There are RUMORS that T-MO USA will finally allow roaming. From HOFO anyway. SOON is the word with no more details.

Bet the rates are pretty bad, however -- they have to be worse than post-paid.

Stan

Where on HoFo does it say this?

So you don't believe me....

OK, first the THREAD then the exact link from the thread. Again, I only said it was a rumor. There are several other threads.


http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=871475

http://65.161.188.181/templates/faq.aspx?P...#roamprepaidinl

Even a rumor bears some truth sometimes :).... it would be a step in the direction if T-Mobile allowed roaming outside of the US.

Per HOFO today.... Roaming in Canada working on togo (prepaid).

Better than nothing. Sent the family up with a FIDO card last time, 2 years ago Thought I saw 50 cents / minute as the rate. Beats UM, doesn't it?

As I said, IF they expand to DE and EU countries, I cannot imagine they would offer lower rates than the postpaid ---- which is 99 cents / minute for most folks.

Not surrendering my Riiing and other SIM cards just yet.

Stan

I'm in Toronto and still can't get a T-Mobile ToGo card to register on Rogers... My T-Mobile postpaid SIM registers right away.

Did you look at the HOFO post? I think he had to call T-MO Customer Care to activate the roaming feature. This from memory; sorry, can't get there from here. Also, he may have been in BC. Canada is big and maybe it works only in BC.

Again, I only relayed info posted elsewhere and cannot verify.

Best wishes.

Stan

Here's what I got from T-Mobile:

Regarding coverage in Canada, there's only one network, Rogers (302-72). If it works in BC it should work in ON as well.

Oh well... We'll have to wait a bit more...

FINALLY some substantial progress. T-MO has added some roaming to their prepaid coverage -- NC & SC, for instance, but also others. It's on their offcial prepaid coverage map. No international, however.

Glad to see TMO USA coverage has improved via roaming (East Tennessee was a big problem, now fixed), but being outside the US most of the time I'm annoyed they haven't enabled international prepaid roaming. About a year ago, two TMO operators told me "we're working on it" and "we'll be adding it soon" but nothing has happened. Seeing as how, at a minimum, adding roaming on the other national T-Mobile networks (Germany, UK, Czech, etc) would be very easy, I don't see what the wait is for; I'm sure they use the same billing software that everyone else does. And if the point were to cripple prepaid vs. pstpaid, why would they keep saying they plan to add international roaming?

I don't really have a good answer. I would suspect it comes down to international roaming agreements. TRUE, they exist for postpaid, but I suspect prepaid is a bit different. IF the billing comes later, because of the CONTRACT, postpaid can collect. For prepaid, the calls can be made, the card balance goes to 0, and THEN the billing comes in -- so how do you collect and pay? How quickly do your roaming charges reduce your balance on your D2 prepay?

I BELIEVE T-MO USA is somewhat independent of the parent in Germany.

Have you seen that TO GO text rates are going up? 5 cents to receive and 35 to send internationally. I was astonished myself to learn recently that TO GO internation SMS was 10 cents.

Stan

Dunno why it would be much different from anywhere else; it's very rare for a European or Asian prepaid SIM to not offer international roaming, and I'm sure TMO USA has the same billing software as everyone else. Considering that providers make much of their income on the extortionate roaming prices, it's surprising that TMO (and Cingular) are missing out on this revenue stream, even if a far smaller number of American users roam internationally than do those in other countries.

To answer your question, the roaming charges usually come off my Vodafone prepay pretty much instantaneously, as with my other prepaids when roaming. There's occasionally a slight lag, but usually not much; this is more the case for overseas SMS and data use than it is for calls.

Here a ref to HOFO:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php...05&page=5&pp=15

One poster writes:

".....Roaming minutes are manually loaded into the billing system using TAP files that may takes weeks to arrive from the roaming partner. By the time the information reaches the billing system, the charges will have already been incurred."

I don't work for T-Mo and cannot verify what was said. TO DATE nobody has contradicted the post.

Since roaming is quite common in EU countries, I think they have it down fairly well. Roaming on T-MO basically costs nothing within the US; it just deducts from your usual minutes, either post pay or prepay. I have not used the phone overseas with my postpay T-MO SIM in it and don't plan to, so I do not know how quickly the minutes come. APPARENTLY, the OP of the thread arrived back from Jamaica and was startled by his bill of > $2000. He had used 1000 minutes while roaming in Jamaica. He was told by a CSR that the rate was $1.09 per minute.

That is all for now.

Stan

TMobile prepaid SIM was not recognized by any carrier in July/August 2006 in Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands. I was not in other countries.

Or Germany, Poland, or the UK, two (and a half) of which are T-Mobile countries.

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/inde...showtopic=1433 :sad:

I am aware that they will now start charging for incoming SMS (received the notification). But, I have not heard anything about the increase in international SMS. At least I did not receive any notification to that effect on my payg phone.

TMO representative told me yesterday "We're working on it" regarding international roaming, and that it should already work on Telefonica in Mexico. However, "we're working on it" has been their standard answer for the past year or so, so I'm not holding my breath, even though the first overseas networks I would expect it to work on would be T-Mobile's own, and not one belonging to its Spanish arch-enemy.

The FAQ now seems to imply it is an option: http://www.t-mobile.com/templates/faq.aspx...e#howtorecharge

That may be true but you have to keep in mind that not too many T-Mobile To Go users are very likely to primarily travel to Germany or to the UK. T-Mobile USA must be wagering that T-Mobile To Go are more interested in North American roaming and that if anything a number of To Go subscribers have family or connections to Mexico. I wouldn't be surprised if at first the To Go roaming will be expanded to Canada and Mexico with Europe to follow later.

hofo reporting today that togo users can now roam in Canada and Mexico. A bit expensive.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1014961

NOW T-Mobile To Go customers, Take Control, and Kid Connect customers can travel to Canada and Mexico and use their phones. It's 1.49 per minute to call From Mexico, and 69 cents per minute to call From Canada. Regular text message rates in Canada apply but in Mexico its 35 cents to send and regular rates for receiving.

I also hear people are now being charged for inbound text messages in US.

Stan

I can confirm that it really does work in Canada. It only took a few seconds to register, and was able to both place and receive calls.

It seems to be true. I was charged $0.05 for the welcome message I received from Rogers. Duh...

:o

Really bad... :sad:

Do they charge for all text messages sent to your phone, or only the ones you actually receive? (Usually SMS expire after a couple of days if your phone is switched off, or in my case out of the country, and you never see them.)

I spent quite a bit of time on the phone talking to people at TMO yesterday (they were really friendly, too, especially considering it was 5 in the morning in Albuquerque) and a tech-support person told me there was currently no date set for international roaming outside North America, but that it was something they were still considering as there had been "a lot of requests" for it. I think this does indeed mean "don't hold your breath."

Some recent posts on HOFO that Mexico does not yet work..... contrary to earlier posts.

I think your assessment of international roaming is valid. I would not hold my breath.

And even if or when it does come to pass, I am quite sure the rates will be higher than you would want to pay, both inbound and outbound. Why should the prepaid roaming tarifs be cheaper than for new postpaid customers? You don't expect them to introduce grandfathered 39 cent inbound on prepay while most customers pay 99 cents, do you?

True enough, and I'd use my local SIM in most places. However, having people be able to reach me at a U.S. number when I'm in Europe would be very useful, especially for work and job applications, where I'd be willing to pay over the money. I've noticed that a lot of folks in the States refuse to call overseas, now matter how cheap, or their company prohibits international calls, or whatever. I'd never get a contract phone as I'm outside the U.S. most of the time, but without international roaming TMO works only as a voicemail service.