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T-Mobile Brings Back Unlimited Data For All (cnet.com)

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.

16 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. What about so-called "data hogs"? by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    1. Re:What about so-called "data hogs"? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 4, 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.

    2. Re:What about so-called "data hogs"? by Anonymous Coward · · 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.

    3. Re:What about so-called "data hogs"? by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Informative

      They're handling it in multiple ways, many of which will not be popular amongst Slashdotters.

      1. Tethering is throttled to 64kbps. You can buy "High speed data" for tethering at 5G for $15. This is a monthly add-on.
      2. Binge-on is permanently switched on. You can switch it off for $25 per month.
      3. T-Mobile has agreements with most of the streaming audio suppliers (Google Play Music, Rhapsody, etc) which presumably restricts how much bandwidth those can use too.

      Essentially this is the logical extension of Binge On - they've throttled everything that might cause a problem, some usefully (no problem with 480p video), some terribly (is there any point in tethering at those speeds), and so there's no real reason to track the rest of your data usage.

      Finally:

      4. If you still manage to be a heavy user, they will "de-prioritize" you at peak periods. You'll still get full service at 3am in the morning, it's just if you use your device when lots of other people are, their devices will be given priority.

      No problems with that. Seems fair to me.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  2. Meh by LichtSpektren · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:Meh by kamapuaa · · Score: 3, 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.

      --
      Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
    2. Re:Meh by DaMattster · · Score: 3, 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.

    3. Re:Meh by Cytotoxic · · Score: 3, 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.

  3. Re:Is it real unlimited? by kamapuaa · · Score: 4, 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."

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  4. Sweet! by jcr · · Score: 3

    I switched to T-Mobile when I got my latest phone. I had an original, grandfathered AT&T unlimited data plan since the first iPhone came out, and switching saved me about $30/month already. So now it's going to drop again? Cool.

    I'm also seeing LTE speeds from 70-80Mbps on the average, and the highest I ever saw on AT&T was 20 or so.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  5. Re:Is it real unlimited? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, 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.

  6. Re:Sprint by laie_techie · · Score: 3, 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.

  7. Re:Is it real unlimited? by Voyager529 · · Score: 3, 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...

  8. Use T-mobile at your own risk by Dread_ed · · Score: 3, 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.

    --
    When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    1. Re:Use T-mobile at your own risk by swb · · Score: 4, 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.

  9. Re:Is it real unlimited? by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No he hasn't, that's what the fine print said.

    T-Mobile's existing plans are not advertised as "Unlimited". Former plans advertised as "Unlimited" do, indeed, work exactly the way described by the GP. T-Mobile's current 3G, 6G, etc plans work the way you're describing, but aren't described as "Unlimited".


    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.