Charter Communications has begun notifying its Spectrum Mobile customers that effective April 24, the wireless service will no longer support data roaming on airplanes, cruise ships and in certain foreign countries with high data rates.
“You can still use your service to make calls and texts by connecting to public WiFi for internet access,” Charter said in the email, which also includes a link with the list of the banned foreign lands.
Blocked terrain includes Ascension Island, British Indian Ocean Territories, Comoros, Cook Islands, Diego Garcia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Maldives, Federated States of Micronesia, New Caledonia, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, South Sudan, St. Pierre/Miquelon, Turkmenistan and Yemen.
Spectrum Mobile doesn't seem to offer a solution beyond WiFi in these affected areas. Other wireless carriers do, but the fix isn't cheap. Verizon, for example, will charge users $20 a line per day for unlimited data and voice on planes, and $30 per day per line for 500 MB of usage on cruise ships.
"This change will protect customers from unexpected charges while traveling internationally to locations with exorbitant data rates," a Charter rep told Next TV via email.
Spectrum Mobile said it still offers international long distance and international roaming service to more than 200 countries.
