T-Mobile Brings Back Unlimited Data For All (cnet.com) 196
An anonymous reader shares a CNET report: T-Mobile is eliminating data plans for new customers -- and for current ones who opt in. The company is getting rid of all its wireless data plans and instead offering new customers one unlimited plan, T-Mobile said Thursday. Under the new plan, everyone will get unlimited talk, text and high-speed 4G LTE data. The company has also changed prices for unlimited. The first line will be $70 a month, the second line will cost $50 a month and additional lines will be $20 a month for up to eight lines with auto-pay turned on. The price is $5 more a month without auto-pay. For a family of four, the new plans will cost $40 a month per person. While this plan will benefit those looking for unlimited, it will cost more for people who have been subscribed to the lowest data plans. The current plan starts at $50 for 2GB of data per month. This means individual customers on its new plans will pay $20 more a month. But the new price is lower than the cost of unlimited right now. Today, T-Mobile customers who want unlimited pay $95 a month for an individual line.
Compare T-Mobile plans including the new ones at Wirefly to see the difference.
Compare T-Mobile plans including the new ones at Wirefly to see the difference.
What about so-called "data hogs"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Last time we had unlimited data plans, there were people who would tether hundreds of gigabytes a month (maybe using their cellular connection as a primary internet connection with wifi tethering). I hope "unlimited" this time does not have an asterisk.
Re:What about so-called "data hogs"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, given the trouble Comcast seems to cause (yes, the Blast tier is fast; but my T-Mobile seems to be more-reliable, with fewer stalls and faster downloads in general), I could see switching to T-Mobile as my primary ISP. I'm paying $80/month for Comcast, yet switching to 4GLTE on my phone causes Cyanogenmod updates and Spotify music downloads to come down 3-5 times faster than my 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac access point (an Asus RT-AC66U AT1750) supplies my OnePlus One.
$60 + $80 or just one straight $70/month bill? Even if T-Mobile charges an extra $30/month to allow tethering or whatever, it's still cheaper.
Until Comcast rolls out 2G Internet for $80/month anyway.
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Even if T-Mobile charges an extra $30/month to allow tethering or whatever, it's still cheaper.
Tethering is enabled and unlimited at 128k. Welcome back to ISDN!
If you want faster tethering, you can buy 5gb for $15 as many times as you want.
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Tethering is enabled and unlimited at 128k. Welcome back to ISDN! /quote.
How does T-Mobile know I'm tethering unless it's their phone with special hooks?
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How does T-Mobile know I'm tethering unless it's their phone with special hooks?
Some phones flat tell the cellular provider.
Sometimes, the provider knows what the normal TTL for a device is (64 for an iPhone, for example), and if they see something less than that, they know it is from a tethered device.
See also: TCP/IP stack fingerprinting.
Could you find a way around it? I bet so, with a fully rooted phone and a lot of work. Perhaps using a proxy running on the phone hardware, for example.
Still, it will be a lot of work, and it only takes getting caught once for you to invalidate the T
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Tethering on my t-mobile branded phone doesn't cost anything extra and isn't throttled at all. In fact, I don't even see a "tethering" option in the choices for data plans. Where are you getting this?
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Unlimited Smartphone Mobile Hotspot data (tethering) at 2G speeds.
Smartphone Mobile Hotspot: Add 5GB of high-speed tethering when you need it for $15.
Source:
https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/... [t-mobile.com]
TFA is about this new plan T-Mobile is doing, so that's what we're discussing, not the plan you're on right now.
Re:What about so-called "data hogs"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Too late, it already states in the fine print that once you pass 26gb you get "de-prioritized" AKA throttled.
Granted, 26gb is pretty generous unless you're in the habit of streaming netflix on the go for 5 hours at a time (which T-Mobile already stated doesn't count against your data usage), but yeah, it means there's still something to reign in the data hogs. No longer will we see unlimited 3G usage through tethered Kindles.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Re: What about so-called "data hogs"? (Score:2)
With their unlimited plans, they still usually limit tethering to 14GB per month per line - with tethering video data excluded.
If queueing could be fair this would be no issue. (Score:3)
Last time we had unlimited data plans, there were people who would tether hundreds of gigabytes a month ...
If, when the network became congested, the available bandwidth were fairly divided among the competing users, such usage would not be an issue. Everyone asking for less than their share would get all their data through at line rate, everyone asking for more would evenly divide the remainder. At times when the pipes were too clogged to handle it all, the "data hogs" would get the same data rate as eve
Meh (Score:5, Interesting)
Honestly these unlimited plans seem like massive overkill; especially for T-Mobile because they already give you the data for YouTube and several music streaming services for free. What are people doing on their phones and tablets that's using several GB per month?
Re:Meh (Score:4, Informative)
LOL you never use more than 2GB of data.
I guess it would be free if you didn't use any at all, but that's hardly a typical use case.
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Why is that so strange? If you have wifi at home and work and drive in between, and your social life involves actually spending time with friends instead of everyone sitting around using their phones, 2GB goes a long way.
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I don't have a social life spending time with friends, but the rest fits me exactly. Wifi at work and home and I think I've gone over my 3GB limit once.
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No. The only conclusion you can draw is you use more internet then I do when you're not near wifi. The only time I'm not near wifi during my normal day is the 1/2 hour-25 mile trip to or from work, or out eating lunch.
Re:Meh (Score:4, Funny)
Spoken like a tech dude.
Several women in my life manage to blow through more than 6 gigs per month. And that's while trying to keep a limit on their data use.
They love to watch those videos of cats, babies and random celebrities I've never heard of. Immediately. So in the car, at the restaurant, everywhere. And checking to see if they are on wi-fi is insulting and humiliating. So don't bring it up. And if they are trying to watch Netflix in full 1080p on a smartphone, don't bring that up either. 'Cause if you do, you are a jerk. I have empirical evidence on this, so just go with my recommendation here.
I don't understand it. But I do recognize that it exists. I know at least two women who would easily use up 10-15 gigs per month, and they wouldn't have the slightest idea what they used the data for. They would complain that "this phone sucks, I need a new phone" long before they'd look at the possibility that the way they are using it might have something to do with it. And I won't be mentioning it to them again. I'll just be moving us to T-mobile's all you can eat 4G plan.
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Similarly, I do the AT&T prepaid thing and pay little over $40/mo.
I have never had an issue getting whatever Internet access I need. My unused data also rolls over to the next month. I currently have 5.6GB of unused data (2 months of rolled over data), of which I have used less than 1GB.
Re:Meh (Score:4, Informative)
I liberally use however much data/text/minutes I want on Ting (same networks as T-Mobile) and my bill is never more than $30. Honestly these unlimited plans seem like massive overkill; especially for T-Mobile because they already give you the data for YouTube and several music streaming services for free. What are people doing on their phones and tablets that's using several GB per month?
I drive a truck for a living so on my 10 hour breaks, I usually watch a movie or a show or two. It all adds up quickly.
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We are misers, and are careful with it. $34/mo typically for 2 phones on Ting. I can't fathom wasting $120/mo for 2 lines. If I am in a quiet enough location to want to do much with my phone I can usually find WiFi. But I have never been a phone zombie. Watching TV on a small screen while walking down a noisy street is not my idea of a good time.
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Same for Google Fi. I never use more than 3GB except when Verizon Fios had a week-long outage.
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What are people doing on their phones and tablets that's using several GB per month?
Looking at web pages with animated advertisements?
Being pwned into a botnet?
"Unlimited" data means that doesn't cost extra. B-b
Is it real unlimited? (Score:3)
I'm currently on T-Mobile's pay as you go. $30 a month for 100 minutes talk, unlimited text, 5GB unthrotled data + unlimited throtled data. The only thing that _might_ tempt me to switch for more than double the price is if the data is _really_ unlimited and entirely unthrotled.
Re:Is it real unlimited? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm on T-Mobile unlimited, and I use 5-15 GB of data/month, and never get throttled. The fine print actually says " Customers who use more than 26GB of data in a bill cycle will have their data usage de-prioritized compared to other customers for that bill cycle at locations and times when competing network demands occur, resulting in relatively slower speeds."
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Do you really get to use unlimited data? Or do you get to use 5GB of data and then they start throttling you?
I'm currently on T-Mobile's pay as you go. $30 a month for 100 minutes talk, unlimited text, 5GB unthrotled data + unlimited throtled data. The only thing that _might_ tempt me to switch for more than double the price is if the data is _really_ unlimited and entirely unthrotled.
It's unlimited until you hit the limit in the fine print:
Customers who use more than 26GB of data in a bill cycle will have their data usage de-prioritized compared to other customers for that bill cycle at locations and times when competing network demands occur, resulting in relatively slower speeds
Re:Is it real unlimited? (Score:4, Informative)
That's still unlimited.
You have a 1Gbit pipe. You have 10 users each using 250Gbit--that's like 2.5Gbit. The network's going to get slow.
Well it turns out you use a hell of a lot more than everyone else. You know what happens? Those other 9 guys get bumped up in the queue. When packets are waiting, you're assigned a priority of 30 and they get a priority of 20; and every time a packet goes through, the next-in-line goes, and everyone else gets their priority knocked down a peg. So those guys's packets will step in front of yours repeatedly, until you float up to the top and get to use the line.
If the network's not flooded, you get full speed.
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You've made up an implementation that you have absolutely no reason to believe actually exists.
T-Mobile's existing "unlimited" plans move you into slower speeds when you've hit quotas. It has nothing to do with priorities nor can you get full speeds under light loads.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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It has nothing to do with priorities nor can you get full speeds under light loads.
T-Mobile claims it does (as they've claimed for a few years now) and it would be fraudulent (as in sued and regulated out of existence for fraud) of them to make that claim were it not true.
Further, using over 30GB/mo on a regular basis, and this policy actually having been in place for some years now, I can tell you with absolute certainty: no, you do not got throttled under light loads.
My speeds are exactly the same before and after the 26GB mark. The only exception to that rule is when I happen to be
Re: Is it real unlimited? (Score:2)
That's not true. They have truly unlimited plans that don't throttle but do prioritize data after 26Gb. I have never noticed slower speeds. Their other plans do throttle after you reach your high speed data allotment.
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If a road gets congested, then travelling on it gets slower, it doesn't ban new cars from entering the roadway. However the road might open up carpool lanes, which effectively prioritize those people who are taking actions to reduce road congestion...
Use of a shared resource will always, always, always be subject to prioritization. That's inherent. The people using more than 26GB are already the ones who are getting the best deal out of everyone before the throttling.
(this said, I'm switching to the chea
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If a road gets congested, then travelling on it gets slower, it doesn't ban new cars from entering the roadway. However the road might open up carpool lanes, which effectively prioritize those people who are taking actions to reduce road congestion...
The other way road congestion is reduced is by using metering lights to "de-prioritize" traffic entering the freeway.
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Increasing the network capacity helps next month, not next second.
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With fixed-point networks, you can say "I don't have capacity in downtown San Francisco, so I can't sell to you currently if you're there" but, with wireless, you can tell someon
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You wrote 5 paragraphs to explain that building a cellular network is hard, but those details don't matter. The bigger picture is that the moment you let a company get away with below-advertized speeds without penalties, you start a race to the bottom between providers where actual speeds slip farther and farther from the advertized speeds. This is simply not acceptable and you don't seem to understand it.
What advertised speed? I didn't see anything in their "unlimited data" ad that includes any expected speeds.
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This is still better than the old "unlimited" offer which began de prioritizing your traffic onto shitty edge wireless after 2GB of monthly usage. 26 GB (based on the usage data for me the last year) says I regularly consume around 10GB per month. So for me it would
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They will lower QoS on lines that go over 26GB of data, which will effectively throttle their speeds when there is a lot of traffic.
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When spectrum is available, nobody is throttled.
I feel like you actually understand this and simply failed to rely that understanding in your explanation; replying to clear it up for other readers.
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That's why I used the word "effectively". For the lay individual, how the carrier lowers their throughput is an ineffable implementation detail; the important question is now how, but when and why.
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Re:Is it real unlimited? (Score:4, Informative)
It's 'mostly unlimited'. It's fast-as-you-can-go up to 26GB. After that, they won't actually throttle you, but they'll deprioritize you - not "2G speed", just "other people get to cut the line, so if you're on a busy tower, you're the first to get slowed down, but if you're on a tower with plenty of unused bandwidth, you won't notice a difference". Also, I'm wagering their 14GB tethering limit is still in place.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/t... [zdnet.com]
Another hidden price increase (Score:2)
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Switch to ting the low usage phones are 6 a month with their usage being a rounding error. 6 lines with 2 heavy users is well under 100.
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Current plan with limits on AT&T: $200
Who cares if all lines will benefit? If even one will, the price is is the same, it's a net win.
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Depends on the strength of the relative networks in their area. T-Mobile is currently fine for me in the city I'm in... but I know I'm moving out to a rural area soon and T-Mobile has crap-all for service out there.
I'm currently sticking with ATT... but keeping an eye on things.
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Read the fine print... (Score:2)
Their unlimited plan used to include 14GB of tethering data, now on T-Mobile One you have to pay an extra $15 for every 5GB.
The new plan also throttles video to "480p", you have to pay an extra $25/mo for them not to.
Basically, to match today's current unlimited plan, you'll soon have to pay $50/mo more for your first line, $45/mo more for a second line, and $25/mo more for a third and fourth line.
What a deal!
Thanks for the heads up (Score:2)
I'll probably stick with what I have then, since my primary need for anything over 2GB is usually tethering, when traveling sometimes I need to tether quite a lot... I used to be under some plan where the tethering was limited to 5GB but there was not even an option to extend that if you ran out! Now whatever plan I'm on doesn't seem to care how much I tether, it all comes out of my data pool... with the data carryover it's almost as good as unlimited for me, I have something like 20GB extra data to draw o
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T-Mobile One has free tethering capped at 2G speed.
I'm pretty sure the 480p thing is similar to their "Binge On" thing. SD video doesn't count against your data usage with this net-neutrality-violating feature. HD video does. You can opt into Binge On to have Youtube, Netflix, etc. be fucked down to 480p by T-Mobile, or you can opt out at any time to not have it be fucked, but revert to having the SD video count against your data usage.
I don't know if you can simply tell Youtube, Netflix, etc. to give yo
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T-Mobile defines 2G speed as 'up to 128kbps'. Not far from dialup, except in the dialup days pages were a lot smaller. At those speeds, the average web page today (weighing in at ~2.21MBytes) would require at least 2 minutes and 21 seconds to load. Basically useless.
Binge On throttled *all* video traffic, not just those from their zero-rated partners like Youtube and Netflix. You could opt out for free, but then all video (including partners) counted against your data plan. On the new 'unlimited' plan, they
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You're really going to have to cite something for all of those points.
You get throttled to "2G" when roaming in other countries just as you do when you hit your full-speed cap. I can tell you from experience it isn't anywhere near as low as 128 kbps.
Binge On doesn't throttle video traffic, it gives you lower quality streams when they detect video and change the stream quality. They can't do this for all video traffic because they simply don't know what all your traffic is. You had to opt IN to Binge On f
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Citations:
https://support.t-mobile.com/d... [t-mobile.com]
https://www.eff.org/deep [eff.org]
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That info is over a year old, precedes their "2G is dead" transition under which those rules were originally formed (they used to actually kick you off to the 2G network), and doesn't match the real world experience of T-Mobile users (myself included). But if it's the latest official definition, then so be it.
The fact sheet for the new plan does not state that video is limited to SD. It says unlimited SD video is included. The "unlimited" here almost certainly refers to "doesn't count" (as the whole plan
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Oh, forgot one citation:
http://httparchive.org/trends.... [httparchive.org]
2.21MByte average page weight is actually a bit dated—it's more like 2.5MByte now.
Comment removed (Score:4)
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T-Mobile is even better than you think (Score:2)
Just from this announcement alone, T-Mobile would seem pretty compelling...
But T-Mobile has an even more massive advantage compared to most other U.S. carriers - free roaming data for overseas travel.
That used to be limited to 3G, where you could pay for an upgrade - while even that's plenty for using maps and email, all summer T-Mobile has been giving everyone high-speed data even overseas! I was traveling in France and the UK and Canada, and had LTE everywhere.... it was pretty fantastic. If you travel
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Pretty much this.
Been using T-mobile for the past 15 years or so (since they were VoiceStream before T-Mobile acquired them).
Stayed with them through some dark days in there because their coverage where I needed it, was okay, and the price was the best out of all the carriers.
Ever since AT&T failed to acquire them, it opened up a huge opportunity for T-mobile to really compete in the marketplace (they walked out of the failed takeover w/3B$ in cash, and access to 1B$ in wireless spectrum AT&T contro
Use T-mobile at your own risk (Score:4, Interesting)
It was years ago when I signed up for T-mobile. They described my plan and said it included, among other things, international calling. I told them specifically "I don't need, nor will I ever use international calling. Remove that and I will sign up for your service." They said "no problem!" and I got their phone service.
Fast forward 4 years and my phone was stolen. I was having a great time that weekend at the downtown high-rise apartment of an amazingly generous and affluent acquaintance with quite a few other friends and acquaintances. Being preoccupied I did not notice the phone was missing for 2 days. Once I returned home and realized it was well and truly gone I contacted T-mobile. The conversation went like this.
Me: "Hi my phone was stolen."
T-mobile: "I see. Looks like you ran up over $900 in calls to Guatemala and Honduras over the weekend."
Me: "How can that be? I told you when I signed up for service that I would only sign up if you disabled international calling."
T-mobile: "Hmmm. Let me check. Oh, I see it here in the notes. Let me get you with a supervisor that can help you with that."
T-mobile supervisor: "Hello, since you have been a good customer we are graciously offering to discount your international calls you made by $50 if you pay in full over the phone right now."
Me: "Your associate just confirmed that I requested international calling turned off on my phone as a condition of purchasing your service, how are there international calls made on my phone and how am I responsible for that?"
T-mobile supervisor: "Your records do not show that. I can accept your credit card."
me: "...."
On subsequent calls with them they called my wife a liar. They called me a liar. They accused me of giving the phone to someone else to use, charging that person cash, and then attempting to refute the charges. They were rude, intentionally offensive, and intentionally provocative. In retrospect, I realize they did everything they could to keep me off balance and upset.
I was young and stupid and didn't contact a lawyer, go to small claims court, etc. I just didn't pay them anything, ever and considered strongly the use of fire to extract recompense for my time and frustration. Were this to happen to me today I would have someone's ass, it would be posted on the Consumerist instantly, there would be recorded conversations of them doing this, and they would be looking at a lawsuit.
TL;DR: My recommendation, no matter what they offer you, don't ever enter into a contract with T-mobile and never use them for anything more than a place to store rancid feces.
Re:Use T-mobile at your own risk (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the lesson is don't think you can cut cute deals with big corporations where the "deal" isn't in a written contract signed by someone with officer-level signatory approval and backed by a surety bond.
The flunky who "agrees" to your terms just checking checkboxes in CRM that sign you up for whatever "deals" are in their system that day. When you finally discover your deal isn't in place (days, weeks, months, years) later, it won't really matter. They'll call you a liar, will claim the deal never existed and toss your debt to a collections agent.
You have more negotiating power caught with a pound of reefer by a dishonest cop on an abandoned stretch of highway at midnight than you do with a consumer-facing corporation.
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Auto-pay (Score:2)
Be careful with auto-pay. I just ran into a huge drawback of these auto-pay systems when my credit card company issued me a new card because they thought the old card's number might've been stolen.
Unfortunately, they deactivated my old card just before the auto-pay for my cable and phone bill was set to charge. They tried to charge the old card, and the payment failed. That's when I learned that these auto-pay systems will try to charge your card on the l
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commentsubjectsaredumb (Score:2)
Which is to say normals and casuals slurping streaming without a thought, bloating half the landline tubes and probably lots of the air. Then they get mediocre video quality anyway, and God-awful shows because no taste.
If it wasn't clear earlier, I can't blame providers for just reacting to the meta in their best interests. And I don't immediately blame plebs for act
Where does Legere thinks he is living ? (Score:2)
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And my $30 prepaid plan with 100 minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data (5GB unthrottled) is better than your plan.
And the $10 unlimited (truly) data plan and unlimited text/sms add on I had on an old Cingular/AT&T line was better than that. AT&T changed my contract without my consent and removed that add-on. So I kicked them to the curb.
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Or you can just pay for what you use! (Score:2)
https://fi.google.com/about/plan/
What about Poor People (Score:2)
Slashdot didn't run my article about the fact that T-Moble does not offer Lifeline credit in California.
https://slashdot.org/submissio... [slashdot.org]
And not, T-Mobile does this crap.
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Your "article" is nothing more than a pair of links and two lines of bitching. It doesn't deserve to be published.
What would have been useful and potentially worth publishing would have been a writeup with an analysis of *WHY* T-Mobile doesn't offer lifeline credit in California. This is critical, as one of your own links points to a list of states in which T-Mobile DOES offer that credit. So why, exactly, offer it there and not here. Is it actual malfeasance on the part of T-Mobile? Some way in which
I'm happy T-Mobile customer, BUT .... (Score:2)
I'm not sure I like the fact that this plan seems to be replacing all of the other data packages for new customers. Personally, I don't go through more than 1.5GB or so of data per month on my phone because I'm usually on a wi-fi connection anyplace where I'm downloading updates to apps or what-not.
I get that I'm allowed to keep my current plan, which is exactly what I'm going to do. But especially with all of the streaming audio and video services T-Mobile agrees to let you use without them counting agains
T-Mobile acts like they want our business (Score:2)
Verizon acts like they are doing you a big favor by letting you use their network. I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile because I wanted to be able to use Google Nexus devices. (My last Verizon phone was a Samsung Galaxy Nexus, but Google got fed up with Verizon over how they mishandled the Galaxy Nexus so there aren't any new Nexus devices for Verizon.)
Overall I'm happy with T-Mobile. And it was fantastic when I recently visited Japan and my phone actually worked. It was 2G speed only, but Google Maps w
2 things (Score:2)
1, an aside: why does the Slashdot AI/GS* think "You may like to read" a year-old story about a shooting in relation to this article? ("10 Confirmed Dead In Shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College") Seriously, fuck that thing. It's USELESS.
2, back on topic, HELL NO. Why would I want to pay more for "unlimited" data that I will never use? I'm doing just fine with my cheaper, 2GB-per-line plan as it exists now.
* Artificial Intelligence/Genuine Stupidity
This sucks (Score:2)
Right now I'm paying $200 with T-mobile for 5 lines all with unlimited data, 14Gb of tethering per line, and you unlimited tethering of video with Binge On active. I can turn off Binge On for our phones.
With the new plans, tethering is more expensive and none is included, you can't turn off Binge On, and it doesn't look like you have unlimited video tethering.
Limited bandwidth data for video is usually okay on the phone but Sling doesn't work reliably with it.
I'll be keeping my current plan.
T-mobile and Verizon (Score:2)
Auto pay? (Score:2)
Auto-pay penalty? No thanks. I detest the idea of any company taking a non-fixed amount of money from one of my accounts without my approval. I think this is a big mistake on their part- they are going to piss off a lot of people.
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It looks to me like Sprint unlimited is $75 for the first line; this deal seems pretty good if you're looking for unlimited and T-Mo covers you well. It's as good or better than Cricket for multiple lines. For me, 2.5GB high speed is ok, and Cricket's coverage (AT&T towers) is better than T-Mo or Sprint around me.
Re:Sprint (Score:4, Informative)
Unlimited everything just $50 a month for the first line, additional lines are less. Had it for years, still has it.
Sprint and Verizon fall back onto CDMA, which means phones for these networks will be useless outside the US unless on an LTE network.
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I've used mine in Colombia, Mexico, and Dominican Republic without issues as well. Verizon phones seem to work outside the US with no issues.
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How are the calling rates?
Last time I was travelling abroad with T-Mobile they had unlimited Text/Data (2G or purchase a 5GB of "high speed data"), w/$.10/minute calls.
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Expensive, but the point was that it works.
I believe it was something stupid like $2 a minute.
Re: Sprint (Score:3)
Yeah but it's Sprint.
Even if you do have good coverage, I would never suggest a CDMA carrier over a GSM carrier. You can easily get any phone from anywhere and it will work with GSM carriers.
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Re: Sprint (Score:2)
With many high end phones it doesn't matter - they support both GSM and CDMA. Lower end phones that you don't buy from the carrier usually only support GSM. Even with the iPhone 5s there are two separate models sold in the U.S. - one that is GSM only and one that is GSM/CDMA.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/iphone/iphone-faq/differences-between-iphone-5s-models.html
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Few people use enormous amounts of data; if you don't want tens of GB, you are now paying $20 more per month per line.
Bingo! I'm in that boat. I have 5 phones on a family plan and we pay about $140. Now I would have to pay $200. We don't use all of our data now. Unlimited provides absolutely no value to us. So, we'll stay with what we have until they make it impossible to do so.
Then we will explore our options.
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This is not actually going to be the only plan option. Even if they stop offering the Simply Choice plans (which they say they aren't) the pre-paid plans still offer service much cheaper. Individual plans start at $30/mo, and you can get a family plan for as low as $100/mo with 2GB per line, or $120/mo with 6GB per line.
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Course, the customer will get screwed, but hey.
The joke used to be, that it is not over, until the fat lady sings.
Today, it is not over, until the customer gets screwed.
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What's over? With both cell providers and ISPs in the US the rule seems to generally be that the customer gets screwed right from the start, and keeps getting screwed until they decide to switch providers and get screwed by someone else for a while.
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They're not eliminating the current Simple Choice plans at this time (even for new subscribers, as far as I can tell), nor are they eliminating their prepay options under the T-Mobile and MetroPCS branding.
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