San Francisco, March 15 US telecommunications giant T-Mobile has announced that it will provide unlimited smartphone data across all mobile plans for current customers for the next 60 days during the spread of the novel coronavirus.
"T-Mobile is continuing to take steps to help ensure everyone across the country can stay connected during this critical time, and we just announced agreements with multiple spectrum holders to light up additional 600 MHz spectrum for the next 60 days, expanding network capacity for customers across the country," the company said i n a statement on Saturday.
Additionally, the company will take measures to ensure that all current T-Mobile customers on plans that currently have data are provided unlimited connectivity for learning and work.
"We want to ensure that we are available to customers in need of support while also maintaining safety and promoting personal wellness in our store environments. In response to guidance around social distancing, starting 3/16 we will temporarily close our indoor mall stores until further notice," the company added.
Students on the EmpowerED learning programs will be allowed an extra 20GB of data as well, over the next 60 days.
T-Mobile says that its network is currently fully operational and functioning at 100 percent reliability. It has Network Operations Centres that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week monitoring network traffic, including 911 calls.
At least 9,751 new coronavirus cases were reported outside China in the past 24 hours, bringing the global number of infections to 142,539, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Outside China, 61,518 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported as of Saturday morning, among which 2,199 patients died, an increase of 424 deaths compared to the previous day, Xinhua news agency quoted the WHO as saying.
An additional 13 countries and regions have reported confirmed cases, increasing the number of affected countries and regions globally to 135.
The most affected European countries with over 1,000 cases each Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Switzerland have seen nearly 30,000 infections in total as of Saturday morning.
( With inputs from IANS )