Verizon announced Tuesday it has expanded its TravelPass international plan offering to include more than 35 new foreign countries, including locations in Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
Among the newly added counties – which will be covered by TravelPass starting May 5 – are Argentica, Bermuda, Brazil, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Bulgaria, Malta, Serbia, Ukraine, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand and Thailand.
The news came alongside a new survey conducted by KRC Research for Verizon that showed international data usage among TravelPass customers in 2016 increased 272 percent from 2015 levels. TravelPass was launched in November 2015 and offers customers the ability to use their existing voice and data plan outside the United States for a small fee.
According to the survey, international data usage in March 2015 – before the launch of TravelPass – amounted to an average of 18 MB per day in March. By March 2016, that figure had swelled to 33 MB per day without TravelPass. Among those who activated the TravelPass feature in March 2016, however, data usage nearly quadrupled to 67 MB per day.
“When traveling abroad, Americans are all about staying connected to those back home, looking up directions and posting photos onto social media through the use of mobile data,” Verizon vice president of consumer pricing Rob Miller said. “TravelPass has been in the marketplace for less than six months and already we have seen a sharp spike in usage, as it allows people to use their device outside of the U.S. as they would back home.”
Verizon said the top ten countries visited by TravelPass users are Mexico, Canada, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Jamaica, Australia and Israel.
The carrier said data usage among TravelPass users in Mexico has increased a whopping 880 percent from 5 MB per day in March of 2015 to 49 MB per day in March of 2016.
International data usage north of the border in Canada has grown as well, jumping tenfold from 8 MB per day in March 2015 to 80 MB per day among TravelPass customers in March 2016.
