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..."

Comments

Competition

[p51d007]

THAT'S how it is suppose to work! Competition helps to spur better products.

Re:Competition

[BeauHD]

I agree 100%. It's great to see both companies take jabs at each other!

Re:Competition

[swb]

It does, but it seems annoying that all the BS about network reliability and fairness being behind cellular caps and throttling is so obviously dishonest when they expand their plan so quickly just to match a marketing trend.

If they had that much spare capacity to handle HD video and more data before, why did they wait to for Verizon before announcing it?

It's hard not to think they're all completely dishonest, the entire network except for a couple dozen towers is running at 20% utilization and they could jack caps to hundreds of gigs a month with no ill effects.

Re:Competition

[squiggleslash]

I'd be interested to know if HD video is merely unthrottled, or throttled to, say, 5Mbps (that's above VUDU's recommended amount of bandwidth for 1080P.) If the latter, then they're being consistent.

The video thing was real, the problem was caused by the fact dynamic bandwidth video streaming protocols are inherently greedy, insisting on trying to grab as much data as possible. I've worked at companies that run live video events, where the internal network's connection to the outside world has been clogged because too many people are trying to stream the same 720P video at once. At that point, it's not just those trying to watch the video that have problems, it's people just browsing the web and using other low bandwidth applications.

Don't worry

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Re:Don't worry

[jimbolauski]

And that's why you need at least 3 competitors in a market to stop this behavior.

ATT Loses BIG TIME!

[BoRegardless]

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.

Re:ATT Loses BIG TIME!

[sims 2]

You could always get directv and then get unlimited data.
Or go with t-mobile, verizon or sprint without having to have an extra service.

Re:ATT Loses BIG TIME!

[BoRegardless]

Got unlimited now and it is an unlimited "hold" on when I ever get above 40 KB/sec.

Re:ATT Loses BIG TIME!

[EndlessNameless]

T-Mobile is much better now. With their new spectrum, they have excellent LTE coverage.

Just make sure that your phone supports LTE band 12, as that is their primary 4G spectrum. Newer phones should be fine, but the cutoff is around 2013/2014 for widespread support. E.g., the iPhone 5C doesn't have it.

Re:Hotspot Plans

[sims 2]

AFAIK bingeon is still available.

Yep. 2G WAP to LTE

[raymorris]

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.

Re:Yep. 2G WAP to LTE

[Obfuscant]

I've been on Boost for a many years, so I haven't dealt with the high prices, poor customer service,

Boost Mobile has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. Not even close to T-Mobile when it is bad, or even Comcast. I could never get through on their customer support number, and this was a well-known enough problem that people were posting the secret codes so customers could get through as if they were sales reps. That's the only way to talk to them.

Re:Good Trump!!

[sims 2]

Didn't canada close their borders to the US after 9/11?

interesting. I've only needed to talk to them once

[raymorris]

That's interesting. Thinking about it now, I've only needed to call customer service once, and that was probably before Sprint bought them.

Re:Customer Service

[hackwrench]

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.

Re:Hotspot Plans

[mmell]

Well, they said they're doubling the hotspot cap from 5GB to 10GB.

I only bumped my head on the 5GB limit once - root the phone, edit one text file and *poof* - no more hotspot cap (not perfect, as they were able to detect and block traffic from my desktop web browser, but the useragent plugin for Chrome fixed that). Rooting my phone broke Google Pay, but that's turned out to be a pretty sterile tool anyhow. I haven't rooted my phone since I bought a Nexus 5, and won't unless I bump my head on the new cap some day.

Can I get some of whatever you're smoking?

[mmell]

So, how'd FOX spin this one. A response to the Bowling Green Massacre? Perhaps a response to those three million illegal immigrants that fraudulently voted? Muslim rape gangs roaming Europe's streets unopposed?

I could come up with more, but really - online, I can't watch your head asplode.

why

[originalGMC]

is this garbage on /.

Re: Good Trump!!

[mmell]

"Just for fun" - yeah, I wouldn't take Fox News too seriously either!

Re: where's the 'feature' and "wifi only" data pla

[maggard]

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.

A gamble worth taking?

[Tax Boy]

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?

Fine Print

[silvergeek]

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.

Re:Something wrong with this picture

[EndlessNameless]

If CEOs and companies make public announcements on Twitter, then the answer is obviously yes.

Re:where's the 'feature' and "wifi only" data plan

[EndlessNameless]

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.