Hefty roaming charges are a pain for many mobile users on Canadian plans who happen to use their devices outside the country.
Last December, Ottawa promised Canadian cellphone users that it will limit the domestic roaming charges paid by subscribers at startup carriers like Wind Mobile, Mobility, Videotron and Eastlink.
Today, Wind announced a new contract add-on that will give its customers unlimited data, talk and text across the United States for a monthly fee of $15.
“This add-on gives customers the freedom to stay connected to their world while travelling,” said Mirko Rugarli, chief marketing officer of Wind, in a statement. “Customers will be able to use their smart phones however they like, without limits: check maps if they get lost; update Facebook and Twitter; send photos of their trips; check local weather – and all for only $15 a month. No more headaches, no more surprises.”
Wind has more than 650,000 customers in Canada. It is part of VimpelCom Ltd., a global telecom services provider based in Amsterdam.
The company said both new and old customers of Wind will be able to subscribe to the Unlimited U.S. Roaming add-on starting Monday, February 3.
Incumbent wireless provider Rogers Communication took a different route in tackling U.S. roaming charges. In September , Rogers signed a deal with U.S. carrier AT&T which would allow LTE roaming for Rogers wireless customers travelling to the U.S.
Rogers’ US roaming package offers 50 MB of data starts at $7.99/day. Rogers also offers a variety of U.S. Travel Packs, including a $1.45/minute voice plan, a 75 cents/message text plan, one-month $40 plan that couples 200MB of data with 50 minutes and unlimited text and a one-month $80 plan that couples 500MB of data with 100 minutes and unlimited text.