T-Mobile Hands Consumers a Pleasant Shocker

Back in March, T-Mobile burned every possible bridge it had with the other cellphone carriers. As I wrote then, it eliminated the two-year contract; you can now quit T-Mobile whenever you like.

It also became the first carrier to eliminate the infuriating 15-second recording of voicemail instructions every time you try to leave a message - a waste of your time and your callers' airtime.

And T-Mobile also ended the Great Cellphone Subsidy Con. That's where you buy a $600 phone (like the iPhone) for $200, with the understanding that you'll pay the cellphone company the rest over your two-year contract - yet after you've repaid it, your monthly bill doesn't drop!

T-Mobile was basically prancing around, demonstrating that Emperors Verizon, Sprint and AT&T have no clothes.

I was pleasantly surprised - shocked, really - since those con games have been baked into the American cellphone carriers' business plans for years. And we, the American sheep, just assumed that we had to accept them.

Apparently, lots of other people were pleasantly surprised, too. The company says that in the second quarter of 2013, it signed up 685,000 new customers - more than Verizon, AT&T and Sprint combined.

Well, on Wednesday, T-Mobile did it again. It announced an even bigger shocker: Starting next month, it will eliminate the sky-high, nosebleed, ridiculous, usurious international roaming charges that have terrified and enraged overseas travelers for years.

Millions of Americans just put their phones into airplane mode when they go to Europe, daunted by the stories of people coming home to $5,000 international-roaming overage charges.

And no wonder; the other carriers' international plans are exorbitant and ridiculously complex. Here's AT&T's rates, but of course Verizon and Sprint have similar programs.

Going to Europe? You have to sign up for three plans before you go: Data (Internet use), texts and voice calls.

Data: AT&T charges, for example, $60 for 300 megabytes of data usage overseas. But that's nothing; you can blast through that in a day. All kinds of things on your phone use data when you're not even aware of it. After 300 megabyes, you'll quietly rack up $30 for every additional 120 megabytes of data.

Texts: The least expensive AT&T plan is $10 for 50 messages, which comes to 20 cents a text. Again, it comes with nasty overages (40 cents each).

Calls: Even if you sign up for the one-month minimum plan at $30 for the month, you're still paying $1 a minute to talk on the phone.

No wonder people turn off their phones in terror.

OK, now for T-Mobile's new international roaming:

Data: Unlimited and free.

Texts: Unlimited and free.

Calls: 20 cents a minute.

You get all of this automatically. You don't have to sign up for anything before you go. You don't have to sign up for anything at all. You just travel to Europe and know that your texts and e-mail are going to be free.

Now, two footnotes. First, those T-Mobile prices cover you in 115 countries - according to the company, the ones that represent 95 percent of Americans' travel. Note, however, that you don't ever have to worry about what country you're calling to; once you arrive, every call is 20 cents a minute to every country on earth.

Including back home.

Second, all that free Internet is for slower speeds, suitable for Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and Web pages. If you want streaming video or big file downloads, you can sign up (even after you arrive) for Speed Boost packages. Example: $25 for 200 megabytes in a week. After that amount or that interval, you go back to the free, slower service.

But otherwise - I mean, are they kidding?

Look: international roaming has always been insanely priced. And like many people, I've always assumed that there's some reason for it. International tariffs, maybe. Special equipment. Something. It couldn't be as simple as outrageous, consumer-hostile greed, could it?

Yes, it could.

“The big carriers have created a perception that it costs this much. But it really doesn't,” Mike Sievert, T-Mobile's chief marketing officer, told me. “It's just that they've gotten away with charging us these bloated 90 percent profit margins.”

If that's true, then the executives at Verizon, AT&T and Sprint must be having a really, really bad week. Because now we know their big secret. We've been paying those insane roaming fees for nothing.

I'm trumpeting T-Mobile's move to the skies because I think it's bold, it's transparent and it's a resounding win for consumers. I'm still not, however, a T-Mobile subscriber, because its service still isn't good where I live. The company has made enormous strides over the last year installing its 4G LTE high-speed Internet networks in this country; but if you're considering switching, you should certainly check the coverage maps for your home area.

But I have to say: Mr. Sievert, a former chief marketing officer for AT&T, told me something really great. “Those other companies sit around trying to figure out what customer charges they can get away with,” he said. “We sit around and say, ‘What can we get away with not charging the customer?'”

O.K., yes, that's a great line. And yes, he's a marketing officer.

But you know what? If T-Mobile's actions are any indication, it sure seems to be true.