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T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

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Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#41

Post by brownbat »

jsnk wrote: post #7

Does anyone know if 30 dollar prepaid plan (100 minutes. Unlimited data and text) included in this deal?

I'm not even sure you're going to be able to find that plan anymore. [EDIT: dangrossman's right, they still have this plan on the "prepaid" side, but you have to dig a bit. If you're a brand new customer to T-Mobile, you're not exactly going to stumble on it from the main page.] The website really looks like they're bumping everyone up to the $50+ plans, which is sad, because they owned the value data plan territory for a while.

Case in point, I'm currently paying them $25/mo for 1.5 GB of high speed data. No contract, BYOD. I originally thought I needed "unlimited" data, but found that if I just avoid videos until I'm around wifi (which I'm around way more often than I thought I would be), then I never touch the limit.

So how's the $50 per month for 500 MB high speed plus unlimited everything else compare?

Ting offers 500 MB for under $20 / mo, and you can even pay-as-you-go to save money, or cover overages at a reasonable rate. For $50 per month, Cricket gives you 2.5GB of 4G speeds per month, falling back to unlimited 3G speeds, 5GB for $60 or 10GB for $70. Neither are BYOD, though, which can be a deal killer.

T-Mobile had great pricing, but now they're just normalizing with the larger players like Sprint and AT&T, drifting away from the bargains offered by the mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), probably pulling the whole market upwards.

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#42

Post by codemac »

leeoniya wrote: post #5
wandermatt wrote: post #2

List of countries here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425436,00.asp

oops, someone forgot an 'ORDER BY country ASC', or more likely to hit the Sort A->Z key in Excel. ::rageface::

  % cat /tmp/tmobile_countries | sort | pbcopy
  
  Aland Islands
  Anguilla
  Antigua and Barbuda
  Argentina
  Armenia
  Aruba
  Australia
  Austria
  Bahrain
  Barbados
  Belgium
  Bermuda
  Bolivia
  Bonaire
  Brazil
  British Virgin Islands
  Bulgaria
  Cambodia
  Canada
  Cayman Islands
  Chile
  China
  Christmas Island
  Colombia
  Costa Rica
  Curacao
  Cyprus
  Czech Republic
  Denmark
  Dominica
  Dominican Republic
  Easter Island
  Ecuador
  Egypt
  El Salvador
  Estonia
  Faeroe Islands
  Finland
  France
  French Guiana
  Germany
  Ghana
  Greece
  Grenadav Nicaragua
  Guadeloupe
  Guatemala
  Guyana
  Hong Kong
  Hungary
  Iceland
  India
  Indonesia
  Iraq
  Ireland
  Israel
  Italy
  Jamaica
  Japan
  Kenya
  Kuwait
  Latvia
  Lithuania
  Luxembourg
  Malaysia
  Malta
  Martinique
  Mexico
  Moldova
  Montserrat
  Netherlands
  Netherlands Antilles
  New Zealand
  Norway
  Pakistan
  Panama
  Peru
  Philippines
  Poland
  Portugal
  Qatar
  Romania
  Russia
  Saudi Arabia
  Singapore
  Sint Maarten
  Slovakia
  South Africa
  South Korea
  Spain
  Sri Lanka
  St. Barthelemy
  St. Kitts and Nevis
  St. Lucia
  St. Martin
  St. Vincent & the Grenadines
  Suriname
  Svalbard
  Sweden
  Switzerland
  Taiwan
  Thailand
  Trinidad and Tobago
  Turkey
  Turkmenistan
  Turks and Caicos Islands
  Ukraine
  United Arab Emirates
  United Kingdom
  Uruguay
  Uzbekistan
  Vatican City
  Venezuela
  Vietnam
  Zambia

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#43

Post by [deleted] »

brownbat wrote: post #41
jsnk wrote: post #7

Does anyone know if 30 dollar prepaid plan (100 minutes. Unlimited data and text) included in this deal?

I'm not even sure you're going to be able to find that plan anymore. [EDIT: dangrossman's right, they still have this plan on the "prepaid" side, but you have to dig a bit. If you're a brand new customer to T-Mobile, you're not exactly going to stumble on it from the main page.] The website really looks like they're bumping everyone up to the $50+ plans, which is sad, because they owned the value data plan territory…

[deleted]

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#44

Post by brownbat »

elq wrote: post #37
brownbat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had. [EDIT: Er, Have. With apologies, see below discussion.] I'm paying $25/mo for a limited no-contract BYOB plan. They're still taking my money for it, but I'm a little scared, since I can no longer find it on the site. Over the last six months, I've seen T-Mobile BYOD plans at $15, 25, 30, 35, 45, and up. Now, you can't get any plan from T-Mobile under $50 per month, and that "cheap" plan comes with less high spee…

The still have that plan - http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans it's just a bit hidden.

Wow, but that is some very stealthy work.

T-Mobile isn't exactly going out of its way to let people know this exists. It's not featured in the way you do for a plan you envision as the future cornerstone of the business.

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#45

Post by aaronbrethorst »

eurleif wrote: post #40
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #27

And this is why competition and effective government regulation[1] are fantastic things. If T-Mobile wasn't in a distant fourth place in the US market, or if they'd been acquired by AT&T we wouldn't be seeing this, nor would we see Verizon and AT&T introduce their own versions of T-Mobile's JUMP program. [1] http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/19/att-tmobile-merger-dead/

>If T-Mobile wasn't in a distant fourth place in the US market, or if they'd been acquired by AT&T we wouldn't be seeing this, nor would we see Verizon and AT&T introduce their own versions of T-Mobile's JUMP program. I'm not an economist, and I haven't looked into the details of the cell phone market in depth, but here's a possible alternative opinion. I'm not asserting that this is the case; just wondering if it mi…

Ostensibly, VZW and AT&T enjoy certain economies of scale above and beyond T-Mobile given their significantly greater customer bases. T-Mobile has a perception of shitty service, which means they have to spend a metric shit-ton of money buying spectrum and building out their LTE network.

Take a look at T-Mobile's their most recent 10-Q filing. Their EPS is actually negative: http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1283699/00012836991...

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#46

Post by brendanf »

SeoxyS wrote: post #39

This is huge. I recently spent ~$200 on AT&T's $30/120MB bundles on a two-week trip to Europe. I thought I was getting a good deal, too. It's fantastic to see the market shifting slightly in favor of the customers.

You can get unlimited data plans in Europe for 10-40 euro per month.

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#47

Post by potatolicious »

mikeash wrote: post #16

T-Mobile's policies over the past couple of years have really made me want to become a customer. Plans that are actually reasonably priced, explicitly calling out handset subsidies and making them optional, and now this. I just wish their network was a little better!

I switched with the iPhone 5S. Off-contract too.

I rarely leave the city, so the lack of coverage in rural areas doesn't bother me. In NYC I have to say I've noticed a small improvement in reception over AT&T - buildings where I've been dead in the water before now have some connectivity.

So far so good, this new announcement is just icing on the cake, especially as a Canadian expat. It used to be that when visiting home I'd inevitably wind up with one helluva phone bill, and that's just with extremely minimal texting and calling just to herd cats.

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#48

Post by cocoflunchy »

codemac wrote: post #42
leeoniya wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oops, someone forgot an 'ORDER BY country ASC', or more likely to hit the Sort A->Z key in Excel. ::rageface::

% cat /tmp/tmobile_countries | sort | pbcopy Aland Islands Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Bahrain Barbados Belgium Bermuda Bolivia Bonaire Brazil British Virgin Islands Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Cayman Islands Chile China Christmas Island Colombia Costa Rica Curacao Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Easter Island Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Faeroe I…

Even better:

   pbpaste | sort | pbcopy

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#49

Post by yeukhon »

mikeash wrote: post #16

T-Mobile's policies over the past couple of years have really made me want to become a customer. Plans that are actually reasonably priced, explicitly calling out handset subsidies and making them optional, and now this. I just wish their network was a little better!

I left T-Mobile when at&t was offering better plan. The only thing I wish all carriers will do is eliminate minute deduction for calling your friend who isn't in your network.

Do they already have that for daytime? I think for most carriers out there, if not, all, night time is minute free.

Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts

#50

Post by freehunter »

elq wrote: post #37
brownbat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Had. [EDIT: Er, Have. With apologies, see below discussion.] I'm paying $25/mo for a limited no-contract BYOB plan. They're still taking my money for it, but I'm a little scared, since I can no longer find it on the site. Over the last six months, I've seen T-Mobile BYOD plans at $15, 25, 30, 35, 45, and up. Now, you can't get any plan from T-Mobile under $50 per month, and that "cheap" plan comes with less high spee…

The still have that plan - http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans it's just a bit hidden.

$30/mo for 5GB 4G (then I assume 2G after) is quite a deal! If the minutes were higher, I'd use this as my primary provider. As a data-only plan though, that's not too bad!
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