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T-Mobile announces throttling changes for ‘Mobile Without Borders’ feature

T-Mobile this week announced some changes to its “Mobile Without Borders” initiative. The changes bring a new 5GB data cap to users who are traveling to Canada and Mexico. Mobile Without Borders was originally introduced in 2015 as part of T-Mobile’s Uncarrier program.

T-Mobile outlined the changes in a post to its support website. Previously, T-Mobile customers had access to unlimited LTE data in Canada or Mexico and were only subject to throttling at 50GB or more of usage. With the changes, users can now access 5GB of data before being subject to throttling – or, how T-Mobile puts it – “data prioritization.”

The changes take effect on November 12th. The important thing to note here is that you get 5GB total between Canada and Mexico – not 5GB per country. Either way, T-Mobile says that less than 1 percent of users who travel to either country use over 5GB in a month.

The Uncarrier explains that it is making this change to “prevent usage beyond the intent of the product.” Once you hit 5GB, your speeds will fall to 128kbps for most plans and 256kbps for T-Mobile One Plus plans:

Mobile Without Borders is an incredible benefit and allows customers to stay connected when traveling in Canada and Mexico. In order to prevent usage beyond the intent of the product, we implemented a limit on the amount of monthly 4G LTE data.   Less than 1% of people with this benefit travel to Mexico and Canada use over 5GB a month.

After 5GB of high-speed data is used in Mexico and Canada (or your high-speed data allotment is reached, whichever comes first), customers will stay connected with unlimited data at Simple Global speeds (up to 128kbps for most plans or 256kbps with T-Mobile ONE Plus.

If you fall into that 1 percent, however, you can add the T-Mobile One Plus International option to your plan for $25 per month. Will this change affect you? Let us know down in the comments.


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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com