Wireless provider T-Mobile and pop superstar Shakira recently teamed up to announce the end of exorbitant roaming charges for United States customers traveling to Costa Rica and other countries. On the last day of October 2013, just in time for the start of the busy tourist season in Costa Rica, T-Mobile customers who subscribe to the Simple Choice U.S. data plan will be able to use their unlimited data plans in our country at no cost.

The T-Mobile and Shakira connection was unveiled at a crowded concert in New York’s Bryant Park. In addition to collaborating with Shakira to get the word out about this great benefit, T-Mobile will support upcoming recordings by the Grammy Award-winning singer. This is part of T-Mobile’s aggressive “Un-carrier” marketing campaign, which is looking to draw U.S. post-paid subscribers away from telco giants such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, etc.

The basics of the T-Mobile “Un-carrier” international wireless data plan are simple: Subscribe to the Simple Choice plan, travel abroad to participating countries and enjoy unlimited wireless Internet during your visit at no extra cost beyond what you already pay in the U.S. Costa Rica is just one of the many T-Mobile partner countries in this regard: Shakira’s native Colombia is on the list, as well as neighboring Nicaragua and Panama.

T-Mobile also announced extra goodies such as super-reduced mobile calls and text messages from the U.S. to Costa Rica and many other countries. Calls to old-school landline phones down here are actually free from a T-Mobile smartphone in the U.S.

The Wireless Reality for T-Mobile Users in Costa Rica

According to a recent blog post by tech journalist Pablo Fonseca of La Nacion, T-Mobile customers from the U.S. should not expect LTE speeds while visiting Costa Rica. In fact, their speed will be capped at 128 kbps, and it will be subject to factors such as topography and network load. To take advantage of this new international plan, T-Mobile users must connect to the ICE Kolbi or Movistar networks while they are in Costa Rica.

Movistar has confirmed that they will accommodate T-Mobile users on their 3G network, which means that visitors to Playas del Coco or other beaches in Guanacaste will be able to take advantage of this service. ICE has not commented on this issue, which hopefully does not meant that T-Mobile users will end up on the EDGE network.