How to Activate Sprint’s Free Global Roaming Plan For Your Vacation

On my way to Aruba a friend told me she heard I could text for free using my iPhone and Sprint mobile provider. I was surprised to hear it after a crappy experience battling lackluster service throughout my US road trip, so the international perk was surprising.

I searched Sprint’s website for a phone number to connect to their customer service line (which was an arduous journey in itself) and eventually called their sales line to be transferred.

Sprint global roaming Customer Service: 888-226-7212

I confirmed the good news: the rumor was true! I never received any notification about it BUT apparently the free international roaming benefit applied to my account automatically as I was using a qualifying iPhone 6s.

Upon further inquiry I learned any Sprint account using iPhone 5 or later and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 or later can access this benefit (basically any LTE/GSM capable device). I’ve since traveled many countries using the perk — including South America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Here are the Sprint International "Roaming" plan details:

20¢ per minute for phone calls (BUDGET HACK: I now use Sprint’s FREE WIFI CALLING so I avoid global roaming call charges)

Unlimited texting to the USA and many international countries. Here is the list of countries eligible for Sprint Free Global Roaming .

Unlimited data up to 2G speed

Update: still working as of December 2017 and has expanded to more places (see the latest coverage map).

Update #2: The Sprint website now says that service is included with your LTE/GSM capable smartphone automatically. Since I travel long-term, I’ve been too afraid to test if this is true so still set it up before leaving the country.

Update #3 (March 2018): An official Sprint press release indicates you no longer need to activate global roaming. Here are is their press release citing the statement as of February 2018.

here’s how to set up Sprint international roaming in 5 Steps the old way (IPHONE):

Step 1: While you’re still in the USA, dial ##873283# and press "call". Instead of a call going through, it will hang up and a pop up notification will appear. The pop up will say: "Updating service data profile". Press OKAY.

Step 2: A second pop up will appear when complete, press OKAY again.

Step 3: Make sure roaming is turned on and CDMA turned off. To do this, go into settings —> cellular —> cellular data options —> roaming —> voice and data roaming "on" (will turn green when on) —> international CDMA "off" (will turn white when off).