Why you should seriously consider T-Mobile in this traveling Hobby

Lucky wrote a post a month ago about how he was in Europe and turned on his iPhone’s data for like a minute and got slammed with like a $500 charge.  RIDICULOUS.  And of course everyone in the comments blasted him with and rightly so, “If you are traveling internationally that much, then you should get T-Mobile since they give you free 3G international data roaming.”  

First off, I know some of you hate T-Mobile’s coverage.  But for me, it’s fine.  I have terrible coverage in my house, but you know what?  They will give you a free bad boy router.  See Slickdeals thread.  From what I perused, they may still be giving these out for free.  Now if you don’t get service at work, then you may not want to switch.   But if you have coverage at work and you have WiFi calling at your house, then it’s really a no brainer.  Sure, you won’t get service when you’re out in the boonies, but c’mon, 99% of the month, I am at work or home, so I don’t really care.  Granted, you may need that 1% if you fell off a cliff and need service, but if you’re not climbing cliffs, you’ll be fine.  I think I spend more time internationally than climbing cliffs domestically, so it works for me.  YMMV though.

Secondly, they’re cheaper than ATT & Verizon.  No one can dispute that.

Third, like I said, you get free 3G international data roaming.   I was in the subway in Taipei and I had better speed and coverage then at my house back home.  It was both awesome and sad at the same time.  Funny story – I was in the lounge in Taipei and I overheard a business gentleman talking to ATT about his data roaming charge in the hundreds.  I just smirked to myself.  I was in Hong Kong where it had great 3G data.  Singapore was a bit slow, but it still worked. It worked in Cape Town.  It worked in Dubai.  It didn’t work in the Maldives (had to pay for that, but if you’re in the Maldives, you shouldn’t be using your phone anyway.  Plus, you’ll have free hotel WIFI.)  It works in Europe and in Mexico.  Seriously, if you travel internationally at least 2 times a year like we do, it’s so awesome to be able to turn on your cell phone when you land and have data service.  I think the calling is cheap too, but I don’t make phone calls.

Fourth, but you have to hurry since it ends on Tuesday 9/8, you can join their JUMP ON DEMAND program now and you’ll be basically paying $200 less for the new iPhone 6S.  You’ll need a phone to trade in though.  See thread here.

Five, free music streaming and data ‘Stash.’

I was not paid by Tmobile to write this nor do I care if you join them or not.  I’m just saying that if you travel a lot and can deal with the spotty coverage domestically, then switching and getting the iPhone 6S for ~$200 off is a pretty good deal.