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Sprint "Open World" plan (replaces International Value Roaming)


lilotimz

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I have been in Nevis (via St Kitts) and it worked like a charm on my N5x. Primarily connected to Flow/Cable and Wireless. Texts are sometimes a little delayed, but otherwise things are good here.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Landed in St. Maarten today. I got the usual text from Sprint and Open World is working as it should right off the bat. Interesting thing is that the Sprint international map shows there only being coverage on the French side of the island, Saint Martin provided by Digicel. It shows that there shouldn't be any coverage at all on the Dutch side of the island, Sint Maarten, yet there is from TelCell. A pleasant surprise to be sure.

 

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How is your bill? My wife got a $1000 roaming bill after using Sprint Global Roaming/International Value Roaming on the Dutch side because Sprint claimed that only the "Saint Martin" side was covered. It turns out that if you go to https://support.sprint.com/support/international/roaming/Philipsburg%2C%20Sint%20Maarten the Dutch side is shown as purple "Extended Coverage", not eligible for Global Roaming, and the only data option is "Regular Casual" at $19.46/MB.

 

I eventually got the roaming fees waived, since "Netherlands Antilles" is listed as an included country in Sprint Global Roaming (despite not existing any more) and Sint Maarten was part of the Netherlands Antilles, but is was a multi-month ordeal to get it resolved.

Edited by ahecht
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How is your bill? My wife got a $1000 roaming bill after using Sprint Global Roaming/International Value Roaming on the Dutch side because Sprint claimed that only the "Saint Martin" side was covered. It turns out that if you go to https://support.sprint.com/support/international/roaming/Philipsburg%2C%20Sint%20Maarten the Dutch side is shown as purple "Extended Coverage", not eligible for Global Roaming, and the only data option is "Regular Casual" at $19.46/MB.

 

I eventually got the roaming fees waived, since "Netherlands Antilles" is listed as an included country in Sprint Global Roaming (despite not existing any more) and Sint Maarten was part of the Netherlands Antilles, but is was a multi-month ordeal to get it resolved.

I just checked my account and there are no unexpected charges. Hopefully it stays that way. Indeed, i see that they have changed the map since the earlier picture that I took right before i left. Perhaps their international department noticed my roaming there and that moved them to fix their map.

 

Regardless, I'm not worried about any charges showing up. According to their map that I posted previously from before I departed, at worst I should've had no coverage on the Dutch side.

 

Looking at the most recent map, the situation that Sprint has there is pretty silly. They need to just get a Global Roaming/Open World agreement worked out with TelCell and/or Chippie and cover the entire island.

 

c0672e78e27ac028dad52102d0e062b6.jpg

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just returned from a trip to Iceland and can't believe how solid the free data connection was with Sprint. As soon as I landed in Keflavik, I received the text messages indicating that I was on Sprint Global Roaming with free data/texts. I was connected to 3G the entire time, even in remote locales (on Siminn), averaging about 2.50 Mbps download speeds. I was able to use Google Maps and pull up websites everywhere I went. It really made it easy/stress-free to navigate the country. It was a great perk to have available.

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I just returned from a trip to Iceland and can't believe how solid the free data connection was with Sprint. As soon as I landed in Keflavik, I received the text messages indicating that I was on Sprint Global Roaming with free data/texts. I was connected to 3G the entire time, even in remote locales (on Siminn), averaging about 2.50 Mbps download speeds. I was able to use Google Maps and pull up websites everywhere I went. It really made it easy/stress-free to navigate the country. It was a great perk to have available.

You got 2.5mbps on global roaming???!!! Are you sure you weren't on Open World?

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You got 2.5mbps on global roaming???!!! Are you sure you weren't on Open World?

 

That was my assumption too, but I received the message, "You are now roaming internationally. Welcome to Sprint Global Roaming...". I logged into my Sprint account and it says "International Data Roaming Additional charge : $0.00", and I also contacted them for reassurance and was told there won't be any data charges. It just seemed too good to be true :D

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I wonder as other carriers kill off their 2G networks, Sprint is getting access to those carriers 3G Network by default, hence the increase in speed. Another option is not all carriers bother to throttle roaming customers. Sprint really has very little control over the experience on other carrier's networks.

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I wonder as other carriers kill off their 2G networks, Sprint is getting access to those carriers 3G Network by default, hence the increase in speed. Another option is not all carriers bother to throttle roaming customers. Sprint really has very little control over the experience on other carrier's networks.

Sprint is the one doing the throttling, not the roaming carrier. All your data when roaming abroad is routed through a Sprint server in Kansas. That's how they track data usage as well as throttle it. It also means awful pings/latency when you're far from Kansas since everything has to go there first.

 

Also, the unlimited "2G" just means 2G speeds. It's often over an HSPA network, not GSM.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

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Sprint is the one doing the throttling, not the roaming carrier. All your data when roaming abroad is routed through a Sprint server in Kansas. That's how they track data usage as well as throttle it. It also means awful pings/latency when you're far from Kansas since everything has to go there first.

 

Also, the unlimited "2G" just means 2G speeds. It's often over an HSPA network, not GSM.

 

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Really??
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Really??

Yup. Here's a screenshot of Global Roaming when I was in South Africa. It was throttled to the speed they said it would be, so I just got a local SIM.

b580d51d516b7471c8bfb019dd09ddb5.jpg

 

The traffic is routed to Sprint first before going out to the internet. So you have a US IP address as well. But again, from far places, such as South Africa, it makes the latency unbearable. And kills your battery since the mobile radio is basically always active since the speed is throttled (ie it can't quickly finish up and go to sleep).

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

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Sprint Global Roaming is no longer showing up as an option to add when I try to modify my account online, only Open World shows up. I was still able to get it added via chat (I had switched to Open World when traveling to Canada, but I was trying to switch to Global Roaming before my Europe trip).

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Sprint Global Roaming is no longer showing up as an option to add when I try to modify my account online, only Open World shows up. I was still able to get it added via chat (I had switched to Open World when traveling to Canada, but I was trying to switch to Global Roaming before my Europe trip).

 

My understanding is that you either have Global Roaming (this is the default option), or Open World. So if you deactivate Open World, your account automatically reverts to Global Roaming. Someone may want to fact-check me on this but that is my understanding after my last conversation with Sprint in regards to this.

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My understanding is that you either have Global Roaming (this is the default option), or Open World. So if you deactivate Open World, your account automatically reverts to Global Roaming. Someone may want to fact-check me on this but that is my understanding after my last conversation with Sprint in regards to this.

As of yesterday, when I went to change a line to have Open World instead of Global Roaming, I was unable to remove Global Roaming first like I used to have to do. There was no remove link next to it. However, I was able to add Open World to the line without removing it. A customer service rep confirmed Open World was successfully added.

 

So perhaps Sprint has now made Global Roaming the new default and we won't have to go through the hoops to swap between them anymore.

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

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Hey guys I'm going to Mexico next week and was wonder if there is a link to see if there coverage in the state I'm going. I believe sprints uses Movistar but I don't see a lot of coverage from Movistar on that state

 

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https://support.sprint.com/support/international/roaming?INTNAV=ATG:HE:SPT:INTL_TRAV

 

Just type in where you're going and it should show you a map of that area.

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Yup. Here's a screenshot of Global Roaming when I was in South Africa. It was throttled to the speed they said it would be, so I just got a local SIM.

 

 

The traffic is routed to Sprint first before going out to the internet. So you have a US IP address as well. But again, from far places, such as South Africa, it makes the latency unbearable. And kills your battery since the mobile radio is basically always active since the speed is throttled (ie it can't quickly finish up and go to sleep).

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P

 

My phone displayed Siminn as the operator but the speedtests showed "Sprint WCDMA". I found the ping times to be fine where I traveled and my battery life to be better than when I'm on LTE in the US, but I also had really solid coverage everywhere I went. Guess it must vary quite a bit depending on the roaming partner.

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  • 2 months later...

Sprint South for the winter as Sprint is offering Open World customers unlimited 'high speed' data in Mexico and the Caribbean until March 31, 2017.

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-south-this-winter-and-enjoy-the-gift-of-unlimited-high-speed-data-while-warming-up-in-mexico-and-the-caribbean.htm

 

https://support.sprint.com/support/article/FAQs-about-Sprint-South/9df325f0-911b-494c-a183-4fb81c96d864?ECID=vanity:SprintSouth

 

Destinations: Mexico, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Marie-Galante, Martinique, Montserrat, St Barthelemy, St Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos

 

This comes at a convenient time for me as I'll be in the Bahamas in a little over a week! [emoji41]

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

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Sprint South for the winter as Sprint is offering Open World customers unlimited 'high speed' data in Mexico and the Caribbean until March 31, 2017.

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-south-this-winter-and-enjoy-the-gift-of-unlimited-high-speed-data-while-warming-up-in-mexico-and-the-caribbean.htm

 

https://support.sprint.com/support/article/FAQs-about-Sprint-South/9df325f0-911b-494c-a183-4fb81c96d864?ECID=vanity:SprintSouth

 

Destinations: Mexico, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Marie-Galante, Martinique, Montserrat, St Barthelemy, St Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos

 

This comes at a convenient time for me as I'll be in the Bahamas in a little over a week! [emoji41]

 

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Awesome promotion from Sprint to their current customers. I just wish they would push this out to their customers via emails, text, or billing statements so it would get more publicity.

 

It would be awesome if Sprint also matched T-Mobile ans allowed customers to use their regular data buckets, minutes and texts in Mexico and Canada as if they were home all year round.

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I wonder when Sprint is going to add more countries to the Global Roaming list. It has been a long time since they have added any additional countries to the list.

Did they ever add china? If not that is a big one they need to add.

 

 

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Sprint South for the winter as Sprint is offering Open World customers unlimited 'high speed' data in Mexico and the Caribbean until March 31, 2017.

 

http://newsroom.sprint.com/news-releases/sprint-south-this-winter-and-enjoy-the-gift-of-unlimited-high-speed-data-while-warming-up-in-mexico-and-the-caribbean.htm

 

https://support.sprint.com/support/article/FAQs-about-Sprint-South/9df325f0-911b-494c-a183-4fb81c96d864?ECID=vanity:SprintSouth

 

Destinations: Mexico, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Marie-Galante, Martinique, Montserrat, St Barthelemy, St Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos

 

This comes at a convenient time for me as I'll be in the Bahamas in a little over a week! [emoji41]

 

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

Does this apply in Canada by any chance?

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Did they ever add china? If not that is a big one they need to add.

 

 

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Nope.  They are still missing China, Vietnam, portions of Eastern Europe, some parts of the Middle East like Saudi Arabia/Oman and not to mention most of Africa.

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Did they ever add china? If not that is a big one they need to add.

 

 

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Yep, China is a pretty glaring omission. Hopefully they rectify that soon. It would seem like inking a deal with one or more carriers in China would be easier because of their participation in the Band 41 ecosystem like Sprint.

Does this apply in Canada by any chance?

Doesn't appear so.

 

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Yep, China is a pretty glaring omission. Hopefully they rectify that soon. It would seem like inking a deal with one or more carriers in China would be easier because of their participation in the Band 41 ecosystem like Sprint.

Doesn't appear so.

 

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High speed data is HSPA, right? Or does Sprint have international LTE roaming now?

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High speed data is HSPA, right? Or does Sprint have international LTE roaming now?

I'd have to imagine that international LTE roaming is a no at this time. HSPA is much more likely in my opinion.

 

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