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T-Mobile Responds To Verizon By Improving Its Own Unlimited Data Plan (theverge.com)
It didn't take long for T-Mobile to respond to Verizon's recently announced unlimited data plans. T-Mobile's CEO John Legere announced two improvements to the carrier's T-Mobile One unlimited plan that both take effect this Friday, reports The Verge. "Beginning February 17th, the plan will include HD video, an upgrade to the 480p/DVD-quality 'optimizations' that are currently in place." From the report: The other change Legere announced is related to the hotspot feature of T-Mobile One, which lets you share your smartphone's data connection with other devices. As of Friday, the plan will let customers use up to 10GB of high-speed data each month for tethering. That matches Verizon's plan, which also allows for 10GB of LTE tethering. But again, prior to today, T-Mobile One only allowed 3G hotspot speeds unless you paid extra for the T-Mobile One Plus plan. Lastly, Legere announced a promotion that will offer two lines of T-Mobile One for $100. A two-line family plan usually costs $120 per month. Unlike other carriers, T-Mobile includes taxes and fees in its advertised price -- so that should be all you pay month to month. Verizon charges $140 (plus taxes and fees) for a two-line unlimited plan. Assuming there's no sneaky fine print or trickery here, T-Mobile has at least for now regained its feature-for-feature price advantage compared against Verizon Unlimited. The company also has a higher threshold (28GB versus Verizon's 22GB) before its users might experience reduced speeds when the network is congested. In a long series of tweets, John Legere announced the new improvements/promo and took several jabs at Big Red. In one tweet, Legere wrote: "... And we all know no one was falling for [Verizon's] 'you don't need unlimited' bullshit. Hey @verizon - your ads are still up..."
THAT'S how it is suppose to work! Competition helps to spur better products.
Hotspot Plans are what I'd like improved at T-Mobile. My mother is stuck with using one for her internet, as AT&T hasn't extended the range of DSL another half mile in the last two decades. Hmm, I wonder if the update will indirectly affect her plan with the video changes... They may need to be careful there since if people are using a hotspot for home internet, the hd video could blow past any sane limit.
Until the inevitable when they realize that working together is more profitable for all concerned things will go right back to normal yet again. Nothing to see here folks... it's all the same dog and pony show...
Our news comes from tweets now? Did I blink?
I went over my ATT data limit & they throttled my data. So I visited their store last week and then upped my data allowed.
But I am still throttled most of the time on both cellphone and hotspot. Takes a long time to get a connection. Sometimes takes a minute to get something starting to load (looking at Mac's Activity Monitor.) Very often I'm limited to 20-40 KB/sec. ATT guys don't have an answer. Time to move to TMobile.
Yep, this is good to see.
I've been on Boost for a many years, so I haven't dealt with the high prices, poor customer service, and questionable billing practices that people complain about with the major carriers. I do remember, though, that when I left Sprint, it was because there prices were too high for the four MEGABYTES I went over. 28 GIGABYTES is more than a thousand times as much data as they offered when I last used a major carrier. The speed is 100X times faster than it was a few years ago.
The complaints about billing practices probably have merit, but I see that they've upgraded their networks to provide a thousand times as much data, a hundred times as fast, I don't quite relate to the whining I hear about speeds and data thresholds.
Didn't canada close their borders to the US after 9/11?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
sure you give unlimited text and voice AND gobs of data for $40-50 per line..
where's the unlimited text and voice, WITHOUT data and WITHOUT ridiculous 'data' requirements or 'smartphone' surcharges, for my old flippy phone for $15? or even better... $15 for unlimited text and voice on "smartphone" but no cellular data, wifi only. hell, i'd even take that for $20.. $25 if you didn't force a contract down my throat but still let me use whatever the fuck device i wanted.
That's interesting. Thinking about it now, I've only needed to call customer service once, and that was probably before Sprint bought them.
https://tech.slashdot.org/stor...
I recently left MetroPCS because it is impossible to get to a customer service representative and they refused to do anything about a malfunctioning phone.
GUESS WHaT NONE OF THEM aRE UNLIMITED. WHY aRE U POSTING THIS CRaP.
Of course, you won't hear about Michael Flynn resigning until the Trump White House figures out how to spin this to look like anything other than a massive "oops!" moment.
Just for fun, I checked Fox News:
http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/13/stoddard-flynn-not-fired-more-powerful-vice-president-mike-pence-donald-trump (before)
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/13/trumps-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn-resigns.html (during)
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/14/michael-flynns-letter-resignation-as-national-security-adviser.html (during)
Seems like it's you who needs to start thinking for yourself and realize you've been reading/watching Fake News ;)
I could come up with more, but really - online, I can't watch your head asplode.
is this garbage on /.
"Just for fun" - yeah, I wouldn't take Fox News too seriously either!
T-Mobile hasn't had service contracts for years. T-Mobile also has a prepaid plan (no credit check) with unlimited domestic talk and text for, hey look at that! $25 + tax / 30 days. Perfect for your feature phone. You'll need your account number and password/pin to switch your service to T-Mobile.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
This is a shameless plug for T-Mobile, a happy customer of whom I have been for a while now. A few weeks ago, I measured over 50 Mbps downstream, 30 upstream, in San Francisco. A few days ago, I got 70 and 50 in Chicago. Even in my place, in Northern Colorado, I routinely get 25+ and 15+.
Right now we have 2 lines on t-mobile under the old plan ($80 for 2 lines, 2 gig data each). including tax that's $89.
If we switch to the new plan, it's on sale for $100, including fees. AND t-mobile does a buy-back of $10 if you stay under 2 gig. We rarely go over 2 gig/line.
So at worst, it's $10 more/month. At best, it's $80, including fees. Which saves us $10.
(of course, under the old plan, most of the music streaming apps didn't count towards the data)
Worth switching?
T-mobile's "free" audio and video streaming for many apps sounds great, but you still have to pay for the data if you are using a partner tower. Actually, that might not even be in the fine print, but that's the way it works in my tests, and T-mobile support confirmed.
You'll be looking at MVNOs rather than major carriers. These companies resell access that they acquired at wholesale rates. In the US wireless market, the budget options are entirely via MVNOs rather than the major carriers.
MetroPCS is $30 (includes all fees) for unlimited voice/text and a small amount of data.
I believe only Total Wireless has a $25 talk/text offering, and they are a TracFone/Walmart joint venture---a very budget-focused endeavor. They have not been around long enough to have a meaningful track record.
It's hard to find anyone who offers unlimited talk/text without any data. There are, quite frankly, too few phones that have such basic functionality. You might as well ask why no one sells buggy whips anymore.
If you are willing to accept reasonably cheap service with caps on minutes/texts, then you have a variety of options---Ting, Straight Talk, Virgin Mobile, TracPhone, etc.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.