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You think a customer on TMobile will be able to subscribe to Sling? Hell no! They're going to block every other streaming video service so you will take their Level3 or nothing.

That's not what T-Mobile has in place. The "Binge On" feature of T-Mobile plans doesn't count video against subscribers' cap so long as it's 1.5 Mbps or lower. (The vast majority of 480p video using AVC or VP8 is lower than that.) Binge On is open to any video provider that's willing to join. And I see no reason for this to end any time soon, even with the Sprint merger, as it'd break the "we're not AT&T" draw of the T-Mobile brand.

hell...AT&T is already walking down the path of making DirecTV an exclusive product that will require their network. Sure, that's a few years down the road...but they've effectively launched the very last satellite. Once the current fleet is dead...they'll be streaming only.

Some rural customers have satellite television from DirecTV because they live outside the service footprint of AT&T's high-volume Internet and IPTV service. Should DirecTV stop offering satellite television, that'll just leave Dish with a bunch of new customers.

The community, as I mentioned in my last paragraph ...

I asked what it has to do with my comment, and you just repeated your complaints about "the community". You didn't answer me at all.

Why should it matter how I ...

I asked what the difference was, and why it bothered you. Again, you didn't answer my question at all.

Your last point is basically the problem; android consistently gets ridiculous amounts of bloatware and crapware included in it. Why does iOS and even windows phone (when it was a thing) manage to avoid that?

They don't; you're delusional. Let's see what T-Mobile says about their phones.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Apple iOS 12 = 44 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Microsoft Lumia 640 = 46 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Galaxy S8 = 49 applications.

That's a difference barely worth mentioning. Apple and Microsoft come with plenty of bloat, and no, you can't remove it.

Compare them to a lighter android phone:
https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
OnePlus 6T = 32 applications.

You're whining about android devices as if they were all the same. How about you exercise that brain of yours and buy one which is loaded with less crap than an iPhone or a Windows Phone, rather than more?

AOSP is open source, while Android on all phones being sold, is not.

AOSP is android. You know, as in Android Open Source Project. Android is open source. This isn't hard.

Replacing the entire OS requires an unlocked bootloader, something which is not always available.

It's never available on non-android phones, except unofficially. I'll take "available sometimes" over "available never", thanks.

This is google/manufacturers doing a bait and switch, but the neckbeards haven't quite caught on, because while they may proclaim these features, reality is even they don't use them, but think they're still there.

I've unlocked and re-flashed every android phone and tablet I've ever owned. My current phone is running LineageOS 15.1; my old phone (backup for travel) is on 16.1. I've gone through multiple tablets; the one I currently have was good enough stock that I didn't bother unlocking the bootloader for about 2 years, but I did it recently after the last manufacturer update pulled an Apple and made it slower with worse battery life. It is now also on LineageOS, and performing better than when it was new.

The community, as I mentioned in my last paragraph ...

I asked what it has to do with my comment, and you just repeated your complaints about "the community". You didn't answer me at all.

Why should it matter how I ...

I asked what the difference was, and why it bothered you. Again, you didn't answer my question at all.

Your last point is basically the problem; android consistently gets ridiculous amounts of bloatware and crapware included in it. Why does iOS and even windows phone (when it was a thing) manage to avoid that?

They don't; you're delusional. Let's see what T-Mobile says about their phones.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Apple iOS 12 = 44 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Microsoft Lumia 640 = 46 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Galaxy S8 = 49 applications.

That's a difference barely worth mentioning. Apple and Microsoft come with plenty of bloat, and no, you can't remove it.

Compare them to a lighter android phone:
https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
OnePlus 6T = 32 applications.

You're whining about android devices as if they were all the same. How about you exercise that brain of yours and buy one which is loaded with less crap than an iPhone or a Windows Phone, rather than more?

AOSP is open source, while Android on all phones being sold, is not.

AOSP is android. You know, as in Android Open Source Project. Android is open source. This isn't hard.

Replacing the entire OS requires an unlocked bootloader, something which is not always available.

It's never available on non-android phones, except unofficially. I'll take "available sometimes" over "available never", thanks.

This is google/manufacturers doing a bait and switch, but the neckbeards haven't quite caught on, because while they may proclaim these features, reality is even they don't use them, but think they're still there.

I've unlocked and re-flashed every android phone and tablet I've ever owned. My current phone is running LineageOS 15.1; my old phone (backup for travel) is on 16.1. I've gone through multiple tablets; the one I currently have was good enough stock that I didn't bother unlocking the bootloader for about 2 years, but I did it recently after the last manufacturer update pulled an Apple and made it slower with worse battery life. It is now also on LineageOS, and performing better than when it was new.

The community, as I mentioned in my last paragraph ...

I asked what it has to do with my comment, and you just repeated your complaints about "the community". You didn't answer me at all.

Why should it matter how I ...

I asked what the difference was, and why it bothered you. Again, you didn't answer my question at all.

Your last point is basically the problem; android consistently gets ridiculous amounts of bloatware and crapware included in it. Why does iOS and even windows phone (when it was a thing) manage to avoid that?

They don't; you're delusional. Let's see what T-Mobile says about their phones.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Apple iOS 12 = 44 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Microsoft Lumia 640 = 46 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Galaxy S8 = 49 applications.

That's a difference barely worth mentioning. Apple and Microsoft come with plenty of bloat, and no, you can't remove it.

Compare them to a lighter android phone:
https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
OnePlus 6T = 32 applications.

You're whining about android devices as if they were all the same. How about you exercise that brain of yours and buy one which is loaded with less crap than an iPhone or a Windows Phone, rather than more?

AOSP is open source, while Android on all phones being sold, is not.

AOSP is android. You know, as in Android Open Source Project. Android is open source. This isn't hard.

Replacing the entire OS requires an unlocked bootloader, something which is not always available.

It's never available on non-android phones, except unofficially. I'll take "available sometimes" over "available never", thanks.

This is google/manufacturers doing a bait and switch, but the neckbeards haven't quite caught on, because while they may proclaim these features, reality is even they don't use them, but think they're still there.

I've unlocked and re-flashed every android phone and tablet I've ever owned. My current phone is running LineageOS 15.1; my old phone (backup for travel) is on 16.1. I've gone through multiple tablets; the one I currently have was good enough stock that I didn't bother unlocking the bootloader for about 2 years, but I did it recently after the last manufacturer update pulled an Apple and made it slower with worse battery life. It is now also on LineageOS, and performing better than when it was new.

The community, as I mentioned in my last paragraph ...

I asked what it has to do with my comment, and you just repeated your complaints about "the community". You didn't answer me at all.

Why should it matter how I ...

I asked what the difference was, and why it bothered you. Again, you didn't answer my question at all.

Your last point is basically the problem; android consistently gets ridiculous amounts of bloatware and crapware included in it. Why does iOS and even windows phone (when it was a thing) manage to avoid that?

They don't; you're delusional. Let's see what T-Mobile says about their phones.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Apple iOS 12 = 44 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Microsoft Lumia 640 = 46 applications.

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Galaxy S8 = 49 applications.

That's a difference barely worth mentioning. Apple and Microsoft come with plenty of bloat, and no, you can't remove it.

Compare them to a lighter android phone:
https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
OnePlus 6T = 32 applications.

You're whining about android devices as if they were all the same. How about you exercise that brain of yours and buy one which is loaded with less crap than an iPhone or a Windows Phone, rather than more?

AOSP is open source, while Android on all phones being sold, is not.

AOSP is android. You know, as in Android Open Source Project. Android is open source. This isn't hard.

Replacing the entire OS requires an unlocked bootloader, something which is not always available.

It's never available on non-android phones, except unofficially. I'll take "available sometimes" over "available never", thanks.

This is google/manufacturers doing a bait and switch, but the neckbeards haven't quite caught on, because while they may proclaim these features, reality is even they don't use them, but think they're still there.

I've unlocked and re-flashed every android phone and tablet I've ever owned. My current phone is running LineageOS 15.1; my old phone (backup for travel) is on 16.1. I've gone through multiple tablets; the one I currently have was good enough stock that I didn't bother unlocking the bootloader for about 2 years, but I did it recently after the last manufacturer update pulled an Apple and made it slower with worse battery life. It is now also on LineageOS, and performing better than when it was new.

I get T-Mobile in the US for $40/month with unlimited everything

On T-Mobile's website, I'm seeing $70 for the first line, $50 for the second lines and a Netflix subscription, the third line free, and $20 for the fourth line. Your $40 per line figure is thus correct for three lines. So how would I go about finding others with whom to pool my money for a multi-line subscription?

I'm not sure about other providers, but with T-Mobile's ONE plan, after the "limit", your connection is only deprioritized rather than throttled. (On their legacy/grandfathered plans, throttling is still in place.)

Some potentially relevant links:
https://www.t-mobile.com/respo...
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobi...
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/...

I'm not sure about other providers, but with T-Mobile's ONE plan, after the "limit", your connection is only deprioritized rather than throttled. (On their legacy/grandfathered plans, throttling is still in place.)

Some potentially relevant links:
https://www.t-mobile.com/respo...
https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobi...
https://www.t-mobile.com/news/...

Google bought Android when they were already developing a smartphone OS. It originally was going to compete with the Blackberry, as early prototypes had a Blackberry style keyboard and windows-style task switcher. Once the iPhone came out, they redesigned the OS to be touchscreen-based.

Android Pre-iPhone:
https://www.androidcentral.com...

Android Post-iPhone:
https://support.t-mobile.com/_...

The sent out some SMS alert earlier this month talking about "an industry-wide phone number port out scam"
https://www.t-mobile.com/custo...

I noticed that happened right after that story about the man who lost the cryptocurrency after his (2FA used) T-Mobile number was ported to an attacker's account on AT&T because the T-Mobile rep got social engineered it sounds like.

The sent out some SMS alert earlier this month talking about "an industry-wide phone number port out scam"
https://www.t-mobile.com/custo...

Not really related, sure, but a good smoke screen... "everyone is having security issues", I suppose.

If it's "in line with the rest of the industry", it'll be within a year. Another U.S. carrier unlocks after 90 days on a postpaid plan or one year on a prepaid plan (source).

I'm sure this is useful to you, but given how rarely most of us leave the US, and given T-Mobile (for example) has perfectly reasonable data roaming offerings (unlimited 128kbps), I suspect the number of people who find Project Fi's roaming compelling is minuscule.

I'm not knocking supporting minority uses, I just question whether this is the kind of thing that'll make Project Fi take off. Most of us can think of features they could add to Android phones or Chromebooks that would make it compelling to us, but we know full well nobody else would care. This feels like that, with Fi having a nice roaming feature, but being a phenomenally expensive alternative to more ordinary plans for more traditional uses.

The EU (and thus Portugal) has Net Neutrality laws, and mobile zero-rating is not considered a Net Neutrality problem by the EU.

Even under current Net Neutrality via Title II in the US, mobile zero-rating is not considered a Net Neutrality problem, so you can get free unlimited music streaming on T-Mobile with Pandora, Spotify, etc.

We're gonna turn into Portugal, and it's going to be a big fuckin mess.

Let me introduce you to T-Mobile's Binge On feature, which apparently is perfectly acceptable under the outgoing rules.

In summary: on capped mobile data plans, video streaming at 480p will not count against the cap, as long as the content is from a list of 100 streaming service providers. In the Portuguese version, you pay $6 for 10GB of additional data in the type you want.

I like my Internet free, but recent article in The Atlantic made me second-guess this.

Then you misunderstand the concept of Net Neutrality. It does not guarantee that there has to be a competitor to eBay, for example. What it does guarantee is that if you wanted to start a competitor to eBay, or you're a customer of a hypothetical new auction site, ISPs can't give preferential treatment to traffic from eBay because they had the resources to pay to be in the "fast lane".

To see the future, look at the wireless industry, where it already pretty much doesn't apply:

Net Neutrality is supposed to prevent shit like https://www.t-mobile.com/offer...>this, where an ISP gives preferential treatment to specific sites, or on the flipside, throttles sites that haven't coughed up their "protection money".

Most wireless providers these days also scale down (usually to 480p) and recompress any video you stream - significantly reducing the quality from what was provided by the server of the original site.

Then there's my personal pet peeve - tethering fees. Many wireless providers actually expect you to pay an additional monthly fee, to share the same high-speed data allotment *you're already fucking paying for*, with another device. This would be tantamount to the water company putting individual water meters on each point-of-use in your house, and charging a higher fee for potable uses, even though it's all exactly the same water.

I believe that's a feature of the T-Mobile network. I don't know how it works, but I like it!

Some people have apparently even mis-credited Apple for the feature.
Unfortunately all these features ("Scam ID" and "Scam block" and "Name ID") require a post-paid plan to work - https://explore.t-mobile.com/c...

Their Prepaid service has a static monthly price tag but lacks Visual voicemail and the above features.

They literally invented CDMA, the foundational technology for 3G,

History appears to disagree. CDMA was invented by the Soviets, with research going as far back as 1935.

Qualcomm developed the first Cellular network that used CDMA under contract to AirTouch, (which eventually merged to Verizon).

That said: LTE uses OFDMA (downlink) and SC-FDMA (uplink). It's an entirely different beast than CDMA.

3G does have some relevance as a backwards-compatibility option, but its relevance is rapidly diminishing, with LTE covering the vast majority of the lower 48 states.

I think that T-Mobile recently started building out new infrastructure, using a lower frequency (600 MHz). This makes support of less dense areas cheaper. However, none of their current phones support it.
https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/...

You mean doing things like announcing using new spectrum first in rural areas - like say this - https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/...?

The reason it is longer in Europe is due to them wanting a "high level of consumer protection." There are certainly times when US law could take a lesson from others. This would likely be one of them.,

Yes but since this happened in the US, what do you expect Apple to do? Their warranty is covered under US laws.

Two-year contracts are now pretty much the de facto standard, and tend to define consumer expectation.

No they used to be the standard length of service. They are not anymore. While you can get a 2yr contract, there are more options and some cases, no annual contracts.

Every auto manufacturer could limit the factory warranty on every car sold in the US to one year regardless of consumer expectation or loan lengths, if they wanted to be a greedy dick about it.

And what you are advocating is that regardless of what the auto warranty says, my bank loan overrides the warranty even though the manufacturer never agreed to the terms. My 7 year car loan automatically forces my auto manufacturer to warranty my car for 7 years.

?Third party terms or product demand have far less to do with my argument than the bullshit claim that Apple makes a durable product. If they do, then prove it with a decent warranty that conforms to consumer expectations.

By your argument, any company that has made a "durable" product must offer unlimited lifetime warranties. A decent warranty for most electronics is 1 year and limited.

Verizon, ATT, Sprint and T-Mobile still offer them. Typical cost is $0.99 per month for the service plus $1.99 per year for each ringback tone.

...their help stuff doesn't really say much technical info about how it works...

There is this press release which talks a little bit about it. It's a real-time database of known scammer numbers (they say it's a global list, so it's probably something available to industry and not solely their own) compared and maintained through heuristics analysis and other "patent-pending technologies" whatever that means. That's about as detailed as the release gets, but there's at least a little info in it, for whatever that's worth.

It seems to be focused almost entirely on scam calls. I doubt it's going to block "legitimate" marketers. However, marketers that aren't following FTC regulations would by definition be illegitimate and one would at least hope T-Mobile would class anything not legit and abiding by regulations as scams, especially if those callers are reported. I've no idea though, just hopeful. I can at least say from my own personal experience, once I turned on Scam Block (not just the ID but the full block), illegitimate calls to my number are virtually nil. I still get two, maybe three in a week that sneak through (with all the VoIP out there I didn't expect the block to keep up perfectly), but I used to get four, five, six (sometimes more) every single day, seven days a week. The difference has been tremendous.

There is some minor crowd-sourcing to the database. T-Mobile has a place to report numbers, both that aren't on the scammer list and should be, and also to report numbers that are being incorrectly identified as scams.

...their help stuff doesn't really say much technical info about how it works...

There is this press release which talks a little bit about it. It's a real-time database of known scammer numbers (they say it's a global list, so it's probably something available to industry and not solely their own) compared and maintained through heuristics analysis and other "patent-pending technologies" whatever that means. That's about as detailed as the release gets, but there's at least a little info in it, for whatever that's worth.

It seems to be focused almost entirely on scam calls. I doubt it's going to block "legitimate" marketers. However, marketers that aren't following FTC regulations would by definition be illegitimate and one would at least hope T-Mobile would class anything not legit and abiding by regulations as scams, especially if those callers are reported. I've no idea though, just hopeful. I can at least say from my own personal experience, once I turned on Scam Block (not just the ID but the full block), illegitimate calls to my number are virtually nil. I still get two, maybe three in a week that sneak through (with all the VoIP out there I didn't expect the block to keep up perfectly), but I used to get four, five, six (sometimes more) every single day, seven days a week. The difference has been tremendous.

There is some minor crowd-sourcing to the database. T-Mobile has a place to report numbers, both that aren't on the scammer list and should be, and also to report numbers that are being incorrectly identified as scams.

I wondered how this is any different from Apple's Continuity feature, which allows phone calls (among other things) to be shared among all of a user's Apple devices, regardless of carrier. Turns out it isn't. Straight from the horse's mouth:

My mobile phone number already works on all my Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac). How is this different?

Continuity is restricted to the iOS ecosystem. DIGITS allows calls and texts to work on any device in which you have enabled your DIGITS lines, regardless of the operating system. If you use Apple devices exclusively, then there’s no need to use the DIGITS app.

Still, useful if you're not dumb enough to put all your eggs in one (apple) basket.

if I have WiFi, I'm watching on my laptop screen

Do you carry your laptop everywhere you go? If not, you might be in a restaurant or whatever with Wi-Fi but no laptop. (If so, you're probably like me.)

and I'm sure as hell not going to watch Netflix using mobile data.

T-Mobile USA has a promotion called Binge On, which lets video stream providers apply at no charge to have their SD streams exempted from the cap. Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Sling are among the participating video providers.

First, U.S. carriers price unlimited cellular Internet such that one would have to give up home Internet to afford it. Second, U.S. carriers impose a surcharge for each additional device to discourage people from using unlimited cellular Internet to replace wired home Internet, such as the tethering surcharge of $14.99 per month. Third, T-Mobile appears to be hiding its dedicated mobile broadband devices, as opposed to buying a smartphone and then upgrading from a voice- and text-only plan to a plan including unlimited data. Fourth, T-Mobile's website uses so many CPU-intensive scripts that I find it slow and cumbersome to navigate to find how deprioritization after 20-30 GB or thereabouts interacts with tethering.

You should seriously look into upgrading to the T-Mobile One plan.

Features: Unlimited calls, texts, and unlimited 4G data! Also, 10GB high-speed tethering for each line (3G tethering when exceeded). Unlimited texts & 3G data internationally, Unlimited calls to/from Canada & Mexico. Free use of GoGo Wifi on domestic flights.

I have 7 lines for $220. This includes all taxes.
Additionally, for each line that uses less than 2GB of data in a month, they refund you $10!!!
My bill this past month was $170 for 7 lines.

And you know this because you read the article... How about actually having an account? I had an account with MetroPCS, an alterego of T-Mobile, and I did run out of the amount they give you. I recently switched because their customer service is lousy. Now maybe T-Mobile branded accounts are different, but let me get back to you on that further on in the post
And what is reduce you to 4G supposed to mean? There is no speed higher than 4G except for some companies playing with so-called 5G networks.
Now back to T-Mobile branded accounts: Unless the terms have changed, which they very well may have, all the plans stated in their terms that they lowered the speeds to 2G.
https://support.t-mobile.com/d...
Unlimited 4G LTE data on your smartphone.
Note: Data slows to 2G once your data limit is reached.
Yes. Still says 2G.

I thought you were only deprioritized if you go over your limit and it is a time of congestion. To give other customers a fair chance at access.

From their site
https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-...

Fine print
"Qual’g plan req’d. On all T-Mobile plans, if congested, top 3% of data users (>28GB/mo.) may notice reduced speeds due to prioritization. Sales tax & regulatory fees included in mo. service price"

I _think_ T-Mobile is planning to drop 2G GSM

It's AT&T that's shutting down EDGE (aka "2G") service in the near future (it may have already happened, as the link says "by the end of 2016"). T-Mobile, OTOH, has committed to keeping its EDGE service going through at least 2020, ostensibly to support gadgets with cellular-data connections that aren't easily updated to newer standards.

• - Canada/Mexico roaming is treated the same as US, so Calls/Data/Text are unlimited.
• - Data/Texting is free world-wide.

https://www.t-mobile.com/optio...

I've used it in Italy, France, Ireland, and China. Works pretty well, but official tethering is a crapshoot depending on what network you are roaming on (China/Italy worked, in Ireland/France couldn't get official tethering to work).

I don't see your 2 GB/mo plan.

$20 for 2GB

First, you need to pay for a VPS and bandwidth to run this proxy.

Find a cheap VPS provider that offers unmetered bandwidth for a flat rate billed annually.

I don't see how to use 50 GB per month because after the monthly data usage allowance expires, throughput decreases to 0.128 Mbps

Name your server something like t-mo.co.example.com and enjoy t-mo.co zero-rating at full speed.

T-Mobile pay-as-you-go users don't have an Internet connection except by A. buying a data pass for $10 that expires after 1 GB or 1 week, whichever comes first,

Can you use your mobile device to buy a data pass? Because that's the way it usually works, and if you have internet connectivity to t-mo.co then you can get to the rest of the internet.

I use 50 GB per month on a 2 GB data plan

I don't see your 2 GB/mo plan. I see a 3 GB/mo plan for $40 per month (source).

because data caps are a total joke

The loophole described in the article you cite uses an HTTP proxy in a subpath of /speedtest. First, you need to pay for a VPS and bandwidth to run this proxy. Second, once T-Mobile plugs this loophole, I don't see how to use 50 GB per month because after the monthly data usage allowance expires, throughput decreases to 0.128 Mbps, and 0.128 Mbps used continuously for a month is only 41.4 GB. That's not even enough to download a purchased game whose disc version fills both layers of a BD-ROM.

I find it hard to believe people really don't have an internet connection on their mobile device.

T-Mobile pay-as-you-go users don't have an Internet connection except by A. buying a data pass for $10 that expires after 1 GB or 1 week, whichever comes first, or B. using a WLAN connected to the Internet through a separate carrier, such as home Internet or a library or restaurant hotspot.

I really fucking hope that T-Mobile doesn't follow in AT&Ts footsteps with this one.

Actually, they are doing the opposite.
They're giving users with non-phone devices FREE 2G service for the next year.

T-Mobile seems willing to help you for now.

Seeing as Straight Talk and similar providers merely piggyback on AT&T's towers if AT&T no longer accept 2G connections that would also cut off carriers like Straight Talk. Interestingly T-Mobile has offered 2G AT&T customers a home until 2020. https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/...

Digging through their website last night after hearing the news, it seem they are going to continue to offer their plan with up-to-2 GB LTE data for $50/mo. Note that if you take T-Mobile One and get the $10 a month credit for using less than 2 GB of data you're actually spending more.

Also, its important to note this is only for post-paid plans. T-Mobile will continue of offer a range of plans in their pre-paid space.

T-Mobile and others are offering what Samsung has offered. Full Refund + $100 if you get another Samsung phone (S7) or $25 credit. I'm not sure on the contract side but if I extended my contract or signed up for service based on this device you'd have a good argument to terminate that deal. I do however think when you pay $800+ for a phone it should work, be safe as in not blow up and last as long as your contract. The carriers in this case aren't at fault but they should do everything to keep the business.

Good to know, but I'd expect somebody to have made a point of running ads about this. I've seen ads surprisingly recently trying to get you to buy this specific phone--as in, my first thought was "Waaait I thought that phone got yanked from the market for being a bomb"--and if nothing else letting those run is an utter waste of ad money on Samsung's part. They'd stand to benefit as much as the carriers from letting this deal be known...and it'd get the last remaining ones turned in pretty quickly, likely.

T-Mobile and others are offering what Samsung has offered. Full Refund + $100 if you get another Samsung phone (S7) or $25 credit. I'm not sure on the contract side but if I extended my contract or signed up for service based on this device you'd have a good argument to terminate that deal. I do however think when you pay $800+ for a phone it should work, be safe as in not blow up and last as long as your contract. The carriers in this case aren't at fault but they should do everything to keep the business.

Unlimited data plans have been very cheap for several years now.

Not in Slashdot's home country.

In some more remote parts of the U.S., the only option for high-speed home Internet is satellite, and satellite doesn't have unmetered data during waking hours. In other remote parts, such as East Buchanan, Iowa, DSL is harshly metered as well.

Cellular carrier T-Mobile has introduced an unmetered plan, whose name reminds one of synthetic motor oil. But at $70 per month for the first of four lines on a plan, it's more expensive than metered plans, and it puts the subscriber at the back of QoS after using 25 GB in a month. Furthermore, in some parts of the U.S., Verizon is the only cellular carrier with adequate coverage, and Verizon has refused to offer unmetered plans.

How about an extra 2 or 3 zeros instead. How much does T-Mobile make per year in profits?

For the full-year 2016, T-Mobile expects Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $9.7 to $10.2 billion, up from the previous guidance of $9.1 to $9.7 billion.

https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/...

So 48 mill is right around 5% of their yearly income. If they were just doing this in the U.S. you can exclude their international income, and the number starts to sound more reasonable. Take away any profit they could've made with their illegal maneuver, and an extra slice on top for being jackasses. Then the question is just how big to make the slice so that the message gets through (hint: may not be possible).

That's actually a fairly common combination in the prepaid market. Example: T-Mobile has an unlimited data and texts with 100 minutes talk for $30/month plan.

I assume the thinking is that it makes people who think they rarely use the phone as a phone think they're getting a great deal.

It is not a free upgrade. It is a zero-money down trade-in upgrade that increases your bill by $27/mo for 24 months (for the 32GB model). That is, if you do the upgrade it will cost you a total of $648 + residual value of your iPhone 6, compared to just keeping your (fully paid) iPhone 6.

As Apple's retail price for the iPhone 7 is $649, you're essentially selling the carrier your iPhone 6 for $1 and locking yourself in for 2 years in exchange for no down payment, no interest to buy a new iPhone 7. If you figure the residual value of your iPhone 6 is $324 (50% the purchase price a year ago), that's equivalent to paying 1.689% in interest every month, or 22.3% annually (minus $1). A pretty tidy profit for the carrier considering most loan interest rates are down around 3%-5% right now..

"All phones or SIM cards purchased from 1-800-TMOBILE or online at T-Mobile.com come activated with a Pay As You Go plan with 30 minutes of talk or 30 texts (or any combination of the two that adds up to 30)." Apparently there's some limited data capability as well.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile...

T-Mobile SIMS have been a popular means of porting land lines to Google Voice service. GV only ports cell phone numbers. Cheap T-mobile SIMs come with enough service to port the land line to T-Mobile which is subsequently ported to GV.

There are multiple ways that a provider can setup their stream to qualify for Binge On zero rating of data. Having your application request a video from a particular server/IP/net block may be sufficient if the provider and T-mobile have agreed to the setup.

How can T-Mobile differentiate between these,
as far as I know the connection to youtube is cryptographically secured.

TMobile addressed this in their technical notes: https://www.t-mobile.com/conte...

This requires that video detection signatures be present. T-Mobile will work with content providers to ensure that our networks work together to properly detect video. We will continue to work with content providers as new traffic identification means are needed in the event of future technology enhancement or changes. Use of technology protocols which make detection of video difficult such as https and UDP require additional collaboration with TMobile to enable the video detection.

Presumably you have to work hand-in-hand with TMobile developers to make sure your streams are recognized. I haven't found the technical truth. There was an interesting academic paper: http://david.choffnes.com/pubs..., also outlined here: http://dd.meddle.mobi/bingeon....

How does BingeOn classify traffic? Our prior differentiation work suggested that DPI devices classify applications using regular expression matches on certain
fields of HTTP requests and responses, and SNI fields in TLS handshakes

I have no idea why T-Mobile has so many fanboys hearing only what they want to hear, but their press release isn't exactly ambiguous:

With T-Mobile ONE, even video is unlimited at standard definition [...] For customers who want higher definition video, T-Mobile ONE has you covered too with an HD add-on for $25 a month per line.

Ars has the same take on T-Mobile charging $25 extra for "HD."

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/...

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.

Citations:

https://support.t-mobile.com/d...

Some T-Mobile data features have a 'threshold' on the amount of data you can use at full speed during a billing cycle. After you pass the threshold, you still have unlimited access to data, but the speed of data is reduced...If you have a plan that was available after March 24, 2013, data speed is reduced to (at most) 128 kbps when data usage exceeds the Data Speed Reduction Threshold for data features, Mobile Internet, and data-only plans.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/...
https://www.t-mobile.com/conte...

T-Mobile’s “optimization” consists entirely of throttling the video stream’s throughput down to 1.5Mbps.

The network limits the bandwidth available to detectable videos to a level currently at 1.5 Mbps and as a result, many video services will deliver videos at lower resolutions that will look good on mobile devices (DVD-quality, typically 480p or better) and that use less data.

I'm assuming all T-Mobile One video will be restricted to 480p because that's what it says on the fact sheet:

T-Mobile ONE includes unlimited video at standard definition—typically DVD quality (480p)—from any service.

And the fact sheet also says exactly what the $25 gets you:

Customers can get higher-definition video, up to 4k, for $25/month per line.

The logical conclusion is that the base T-Mobile One plan will throttle all video to 480p (in other words, 1.5Mbps), you can remove said throttle by paying an extra $25 per month, though your data will likely still be deprioritized when you hit the 26GB soft cap.