Back in 2015, T-Mobile introduced a new feature to its line-up of data plans called “Mobile Without Borders.” As the name suggests, your plan ignored borders in North America, allowing you to travel to and from Canada or Mexico without having to worry about data usage. The big selling points were the fact that you just got to use your data when in those two countries without needing a special roaming plan or worrying about limits. On November 12, that will no longer be the case.
T-Mobile is now putting a 5GB per month cap on Mobile Without Borders. The change affects those on T-Mobile ONE, Simple Choice North America, and legacy rate plans. Those plans, when traveling in and out of Canada/Mexico will get a maximum of 5GB of high-speed or 4G LTE data, followed by a throttle to 128kbps thereafter. If on T-Mobile ONE Plus, those speeds will drop to 256kbps.
Why would T-Mobile make this change? They said that some meanies were likely taking advantage of the openness to data usage in Mexico and Canada and want to “prevent usage beyond the intent of the product.” They added that “less than 1% of people” who use this benefit in Canada and Mexico ever eclipse 5GB per month.
So wait, the feature was sold as all of us being able to use our data in Canada and Mexico just like we do in the US. What exactly is the “usage beyond the intent” supposed to mean then? That sure sounds like T-Mobile admitting that they didn’t actually want you to “use LTE data in Mexico & Canada just like in the U.S.” and that the hope all along is that you’d hardly tap into your plan’s bucket. Hey, misleading!
Again, the change happens on November 12. To learn more, hit up that link below. Also, you’ll find a chart below that describes future usage availability.
Cheers Jason!
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