National carriers across the US have been adding features that make it easier to use their service in Mexico and Canada as a growing trend, and today AT&T has announced enhancements to its pre-paid GoPhone plans to include 4GB of high speed data use in Canada and Mexico as well as the United States. The new AT&T GoPhone feature goes into effect on August 21st and is supported on the carrier’s $60 pre-paid plan without making any changes.

In addition to 4GB of data for use across North America, the GoPhone plans include unlimited talk and text in the US, Canada, and Mexico as well. AT&T’s $60 GoPhone plan is reduced to $55/month for customers using the carrier’s Auto Refill automatic payment feature. Important to note, though, is that AT&T’s GoPhone plans specifically mean data speeds up to 3G, not faster 4G LTE speeds, when mentioning high speed data.

For post-paid subscribers, AT&T supports international calling and texting to Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands on its 15GB and 20GB Mobile Share Value plans that it simplified over the weekend. More similarly, T-Mobile enhanced its own plans last month to support 4G LTE data use in addition to text and calls in Canada and Mexico without international roaming fees.

Sprint today announced that it’s expanding its free data roaming offer to a number of new countries, bringing its new total up to 22 locations around the globe.

New countries added today include: Colombia, Denmark, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Paraguay and Sweden.

Those add to the full list of 22 supported countries where Sprint customers can take advantage of the International Value Roaming feature, which allows customers to use data for free when traveling to supported countries abroad.

The full list includes: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Sweden, South Korea, Spain and United Kingdom.

Google Malaysia has today announced on Google+ that Chromecast, the Mountain View company’s famed $30 HDMI streaming stick, is now making its way to the Southeast Asian country.

Chromecast comes to Malaysia!

From today, Chromecast will be available for MYR170…

From today you will be able to pick up a Chromecast from select Maxis stores, and it will be available from Maxis stores nationally from May 5th. (http://goo.gl/GdtkPF)

The device is already available today in “select” Maxis stores, and will be coming to all stores nationally as of May 5th. You can also find the device to purchase from the Maxis website starting today.

Following the first availability of the Nexus Player in the UK last month, the Nexus Player is now available in 9 new international countries. Among them are Australia, as well as eight different European countries:

• Australia
• Austria
• Denmark
• Finland
• Italy
• Norway
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland

The device launched in October of 2014 to little fanfare, and we reviewed it not long after saying that it’s a bit unfinished. Right now, owners of the Nexus Player are the only lucky souls to have their hands on Android 5.1.1.

Motorola introduced the Moto Maker alongside the Moto X, and almost a year later (while rumors of the Moto X+1 continue to swirl vigorously), German citizens can now use the famed custom phone design web interface (via Android Central). To get started, head over to the Motorola Germany website and design your new (old?) smartphone to your heart’s content. You’ll have to purchase the phone from the German retailer Phone House, and once you’ve done that, you’re free to put as much natural material on your phone’s back as you want. Additionally, you can choose black or white for the front panel and pick between 12 accent colors. And, a la Apple’s custom engraved backs, you can slap a short message on the back of the device if you wish.

Following a number of new initiatives launched last week including its new Simple Starter plan and new perks for tablet users, T-Mobile issued a press release today calling for an end to overages and urging consumers to sign a petition for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to do the same.

Traditional wireless plans start with a low monthly fee for a fixed amount of domestic minutes, texts or data.  Once consumers go over those limits – even by a little – they’re hit with dramatically higher rates and extreme penalties.  These plans seem purpose-built to drive customers over that invisible line into massive overage charges.

In the press release, the carrier noted it will end all domestic overages in starting in May for the June billing cycle (something we thought it was doing since the beginning of Uncarrier?). The wording also sounds a lot like it could continue to charge overages for international use.  T-Mobile’s new Simple Starter plan does not include the free international perks it unveiled for other plans last year, so it looks like the carrier is giving itself some room to continue charging overages for international use in some cases.

T-Mobile has been doing a lot of talking about ending overages, and its approach might be slightly more transparent than the other guys, but at the end of the day an overage is an overage and even T-Mobile charges some customers for more data. It’s new Simple Starter plan for example which caps at 500MB for LTE data, will force users to purchase $5/day or $10/week “additional data sessions.”

The company’s full press release is below.

T-Mobile is about to kick off three days of announcements for new initiatives starting with a new $40 Simple Starter plan that it says is a first for a U.S. carrier. Starting on April 12, T-Mobile claims the new $40 plan will make it the first to offer “unlimited talk and text, and up to 500MB of 4G LTE data and tethering with no data overages” at that price point. In this case, since the LTE data isn’t unlimited, no overages isn’t entirely accurate. It  really means you’ll have to purchase additional data once you hit that 500MB cap for the month. In its press release, T-Mobile compared the new plan to AT&T’s entry-level plan:

T-Mobile contrasted its new flat-rate value plan against AT&T’s entry-level plan, whose costs immediately jump by $20 increments – in what amounts to a massive 44% price hike on those customers least able to absorb overages and bill shock. With Simple Starter, you’ll get a ton more data compared to AT&T’s 300MB, and you’ll never pay data overages again – ever. And with data capped at 500MB, you’ll never pay more until you choose to pay more – by purchasing additional data sessions whenever you like.

T-Mobile’s argument is that its method of charging for more data is more transparent than the other guys, but at the end of the day an overage is an overage and paying for more data will cost you $5/day or $10/week for T-Mobile’s “additional data sessions.” In reality, AT&T’s $45 300MB plan is comparable considering it only charges users $5 more for the next tier up, $50 for 1GB a month.

The new Simple Starter plan won’t, however, have access to the unlimited international data and texting perks that come with T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plans. They start at $50, $10 more than the new Simple Starter plan. There’s more about today’s announcement on T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s blog and the full press release below.