Canada's Wind Mobile Takes a Page From T-Mobile's Playbook, Offering Low-Cost U.S. Roaming

Like T-Mobile US, Canada’s Wind mobile finds itself in an uphill battle fighting larger rivals in the ultra-competitive market for fickle wireless customers.

Wind, which is owned by Amsterdam-based carrier VimpelCom, is trying one of the strategies that T-Mobile has tried, cutting the costs of international roaming. It’s a particular pain point for Canadian users, who can be hit with large roaming fees anytime they head south of their border.

Starting Monday, Wind is offering its 650,000 customers a $15-per-month add-on that gives them unlimited talk, text and data when traveling to the U.S. The company is positioning its offer much as T-Mobile did when it introduced low-cost international roaming last year.

“While wireless prices in the Canadian marketplace remain very high, we at Wind Mobile continue to challenge expectations and offer our customers real value,” Wind Mobile CEO Pietro Cordova said in a statement.

T-Mobile introduced its selection of free and low-cost international roaming options last October as the third wave of its “un-carrier” strategy. Under those plans, which don’t carry an extra fee, T-Mobile offers unlimited 2G data and texting in 100 countries, with voice calls in those same places costing 20 cents per minute.

Wind Mobile, by contrast, is offering high-speed data as part of its U.S. roaming option, with data traveling over HSPA+ networks.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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