T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by aaronbrethorst » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 3:58 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #67

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.

That could be a short term challenge since Sprint is all CDMA and T-Mo is all GSM. Wouldn't have any short term benefits, but the long term could be big.

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

#82

Post by andrewpi » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:11 AM UTC

jonny_eh wrote: post #73

I wonder if this'll be available with their ridiculously amazing $30 per month pre-paid plan. https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/b8c4a2164434

No, the $30 plan is a pre-paid plan. This new offering is only on the post-paid plans.

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

#83

Post by andrewpi » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:14 AM UTC

unsignedint wrote: post #80

trimbo wrote: post #10

Noted it is 2G only, but it is a great step forward.

It'll certainly be huge step forward -- I sometimes go to Japan, and it's hard to find pay phones these days, and they make me jump through a lot of hoops getting prepaid phone there, if that's even possible as a foreigner...

I used b-mobile in Japan for a pre-paid data-only SIM earlier this year. They will even mail the SIM to the airport so it is waiting for you when you arrive.

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

#84

Post by mrinterweb » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:15 AM UTC

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've used T-Mobile for about 10 years total. I've also used Sprint for two years. I live in the city so my reception is pretty much identical to every other mobile service as long as I'm in the city. When I leave the city, T-Mobile is not as good as my friends who have Verizon, but then again they are frequently paying close to twice what I pay. I figure that if I can get good service 99% of the time while living in a city and deal with lesser service that 1% of the time I'm not in the city, that is a compromise that I'm glad to pay much less for.

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

#85

Post by p1mrx » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:31 AM UTC

moosehawk wrote: post #79

cbr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$80? Pre-paid that's $45.

Even less if you don't talk much: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans ($30/m for 5GB of 4G, unlimited text, 100 minutes)

I'm always worried that someone at T-Mobile will notice that plan, say "whoa, how did that get there?", and delete it. It's just so much cheaper than everything else on the market.

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

#86

Post by mortenjorck » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:35 AM UTC

moosehawk wrote: post #79

cbr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$80? Pre-paid that's $45.

Even less if you don't talk much: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans ($30/m for 5GB of 4G, unlimited text, 100 minutes)

That's a rather amazing deal if you do most of your talking on VOIP, but I'm left wondering what this disclaimer means:

This plan is only available for devices purchased from Wal-Mart or devices activated on T-Mobile.com

It seems to imply device restrictions.

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

#87

Post by vpeters25 » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:44 AM UTC

fatjokes wrote: post #23

Okay, I was about to quit T-Mo this winter for Verizon, but I'll stick around a little longer. Points for effort. It's desperately needed to compensate for the shitty coverage.

They got this website were you can report coverage issues: http://www.t-mobile-takeaction.com

I reported I had barely a signal inside my house, a couple weeks later I had 5 bars.

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

#88

Post by skystorm » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:45 AM UTC

mortenjorck wrote: post #86

moosehawk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even less if you don't talk much: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans ($30/m for 5GB of 4G, unlimited text, 100 minutes)

That's a rather amazing deal if you do most of your talking on VOIP, but I'm left wondering what this disclaimer means: This plan is only available for devices purchased from Wal-Mart or devices activated on T-Mobile.com It seems to imply device restrictions.

It means you need to activate your SIM card for this particular rate at Walmart or on their website -- T-Mobile stores and phone support can't do it.

Several of my friends have done just that, get a stand-alone SIM card and then activate it on T-Mobile's website.

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

#89

Post by dude3 » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:45 AM UTC

I switched to t-mobile from Verizon. I have actually been really happy with the service. My plan is unlimited data 5 gigs of 4g data/unlimited 3g and 100 minutes of talk time for $30 a month. Every extra minute is .10 over the 100 minutes. So my plan ends up being $50 a month. But compare that to any other carrier and its a much better price. Also, I like that it's a German company and didn't sell out like Verizon giving 1,000,000+ members phone numbers to the NSA.

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

#90

Post by ben1040 » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 4:46 AM UTC

mortenjorck wrote: post #86

moosehawk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even less if you don't talk much: http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans ($30/m for 5GB of 4G, unlimited text, 100 minutes)

That's a rather amazing deal if you do most of your talking on VOIP, but I'm left wondering what this disclaimer means: This plan is only available for devices purchased from Wal-Mart or devices activated on T-Mobile.com It seems to imply device restrictions.

There's no device restrictions, plenty of people use this with Nexus 4s and the like. The catch is you can't get it in a T-Mobile store.

If you bring your own device, you have to either buy a SIM from T-Mobile.com and then put it in the device, or you can buy a SIM card kit from Wal-Mart.