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T-Mobile has announced a new data plan for their business users who often travel abroad. A new $50 per month option gives you 500MB of 3G and 4G data (or HSPA+ as it’s properly called in Europe). After hitting that 500MB users will retain data usage without overages but will be throttled. Great! Except, it’s not.
For around the same cost you can get even more data (try 5GB for 25 euro at some places) alongside other features like texting and calling by getting a SIM card from a local carrier.
There are cheaper options with less data allowance, of course, if you want to go that route. It’s a great option for those who just don’t want the hassle of shoveling their money to anyone but magenta, but it certainly can be bested. Read on for full press details.
T-Mobile To Roll Out ‘Open Europe’ Plan for Business Customers
New Unlimited Data Feature Offers Predictable Billing with Flat-rate Monthly FeeBellevue, Wash. – Jul. 16, 2012
2012-07-17 06:40:20T-Mobile USA, Inc. today introduced its new
flat-rate T-Mobile® Open Europe unlimited data feature for business customers. Designed to address the increasing demand for data, the costs associated with international data roaming, and businesses’ desire for more predictable costs, the $50/line per month T-Mobile Open Europe plan provides business customers with unlimited data, including up to 500 MB full-speed data, within 28 European countries1 with no international roaming tolls. The new T-Mobile Open Europe plan complements the company’s existing portfolio of international offers and solutions for business customers including: Wi-Fi Calling for Business™, T-Mobile Global for Business™ and T-Mobile Global Corporate Access.
According to the Global Business Travel Association, American business travelers are expected to take 437.9 million trips costing approximately $265.5 billion by the end of this year. International outbound travel will continue to drastically outpace domestic travel. GBTA expects U.S.-initiated international business trips is expected to hit 6.8 million trips in 20122. With this kind of expected business travel and with data usage on the rise, CIOs and decision makers are looking to address the challenges of international mobility. At the top of this list is reducing or controlling the high costs associated with international data roaming.
“Of the millions of international trips U.S. business travelers make each year, a significant portion are made to European countries,” said Frank Sickinger, vice president, business sales at T-Mobile USA. “For these customers, our new T-Mobile Open Europe data feature dramatically reduces costly international data roaming tolls, controls the risk of data roaming ‘bill shock’, and provides data connectivity required to conduct business from London to Moscow – all for a predictable $50 monthly fee.”
The new T-Mobile Open Europe plan, available next month, advances T-Mobile’s effort to support CIOs and IT decision makers as they navigate the challenges of international mobility by offering a range of solutions.
With T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi Calling solutions, for example, business customers can avoid international roaming fees when accessing global hotspots and enhance coverage and data access in areas where a cellular network signal is limited or unavailable.
For additional savings on international voice and data roaming in more than 200 countries across the globe, T-Mobile offers its pay-per-use T-Mobile Global for Business plan for a low monthly access fee of $9.99 per month per line.
Making it easier for CIOs and IT decision makers to manage mobile connections and containing international roaming costs, the T-Mobile Global Corporate Access solution offers easy, secure online access to corporate tools and resources from more than 700,000 domestic and international hotspots across the globe regardless of device manufacturer, platform or network. With a single login for up to five devices per subscriber, T-Mobile Global Corporate Access also provides predictable, unified billing and web-based management, integration with a corporate VPN, and real-time reporting.
If you want to keep your mobile phone number (so your contacts can reach you) switching to a local operator is no option, unless you’re using a tablet of mifi that acts as a mobile hotspot. Also if you travel from one country to another, looking for the best deal, installing the sim etc. can turn out to be a lot of hassle.
That said, dataroaming in Europe is still way overpriced, even with offers like these. Let’s see what the EU can do further do bring down the proces even more.
I think this is where Google Voice would come into play. But that’s a Sprint thing. I wonder if businesses are doing that? Hmm…
This is interesting.
Keep in mind that this is a business oriented plan. It’s vital in business to maintain contact and a one time use phone number can cost money when people don’t know how to contact you.
I’d thought “call forwarding” could pretty much eliminate that as a concern, but I’m no expert in this area.
But what would it cost on your normal US plan to call forward to a international number?
Exactly
Here’s the point: There’s a reason this plan was ONLY for business accounts and not just regular old subscribers. The ability to keep your own number is ideal for a business user and in the long run business will save massive amounts of money. Your article assumes most businesses are not paying international roaming data fees which is further from the truth. These guys aren’t out there switching to local sim cards. This plan is for THEM.
Looks like a poor analysis by Phandroid on this article.
tinyurl.com/7zjh3zc