T-Mobile US launches free roaming, 4G data for travelers to Canada and Mexico

The change is due to take effect July 15, and will apply to both prepaid and post-paid subscribers, the carrier said. Businesses will have the feature free for their first 10 lines, but pay $1 per month for each line past that point.

LTE coverage will be available in 30 Canadian cities, such as Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa, Saskatoon, St. Johns, Toronto, and Vancouver. In Mexico the list is 100, with notable locations such as Acapulco, Cancun, Cozumel, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Veracruz.

U.S. carriers normally charge extra for roaming in North America. Without buying special travel packages, people can easily rack up hundreds or even thousands of dollars in service fees.

To better compete with leading carriers AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile has been making aggressive upgrades to its subscription plans in the past few years, for instance introducing Data Stash, which rolls over unused data from month to month. Some of these additions have forced rivals carriers to adapt to maintain an edge.