Best international US phone providor

[timbberry]

Hey all

I am not terribly happy with T-mobile's international access, and I was wondering if anyone has an opinion/experience as to which providors are better?

Thanks
Tim

[aristobrat]

6 of the BlackBerrys I support are used for frequent international travel. 5 are T-Mobile, the other 1 is Cingular.

Pricewise, T-Mobile is less expensive for voice (in the areas our company travels, anyways), but Cingular has a cool data add-on (for $19.99/mo) that allows for free, unlimited international GPRS.

Customer-service wise (for international issues), I've only had to call Cingular once, but it left an EXTREME bad taste in my mouth -- enough for me (and some of our telecom analysts) to want to recommend that we do NOT use Cingular for any future international travellers, although we agreed to withhold that recommendation until we've had at least two other incidents (to be fair and see how Cingular does with those).

We've had to call T-Mobile four or five times for international issues (out of over 200 trips, I'd guess) and they were all resolved promptly without any CS issue.

[timbberry]

What about number of countries that each work in?

Tim

[NJBlackBerry]

We exclusively recommend T-Mobile for our International travelers. I am very surprised to read that you are unhappy with them. Cingular won't even publish which countries have GPRS/BB roaming agreements with them.

[EGottlieb]

Like the others, I have had great experience globally with T-Mobile's service. I probably spend 6-8 weeks a year outside of North America and I only wish their coverage was as good in the US as it is elsewhere!

Is there something specific that you did not like about their international service? I have only gone one place that T-Mobile claims to have GPRS agreements and could not access the network (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). Everywhere else, the service has been great and affordable.

[NJBlackBerry]

I was in KL in December and my BB (T-Mobile 7100t) worked. There is one bad cell in KLCC which caused a problem, but outside of KLCC I was able to use my 7100t with full GPRS coverage. Maxis Mobile has a bad cell that we've been complaining about for months.

[Talldog]

Customer-service wise (for international issues), I've only had to call Cingular once, but it left an EXTREME bad taste in my mouth
Did you call the Cingular international roaming center or the regular support number?

[aristobrat]

Both, if 916-843-4685 is their international roaming center number.

[Talldog]

Both, if 916-843-4685 is their international roaming center number.
I'm unfamiliar with that number. The roaming center number my company uses is 678-721-3900. We've gotten good support from them.

[grellis]

Nextel offers roaming with the 7520 in Latin America and Israel. I had no problems using it in Brazil. Even the direct connect worked back to US perfectly.

[aristobrat]

I'm unfamiliar with that number. The roaming center number my company uses is 678-721-3900. We've gotten good support from them.
Thanks, I'll try that number next time! :)

[Mark Rejhon]

T-Mobile has great roaming agreements!

However, Cingular has that unlimited International Roaming plan that T-Mobile doesn't have...

[NJBlackBerry]

Actually, T-Mobile does have an unlimited international roaming plan for corporate customers.

[aristobrat]

Interesting. Our T-Mobile National Account rep said that he thought one was coming soon. Is it $19.99/mo like Cingulars?

[NJBlackBerry]

Yes.