Virtual mobile carrier Ultra Mobile has been giving its customers unlimited international texting for years, but this week it added unlimited international voice calling to landlines in 40 counties to the mix, making its service more compelling to its core market of expatriates and people with relatives overseas. Ultra also began offering LTE speeds to 4G-capable phones.
Subscribers of Ultra Mobile’s $29-a-month or higher plans will automatically be upgraded to the new international feature. The 40 countries include much of Europe, China and other countries in Asia as well as several Latin American countries, though keep in mind there are some caveats.
Source: Ultra Mobile
In most cases the unlimited plans apply only to calls made to landline phones, not mobile phones, because of the additional interconnection fees charged by mobile carriers in most countries. Also in Chile and Peru some rural numbers are excluded from the plan. For 45 other countries, Ultra includes a bucket of 1000 free minutes each month, and it charges cheap per-minute rates to calls made to the remaining regions of the world and mobile phones.
Ultra has also expanded its mobile virtual network operator agreement with T-Mobile to include access to its LTE network. Ultra offers data buckets ranging from 100 MB to 1 GB a month, but customers bring their own smartphones as Ultra only sells SIM cards.
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