Sprint to offer free international data roaming

Sprint hopes to attract new customers with a plan designed to give global travelers free data roaming in 15 countries.

Sprint公司计划为国际旅行者在15个国家提供免费数据漫游服务，以吸引新用户。

The world is getting a little bit smaller, thanks to a new international plan from Sprint that lets customers roam in 15 countries.

Sprint这一项计划，为客户在15个国家享受免费数据漫游，这让世界变得更小了。

With Sprint’s new plan, announced Friday, travelers can check email and Facebook, download pictures and stay connected on a wireless Internet connection at no additional cost in Latin America, Europe and Japan. Subscribers with devices that are internationally compatible will get free text messaging and unlimited data roaming up to 2G speeds. Phone calls will cost 20 cents per minute in countries included in the plan.

根据Sprint公司周五发布的新计划，游客可以在拉丁美洲、欧洲及日本接收邮件，玩脸书，下载图片，使用无线网，但不需支付额外费用。开通国际业务的用户可以免费接收文本信息，并可享受无限制的数据漫游，网速为2G。在计划范围内的国家中，话费为每分钟20美分。

Sprint executives say these international perks are features that consumers want. "The continuous feedback from our customers indicates how important it is to travel without the fear of high roaming charges," Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said in a statement.

Sprint的主管们表示这些国际性的福利一直是消费者们所期待的。Sprint公司首席执行官马塞洛·克劳雷表示：“根据用户的反馈，可见不必担心高昂漫游费用有多重要。”

The new offer is similar to a plan T-Mobile introduced in October 2013 as part of its "Uncarrier" marketing strategy. Both companies hope these moves will make them more appealing than AT&T and Verizon, the two largest US carriers. That goal is especially important for Sprint, which loses subscribers each quarter. Rival T-Mobile, on the other hand, has added customers over the past few quarters and is poised to overtake Sprint as the third-largest wireless operator in the US.

此项计划类似于无线运营商T-Mobile2013年10月采取的“Uncarrier”营销战略。两家公司都希望借此措施让自己公司的吸引力赶超美国两大通讯营运商，即美国电话电报公司（AT&T）以及威瑞森通讯公司（Verizon）。此项目标对Sprint公司来说更为重要，该公司用户数目每个季度都有所减少。而过去几个季度中，对手T-Mobile公司的用户逐渐增多，有望取代Sprint成为美国第三大无线营运商。

It’s unclear how customers will react to Sprint’s new international plan. In the US, customers are used to speedy mobile downloads on 4G networks, but under the free international plans, speeds will be limited to the speed of a 2G network. For consumers it could feel the same as being downgraded from a broadband connection to dial-up Internet access.

顾客如何回应Sprint公司的新计划，目前还不明了。在美国，人们以及习惯了4G下载速度，但是此项免费国际漫游数据服务中，下载速度仅为2G。客户可能感觉是从宽带连接退步至网拨号上网。

Both plans will let customers pay extra for faster connections on 3G networks. Sprint customers can pay $15 for 100MB of data downloads on a one-day pass, $25 for 200MB on a seven-day pass and $50 for 500MB on a 14-day pass. The company doesn’t charge for going over the data cap. Instead network speeds revert to 2G speeds when the data allotment is maxed out.

但是两项计划都规定，客户若需要网速更快的3G服务，则需支付额外费用。Sprint用户可选择的套餐如下：100MB流量的一日套餐，费用为15美元；200MB流量的七日套餐，费用为25美元；500MB流量的14日套餐，费用为50美元。超出数据上限之后，不再收取费用，而会将网速调至2G。

The biggest difference between the two offerings is that Sprint’s service is limited to 15 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Russia, South Korea, Spain and the UK. T-Mobile’s roaming plan offers free data service in more than 120 countries. Sprint will also allow customers to make free calls using Wi-Fi hotspots while traveling overseas.

两家公司所提供服务的最大不同在于Sprint公司的服务仅限于15个国家，即阿根廷、巴西、智利、哥斯达黎加、萨尔瓦多、德国、危地马拉、日本、墨西哥、尼加拉瓜、巴拿马、俄罗斯、韩国、西班牙以及英国。而 T-Mobile让客户在120多个国家中都能免费享受数据漫游服务。此外，Sprint公司表示，客户到国外旅游时，可以在有Wi-Fi覆盖的区域免费打电话。

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来源:纽约时报英文版爱语吧作者:Monica