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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

#61

Post by elq »

freehunter wrote: post #50
elq wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Yes. It is quite a deal. I pay .10 per minute after the small allocation is used up, but I've only use all 100 minutes twice in the last year I've had this plan.

If I were less lazy and needed more minutes, I'd setup grooveip (or something similar) with my google voice account.

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

#63

Post by mjn »

chrsstrm wrote: post #19

This is great. I had an incident in Belize this year where I turned off airplane mode to connect to wifi on the boat I was on and my cellular radio auto-connected to Belize's local mobile carrier without me realizing (I had international roaming enabled on my account). My phone started syncing and updating apps in the background and within 2 minutes of passive usage I had amassed $270 in data charges. Only. 2. Minute…

To avoid this (common) issue, EU regulations now mandate a roaming-fee cutoff at €50 until the account-holder positively indicates their knowledge and acceptance of additional roaming fees. They can also pre-authorize a higher cutoff if they really do expect to be incurring more than €50 in roaming fees and don't want to be cut off, but this must be an explicit opt-in (not the default terms of a data plan). The result is that your losses in the case of unexpected data syncing are at least limited by default. But only within the EU, of course.

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

#64

Post by sameer_sundresh »

yeukhon wrote: post #49
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.

T-Mobile's plans are all unlimited talk and text now. The only difference is the amount of high-speed data (after which you still get EDGE data access).

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

#65

Post by freehunter »

elq wrote: post #61
freehunter wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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!

Yes. It is quite a deal. I pay .10 per minute after the small allocation is used up, but I've only use all 100 minutes twice in the last year I've had this plan. If I were less lazy and needed more minutes, I'd setup grooveip (or something similar) with my google voice account.

I use my phone quite a bit due to having a widely dispersed family and an upcoming wedding. I also occasionally use my phone for work, but do not get reimbursed for the cost. You have this plan? Do they do the "nights and weekends free" thing? Do they charge for "in network" calls?

I'm actually seriously thinking about switching, as my Net10 experience is sub-par compared to an actual carrier, and $30/mo is better than $45/mo no matter how you split it. 100 minutes is just too low for me, though. I love my Windows Phone, but that means no Google Voice or realistic VOIP offering.

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

#67

Post by adventured »

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/

Would kind of like to see Softbank merge up Sprint and T-Mobile US (if it could be purchased), to give them even greater scale to put serious competitive pressure on AT&T / VZ. Softbank is good at attacking entrenched markets, the more market leverage they have the better.

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

#68

Post by elq »

freehunter wrote: post #65
elq wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It is quite a deal. I pay .10 per minute after the small allocation is used up, but I've only use all 100 minutes twice in the last year I've had this plan. If I were less lazy and needed more minutes, I'd setup grooveip (or something similar) with my google voice account.

I use my phone quite a bit due to having a widely dispersed family and an upcoming wedding. I also occasionally use my phone for work, but do not get reimbursed for the cost. You have this plan? Do they do the "nights and weekends free" thing? Do they charge for "in network" calls? I'm actually seriously thinking about switching, as my Net10 experience is sub-par compared to an actual carrier, and $30/mo is better th…

I've had this plan for a bit over a year. No nights and weekends free. I don't even think there is free in network calling, but I'm not sure.

It's really not a good plan if you use a lot of minutes, but for people like me, it's great.

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

#69

Post by kamjam »

mikeash wrote: post #14
_delirium wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That still sounds pretty reasonable, considering that at normal roaming-data prices, that 40 GB would cost you about $10,000. Between a speed cap and insane prices, I'll take the speed cap!

128kbps is pretty slow, but it's fine for basic use. That's basically a mediocre EDGE connection like the original iPhone without great coverage, and while it was no speed demon, it was certainly usable. It'll let you send instant messages, and check your e-mail and get directions if you're patient. I could easily see surviving on a plan like this while traveling.

I've been in Canada for a year using my UK phone, so I only get Edge due to the different bands. Surprisingly, I have survived and I didn't think I would. Sure things take longer to load and I can't really stream YouTube but you learn to live with it and you can always pick up wifi in a lot of cafes and restaurants to send images and files. But, I can send/receive my emails, use Tango/WhatsUp/Skype to instant message, Facebook, browse the web etc. It's more than adequate, you can work around the limitations fairly easily. I'm also on a limited data plan (500MB month) so at faster speeds I would hit that limit very quickly!

I will be buying a Nexus 5 when it comes out though :)

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

#70

Post by jamesaguilar »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #30
mikeash wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

128kbps is pretty slow, but it's fine for basic use. That's basically a mediocre EDGE connection like the original iPhone without great coverage, and while it was no speed demon, it was certainly usable. It'll let you send instant messages, and check your e-mail and get directions if you're patient. I could easily see surviving on a plan like this while traveling.

Although the difference between EDGE and LTE is vast, it pales in comparison to the difference between data and no data.

Can't even say how many times I really wanted data during our recent trip to Korea. It would have been profoundly useful on some occasions.
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