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T-Mobile Eliminates Cheaper Postpaid Plans, Sells 'Unlimited Data' Only (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: T-Mobile USA will stop selling its older and cheaper limited-data plans to postpaid customers, shifting entirely to its new "unlimited" data plans that impose bandwidth limits on video and tethering unless customers pay extra. To ease the transition, T-Mobile will offer bill credits of $10 a month to customers when they use less than 2GB per month. T-Mobile began its shift to unlimited data plans in August with the introduction of T-Mobile One, which starts at $70 a month. While there are no data caps, customers have to pay a total of $95 a month to get high-definition video and mobile hotspot speeds of greater than 512kbps. The carrier said in August that the unlimited plan would be "replacing all our rate plans," including its cheaper plans that cost $50 or $65 a month. Nonetheless, T-Mobile kept selling limited postpaid data plans to new customers for a few months, but yesterday CEO John Legere said that as of January 22, T-Mobile One will be the "only postpaid consumer plan we sell." Existing postpaid customers can keep their current plans. For new customers, T-Mobile will presumably keep selling its prepaid plans that cost $40 to $60 a month and come with 3GB to 10GB of data. T-Mobile also said yesterday that it will start including taxes and fees in its advertised rate when customers sign up for new T-Mobile One plans and enroll in automatic payments, essentially giving subscribers a discount. "The average monthly bill for a family of four will drop from $180.48 to $160, according to a company spokesman," The Wall Street Journal reported.
until it's not.
Virgin mobile is CDMA reseller of Sprint alone. Or so says the SIM card in the Virgin Mobile phone next to me, and their website. T-Mobile is GSM.
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T-Mobile holds 10% of US market share.
Slashdot received 47.7% of its visitors from the US.
If mobile usage of Slashdotters is proportional to national averages, which I assume it is without data to indicate otherwise, then the number is closer to 4.8% than your claimed 0.2%.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
The most frustrating thing about T-Mobile is that you never know how they are going to redefine "unlimited" from quarter to quarter. $70 a month for SD video and... 512k of hotspot? That should not count as high speed. But regulations and lack thereof and so on. 512k is damn near useless as a hotspot. Even when super slow DSL came around in 1997 or so, you might be stuck with 512k up, but you could at least get 1 - 1.5 down. I would rather be capped at a higher speed.
So what they are really doing is selling a service that at $70 will cause you to go so absolutely bonkers with it's limitations that you will eventually have a meltdown and pay for their real unlimited high speed. Well played T-Mobile. Let's see what new high speed re-arrangement you cook up for the next financial quarter.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
"shifting entirely to its new 'unlimited' data plans that impose bandwidth limits on video and tethering unless customers pay extra"
How in any universe could that be considered an unlimited plan?
... for a phone plan. I'm currently paying 15€ and it covers all my needs exitensively. I would seriously consider moving to a different country if businesses were allowed to screw me over that big on a regular basis. If one business is allowed to, you know they all do.
In Capitalist US, the commerce controls the Government.
I pay 17,72 Euros/month for unlimited data and 190 minutes or sms (which I don't use all). The situation in North America on mobile contracts seems really bad. Even with prepaid data I would not pay nearly $100/month.