T-Mobile: Most International Travelers Perfectly Happy With 2G → most would not use it at all

for cast majority of users its not between tolerating low speed or paying for faster. its about using the free slow data versus nothing(or free wifi hot spots)

Depends on how you travel, with business... I must have data and can not rely on hotspots. That being said if I am doing more then email I will purchase the faster speed packs, if not 2g is fine for me. and most times the "2g" speeds are actually faster then the 2g speeds in the US.

Exactly. When I'll be spending 2 weeks on the road in Alberta/British Columbia, I would be perfectly fine with free 2G voice/data/sms vs. the ~$1.00/minute and $ $0.015/KB in Canada ($15.36/MB) and $0.50/sms

~ 10 years ago, I had the old AT&T Wireless 'North America package', which included calling/long distance from my bucket of minutes + sms for $9.99/month as an add on.

free is free. I'll take it.

Beggars can't be choosers

I've used the free T-Mobile roaming in Shanghai, China and Narita, Japan. For my use (email, texting, text apps like WeChat and WhatsApp) the speed is more than sufficient. And knowing it isn't costing me a fortune makes it so much more pleasant and not having to worry whether I turned off my data roaming (and getting a huge bill if I didn't!). I was even able to use my VPN connections on the phone in China so I could use things like Foursquare and Facebook.

I agree. Free roaming, even at 2G will make a HUGE difference for me when travelling from WA into BC. Still plenty fast for web, gps, email etc. Anything that requires 3G can wait until at a hotspot or hotel.