is about $3.

In all honesty Vodafone, T-Mobile (Europe), Softbank, Three and other global carriers had already started to do aggressive cross carrier roaming deals not just within the EU but outside. Many other networks worldwide already had per day roaming for data capped at like $20 and it was all you can eat (subject to throttling on more than 500MB per day). John Legere at T-Mobile was the perfect storm as he came from Global Crossing which moved lots of data transatlantic and transpacific as a wholesale provider with their own fiber capacity. They moved gigabytes of data at pennies.

At some point the mobile carriers had to realize that there home market data costs are going to go down and the gouging to roamers is at most a 30% mark up not a 1000% markup. Ironically the carriers with these aggressive roaming accords get more revenue than before and are seeing higher revenue from roamers vs PREPAID ARPU (e.g they would rather have roamers then a user getting a prepaid SIM where they make less)

In your example, Orange France wants lower rates for their users in the US - no one wants to pick a single network for this now and want universal aggressive rates across multiple carriers - makes it easier to negotiate - though most of the negotiation now is pre-arranged agreements that any carrier can add on to.

Free unlimited LTE starting October 1 for the remainder of the year in these countries...

European Destinations
Armenia, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom

South American Destinations
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Easter Island, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09...s-dec-31-2016/

Great news!!!!

Perfect for my parents. And now I wish tmobile will offer it for Asia!

Wow, but not Australia, which is where I'm going in November.

Dang.

Wow! I am currently using LTE in Japan and it is so much better/more usable than the 2G I get elsewhere. In fact, it now makes the 2G seem almost unusable. I wonder if Google Fi's service at 256 is more like this Tmobile LTE service?

Google Fi international roaming is no longer throttled.

Whoa!?!? So you're saying that Google Fi is like T-Mo's LTE (or better) now? If true, I am switching asap.

It's not unlimited data though.

You pay for every gigabyte you use while overseas.

This T-Mobile promo, when they're doing LTE speeds, is fully uncapped.

I used a lot of data in Greece this past July.

I wouldn't expect T-Mobile to do this all the time but the promos like these make you stick with T-Mobile. I could get a "free" iPhone 7 if I switched to another carrier or switched to the One plan but I stay with Simple Choice for unlimited roaming with tethering.

I like your enthusiasm, but the reality is REALLY SLOW... I dont understand why the speeds here in Japan cant be a bit more faster.

I have been thinking to get a pocket wifi thingy to fix the speed problem.

Ah, so that's the difference. Hmmm. Free data but terribly slow when traveling on T-mo or much faster data on Google Fi but I pay for it. I wonder how fast? If it's the same/similar as it is in the States (LTE speeds) then I am happy to pay for it. The reality is while I love T-mo's 2G it is really more of an emergency thing. Google Maps is usable but horribly slow. I can use WhatsApp and FB and get emails (slowly). But that's it. No real websurfing to speak of.

Prior to T-Mo I had to buy SIMs in each country and that was a real pain. But at least once I did I could use my phone similarly to how I did at home. Seems to me then, that Google Fi (assuming it offers LTE like speeds Internationally) allows me to use my phone as I do when home.

It's all perspective. Japan is my first LTE country. I was in S Korea last week and the 2G speeds were so slow I could barely use my phone with Google Maps. Here in Japan however, no problem at all. Much more usable imo.

The free unlimited international data on T-Mobile is normally limited to 128kbps. Just enough to load some web pages, Google Maps, email.

But this year, T-Mobile has had promos for full-speed LTE in Europe this year, completely unlimited.

Google Fi does get you high-speed data but you pay about $10 a GB. So that would be comparable to getting a prepaid SIM. Actually I'm going to Australia in November and my research shows I can get at least 3 GB for $24 and maybe a lot more data when they have sales there.

So Google Fi sounds very convenient but if you plan to use a lot of data, because you don't want to rely on hotel wifi, it's not the best value but you don't have to hunt down a prepaid SIM either (researching it, finding a store, etc.).