Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

T-Mobile Rocks

avc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 187 posts

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#131

Post by Guvante »

hkmurakami wrote: post #122
rogerbinns wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

T-Mobile in the US is a separate company. The German parent has tried to sell it in the past, and no doubt would gladly sell it in the future should a willing suitor come along and the regulators okay it (that caused the last sale to fail).

To elaborate, Sprint and T-Mobile have been trying to merge, arguing that scale is fundamental in competing in the market. Regulators have argued that 4 carriers are essential to keeping parity and competition in the market.

Actually Sprint and T-Mobile have never officially tried to merge. So far all the executives have done is deny that such talks are in progress.

At one point AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile, citing Verizon being bigger as why it was okay. They even put a bunch of money on the line if it fell through. Regulators decided that either they wanted 4 parties, or that Verizon would be forced to buy Sprint to compete, leaving 2 parties. (I am not 100% certain which they said was the reason)

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#132

Post by lobster_johnson »

phaus wrote: post #21

I'm glad that T-Mobile has become a customer focused company in recent months, but let's not forget that just a short while ago, they were just like all of the other major carriers. T-Mobile had a sudden change of heart not because they give a shit about their customers, its because their network wasn't good enough for people to put up with typical carrier bullshit. As a normal carrier, they were losing money and cus…

Interestingly, just a couple of months ago T-Mobile had great online customer service -- you could log into your account and open a chat with a customer support person. They removed that in favour of a generic "support community" based on Jive. So now you have to "start a discussion" if you have a problem, or, annoyingly, call their support line.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#133

Post by judk »

bsimpson wrote: post #128
greenmountin wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two year contracts are a lie, a prop, an illusion. If you break it, you basically pay back the prorated part of the phone discount you got. If you go to a carrier without phone subsidies, they'll charge you less month-to-month an amount equal to the monthly prorated phone discount. This was my realization when pricing out basic phone service with T-Mobile, ATT, etc. You have to really work hard to pay different. Just…

I made a spreadsheet for my girlfriend when she bought the iPhone 5s. She was debating between AT&T, StraightTalk, and AIO wireless. On AIO, you're still better off on AT&T over the course of a 2 year contract by $90. If you choose StraightTalk, you'll save $174 over 2 years. (That savings goes up to $299 if you buy an AT&T phone and then immediately cancel and pay the ETF; both prices combined are less than the $749…

What phones from the 2009 still have a serviceable battery and USB/charge port? And what are the 2013 versions of these phones?

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#134

Post by judk »

eonil wrote: post #78
kunai wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Barely. OpenDarwin is dead. WebKit was stolen from KHTML. CUPS has barely any development anymore. Apart from LLVM, what have they really contributed to OSS? Okay, it's more than Microsoft, but net contribution is still nothing compared to Google or Sun (when they were still alive).

So what's the contribution of Google, Sun and MS? It's you who should show example if you want to claim. Do you have any access to Google Search API? Or BigTable source? How about Google Maps? Google Apps? What Google is releasing is "Chrome" which stole (as like your word) from WebKit, and Android. (which actually stolen from Sun, so still in lawsuit) Well there's more. V8, Dart and Go. Maybe bunch of funny dead pro…

Google is a major committer to Linux and to Java Guava, the premier general purpose library (standard library extension/replacement). And they paid Guido to work on Python for years.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#135

Post by judk »

naner wrote: post #39
eropple wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was using that plan, but I was finding that I didn't really have enough voice minutes (100 was less than I'd need). T-Mobile does throttle after 2GB on that plan, though that wasn't a big deal for me. The big problem for me was that T-Mobile's coverage area sucks; there were whole areas of Boston and Cambridge where I got absolutely no signal. I recently moved to the $45 unlimited-everything plan on Straight Talk,…

I was interested in StraightTalk but this article scared me a bit: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2414418,00.asp

All I see is a giant popup ad bigger than my screen. Is it a news story about cell phones?

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#136

Post by voltagex_ »

simonw wrote: post #123

When I visit the US from the UK I use T-Mobile pay-as-you-go SIM cards to get data on my iPhone. It works great - you go in to a T-Mobile store, pay for the SIM and $3/day of credit (I normally spend about $25), they set up the phone and profile for you and you walk out within a few minutes with a working iPhone. I used to use AT&T GoPhone for this, until they sold me a "special deal for SXSW" in Austin that would ke…

I used T-Mobile too - the trick I wish I'd known about is it'll allow free (?) roaming on to AT&T in very select areas. Your non-US credit card may not work on the website either, I just preloaded the amount I needed while at the store.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#137

Post by epoxyhockey »

Ellipsis753 wrote: post #90

"$2000 a month for a family plan" How is this possible? I've never heard of such an expensive monthly cost. Perhaps they're paying for several iPhones on contacts?

The monthly plan for an iPhone is in the ~$95/month range. I agree that I can't even find this possible unless OP has 10+ kids.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#138

Post by Hengjie »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #120
goggles99 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You clearly have never used an MVNO(Reseller) I just went to Verizon and chose a free SmartPhone (Droid 4) with a 500MB data plan. It was $80/mo 2 yr contract I can buy that phone outright (brand new) for $300. If I go to PagePlus (Verizon MVNO) and sign up for their $1200 Minute, $3000 Text/MMS 500MB $30/mo plan here is what I paid after two years. Verizon - $80 * 24 = $1,920 PagePlus - $30 * 24 + $300 (phone) + $50…

Generally, MVNO customers have lowest priority on a network. I know AT&T, for example, gives network priority to Postpaid first, then Prepaid, then MVNOs. So on a congested network, you'd be the first to be kicked off.

Generally speaking, I don't think the experience would be as bad as you say. Yes they get the lowest priority but given how good AT&T's network is, you generally won't be kicked off and would probably incur a reduction in speed. The reality is, you aren't going to need (insert super fast speed here) on a day to day basis. There are exceptions of course, such as tethering or streaming content, but really, how often would you be doing that and need it? This is why I don't buy the 4G argument, especially when there're carriers that ask us to pay more simply to be on 4G.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#139

Post by Hengjie »

rradu wrote: post #96

T-Mobile simply doesn't have any data coverage outside of major metropolitan areas. If you're someone that travels outside these areas, you will be unable to use your devices for anything but calls and texts. That's a big caveat that should be mentioned. (If you never leave the Bay Area, for example, then T-Mobile is a logical choice. It works well for me 98% of the time here.)

Couldn't T-Mobile use another carrier's cell towers and allow their customers to fallback into those networks?

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#140

Post by voltagex_ »

michaelgold wrote: post #119

I think Fred might be disappointed when he switches back to t-mobile. I was a t-mobile customer for years and I agree they have awesome customer service. The big problem for me was the terrible cell reception in many buildings in NYC. That said, I hear there are many areas in the US where t-mobile provides decent service. For people considering switching if t-mobile's international data deal isn't that important to y…

I was in NYC last week using T-Mo and noticed this too. Is it due to the GSM frequencies they use?

I was told by a rep in Seattle that "new towers have just gone in for NYC", though YMMV.

Post reply on HN