Why T-Mobile Is The Top Phone Carrier For Frequent Travelers

“Welcome to Mexico! Your plan includes coverage that gives you gives you 5GB/mo. of high-speed data on us, plus unlimited calls and text from the US, Mexico and Canda at no extra cost. Enjoy your stay!”

That was my arrival text when I stepped off the plane in the Riviera Maya, and for well over a decade, I have gotten used to getting these notifications about free data from T-Mobile after landing in Greece, Japan, Itay, Switzerland, France, South Africa, Morrocco and many other countries—even Bhutan.

Back in 2012 when I had AT&T I traveled to Mexico and turned off my data roaming, activating it just for a few minutes to check on my travel, and for that I received a bill for over $1200. So, 12 years ago, I did the research and made the jump to T-Mobile because at the time they had the best plans for frequent travelers and international travel—and they still do. Recently they’ve added even more benefits for travel.

Just last week I traveled with another journalist who told me he still has to notify AT&T in advance of his travels and pay a daily fee for international service when he travels abroad. That’s so outdated, it’s like paying for hotel Wi-Fi (remember that?).

With Black Friday coming fast, there is a lot of talk of deals on phones and tablets, but for frequent travelers, the most important issue may be which carrier you use.

In the past 12 years I have been to dozens of countries on every inhabited continent, and I have never arrived and not been welcomed with free data, texts and free or low-cost phone calls. Now that we use or phones instead of maps, use ride share apps, make dinner reservations and get attraction tickets online, its become almost impossible to travel efficiently without using cell phone data, often where there is no Wi-Fi, and there’s no reason to pay extra for that. T-Mobile’s international service is seamless and just works automatically with no advance research or thought process—in more than 215 countries around the world. I haven’t bothered checking on where I am going in years.

But recently T-Mobile has once again upped the ante for travelers, adding free in-flight Wi-Fi for domestic routes on Alaska, American, Delta and United airlines. Since many T-Mobile plans, including mine, give you free Apple TV+, Hulu and Netflix, this also includes lots of inflight streaming—at no extra cost.

Last week I flew to Las Vegas and had to do work the entire way, something for which I needed internet connectivity, so I fired up my laptop, turned on my phone’s hotspot and for no extra cost, was far more productive than I could have been in the past. I happened to be sitting next a cell-phone engineer who had deployed systems for the U.S. military overseas and now worked in the private sector, and we got into a discussion about this. He explained to me that while domestically many carriers share the same rental towers, and have fairly similar network capabilities, with some minor domestic geographic strengths and weaknesses, overseas T-Mobile has always had much better coverage than the two other major U.S. carriers because parent Deutsche Telecom AG is a German company, and being based in Europe, had a long head start and big leg up outside the U.S. He told me the he too chooses T-Mobile, since he travels frequently internationally. But now the carrier’s appeal has gone up even to travelers who don’t leave the country often, thanks to the Wi-Fi on all three domestic legacy airlines, plus some additional benefits discussed below.

But my emergency row neighbor is not the only informed source picking T-Mobile as best for travel. Consumer review website Tom’sGuide.com just did a fairly comprehensive story on the international travel plans offered by the three major cell carriers, noting that T-Mobile is “the long-time leader in this category.” It’s pretty detailed, but the first thing that jumps out is that with T-Mobile you do not have to do any planning, while for both AT&T and Verizon, where you go matters a lot and you need to do advance research before each trip, sometimes paying a supplement.

Frequent traveler site UpgradedPoints.com was blunter in their recent story, “Why T-Mobile is Easily the Best Cell Phone Carrier for Frequent Travelers.” The author also notes that switching to T-Mobile “can be quite lucrative” with an ongoing $800 device offer. But the big advantages are better international data plans and the inflight Wi-Fi, which alone is a tipping point, especially since the plan covers the three biggest domestic carriers (by flights) and four of the top five (by flights and passengers). As UpgradedPoints.com noted, “These inflight Wi-Fi partnerships give T-Mobile a significant edge over other wireless carriers.” Rival travel site The PointsGuy.com also picked T-Mobile over AT&T and Verizon for international travel and noted that, “many travelers swear by T-Mobile as their international phone and data plan.” I know I do.

I’ve never run out of data abroad, but I do make a point of using Wi-Fi whenever possible, especially in the hotel. But if you are a heavy user, T-Mobile lets you add extra data affordably. It has been a long time since I switched to T-Mobile, and I’ve noticed two things about my service over the years. First, it’s gotten consistently cheaper, which few other things in life have, and secondly, they have added more and more services. I now pay almost half of what I once did per month but get the in-flight data and all these streaming services, both fairly recent additions to my plan.

One other big perk for travelers is free membership in AAA, which I used recently when I came back from a long trip and my car wouldn’t start. That alone saved me a towing bill that would have equaled a couple of months of phone bills. If you travel as much as I do, the international data, in-flight Wi-Fi, free streaming and AAA are a combination of services and value that is hard to beat. And while I have not personally taken advantage, T-Mobile now has even more inducements for travelers, with negotiated discounts and extras on Hilton Hotel stays and Dollar and Hertz car rentals. Currently, all T-Mobile Magenta customers also get instant Hilton Honors Silver elite status automatically.

Which phone and which phone platform is best for travel is another debate many people feel strongly about, but whether you use Android or iOS, and carry iPhone, Google, Samsung or something else, if you travel a lot, T-Mobile can probably make your life easier.

This post was originally published on here