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AT&T strikes deal to offer LTE data roaming in Canada
AT&T subscribers visiting their Canadian neighbors no longer have to worry about giving up 4G speeds when crossing the border. The carrier has just unveiled a roaming deal with Rogers that will provide quick LTE data anywhere the Canadian provider has compatible coverage, including major cities like Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. You'll only get to do so much with the improved performance while traveling up North, though. When AT&T's global add-ons still include a meager amount of international data per month, you'll just be racking up overage fees that much faster.
AT&T cuts prices on international data roaming, goes easier on overages
Could it be? Is AT&T addressing bill shock by simply trying to make international data roaming costs reasonable? From the looks of its new Data Global Add-On deals, that might be the case. The baseline price is up from last year at $30 per month, but you'll get 120MB of data for your trouble -- an amount that used to cost $50. The next step up not only costs less than before, at $60 versus the old $100, but ups the data ever so gently to 300MB in the process. AT&T's maximum allotment is still a relatively modest 800MB, but at $120 a month, it's a lot easier to swallow for a European vacation than the earlier $200 for the same data cap. The real advantage for all three may be the overage rate: rather than bill by the byte, AT&T is now charging $30 for every 120MB over your limit, so you won't have to fork over the equivalent of a car payment just because you couldn't resist posting to Instagram from the Alps. We still think dedicated international services like Xcom Global (or an unlocked phone and a prepaid SIM) are the most efficient ways to go, but the carrier-bound among us will catch a big break when the new international plans take effect June 1st.
AT&T whips up international iPhone data plan, also adding iTunes radio?
We're not sure what took 'em so long -- reports of unhappy customers who traveled abroad with their surreptitiously email-checking iPhones returning home to bills totaling in the thousands of dollars -- have been de rigueur for AT&T since June's launch. Well, today that changes. Despite Apple's addition of an anti-data-roaming option in later firmware updates, the service side now has a new Data Global Plan, which, for $25 or $60 (extra) per month, gives iPhone users 20MB or 50MB of international data access -- but nothing more on the voice side -- in some 29 countries (including our neighbor to the north, and parts of Europe and Asia). Take that SIM unlockers who would rather just buy an overseas SIM and pay something reasonable for their data rates. Update: AT&T's site also shows an interesting and possibly telling quote: "While using data on iPhone is free within the U.S., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, International data roaming can get expensive quickly. Consider that just 20 minutes of iTunes radio takes 20MB of data. That's why AT&T has created two iPhone International packages with more reasonable rates in 29 countries." (Emphasis ours.) So, iTunes radio, eh? Certainly AT&T isn't talking about downloading tracks over the iTunes WiFi store -- that's only possible via WiFi. Maybe we have something here. Thanks, Ryan.Update 2: Bonus -- we have confirmation from AT&T that it's not contractual, meaning you can sign up for the Data Global Plan before you hit up a trip and then drop it when you return. We don't have pro-rating details, but we're sure you'll work it out.
