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Add the CN Tower, Vieux-Québec’s cobblestoned streets, and Vancouver’s mountain-backed skyline to the list of subjects that Mint Mobile customers can Instagram without needing a Wi-Fi signal. The T-Mobile-owned prepaid service now offers free high-speed roaming in Canada.
The news addresses one shortfall with Mint’s plans, which range from $15 to $35 a month depending on data allocations but require paying for at least three months of service at a time: no roaming options outside the US.
The fine print in an advance copy of Mint’s announcement notes a 3GB cap on high-speed roaming data in Canada and a restriction on “extended international use.” New sign-ups get that automatically, while existing customers will have free roaming added to their plans “on the day their monthly data resets.”
T-Mobile pledged to add this benefit when it completed its $1.35 billion acquisition of Mint Mobile’s parent firm Ka’ena Corporation in May—a transaction that reportedly paid actor Ryan Reynolds, part owner and lead pitchman of Mint, $300 million.
Mint’s cheap rates, which get cheaper as you pay for more months in advance and top out with a plan offering unlimited-on-phone data that runs $15 a month if you prepay for a year of service, helped it climb past other wireless services to lead our 2022 Readers’ Choice awards. It then ranked third in 2023 and 2024 behind two other resellers, Consumer Cellular (the top pick in 2024) and Google Fi (first in 2023).
Many other cheap phone plans already offer free roaming not just in Canada but in Mexico—see, for example, AT&T’s Cricket Wireless and Verizon’s Visible—or offer it for a small monthly surcharge.
The big three nationwide carriers also provide free high-speed data in the two neighbors of the US, but AT&T and Verizon have yet to follow T-Mobile’s practice of offering free low-speed roaming in most other countries.