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!
3G after
Not 3G, EDGE.
T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
151–160 of 177 posts
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great, more revisionism. > When these patents expired, there were soon 80 competing companies which captured 5% of the market, rising to over 3,000 companies with over 50% of the market by 1900. And starting in 1907 and the return of Vail, Bell started massively buying them out, attracting the attention of the Justice Department and leading to the Kingsbury Commitment. Kingsbury was essentially repealed 8 years later…
How are you still ignoring that the patent system created the monopoly?
Because the patent was not the only thing that created the monopoly, nor was the the most important thing in sustaining the monopoly over telecommunication services at that time. Given the nature of how the tech worked, a monopoly provider was inevitable. The patent only dictated that the name of the monopoly provider was AT&T instead of Western Union.
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#153Okay, 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.
Reported signal issues many times. Nothing done, said use Wifi calling. Had to drop T-Mobile.
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#154Has anyone made a coverage map yet? That would be useful (going to be limited by radio coverage/standards/countries/etc)
http://opensignal.com Don't know how accurate it can be.
It has no useful relationship to reality. It relies on a self-selecting group of people to download and run their app to collect data, and then presents that data in what I'm sure is a precise but utterly inaccurate form.
If you believe it, there is no signal from any carrier at either my current home in Washington, nor my previous home in Santa Clara. And there is certainly no T-Mobile, AT&T, or other GSM carrier signal to be found anywhere near my current home (my AT&T iPhone stubbornly insists on working regardless).
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#155Just in case anyone hasn't noticed this: > While the data is free, it won't be particularly fast. Customers can expect network speeds at around the same level that they get in the US after they are throttled. Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert said the average speed customers would get would be around 128 kilobits a second. Think of it more of an extension of the Kindle 3G business model rather than anything else.…
For me, that's not the painful part. The painful part is the six week limit. When I was in Taiwan, I was handed a prepaid dumbphone and a 4G wireless hotspot with iffy battery life and some indoor coverage issues. Being able to send/receive SMSs and brief phone calls with my smartphone's home number, and keep up on email and light browsing on my own phone without being at the mercy of the hotspot, would have been ver…
I think that the case T-Mobile is going for is not the person who lives in another country for long periods of time for work but the traveller who has to constantly go back and forth between areas, or just a frequent vacationer.
I imagine it's just better for you to get your own plan if you're spending 3/4 of the year there.
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not really a prime example of good competition. The only reason T-Mobile can do this is because they are basically getting a massive subsidization from the German mother company, the German Telecom, who is behaving in its German home market just like AT&T behaves in the USA. As soon as T-Mobile gains any significant market share it will be just like the others.
So how exactly does getting subsidized by a mother company to offer a compelling package not equal good competition?
think of this as microsoft and sony taking a hit for every console they sell. It's anti-competitive because other console manufacturers can't do that.
in the end, you end up with a result like in politics. Whoever has more money wins the whole market.
The market pretty much exchanged short term benefits (cheaper console, better phone plans) for worse longer term problems (lame games because you have no choice, more expensive phone plans because you have no choice)
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#157Good to hear. US carriers do a terrible job of dealing with anything international. It's as though they're honestly surprised that anybody would ever want to leave the USA or make a phone call to anybody in another country. An example: I flew to the 'states this weekend. Once on the ground, I topped up my American (T-Mobile) sim with a month's worth of credit. (There was no way to do this from abroad since their sims…
> Good to hear. US carriers do a terrible job of dealing with anything international. It's as though they're honestly surprised that anybody would ever want to leave the USA or make a phone call to anybody in another country.
Your case is a little different but in general it's a huge stream of free revenue for the carriers. Very few people pick their plan based on international roaming. People don't roam internationally very often. Those that do are likely on a business plan and much less sensitive to price. No one has any idea what it costs so they can use very opaque pricing schemes.
As the article says, AT&T and VZW are making 90% margin on their international business which you'd think would make it ripe for competition. But since almost no one purchases their plans based on the international roaming fees there hasn't been much going on.
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
It also didn't hurt that AT&T paid T-Mobile $3 billion in a breakup fee. They're spending it wisely, at least. [1] - http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/02/t-mobile-takes-3-bill...
Sounds like that failed takeover bid was the 2nd best thing that AT&T did for US mobile customers in recent history (the iPhone deal with their Cingular subsidiary being the most impactful).
AT&T Wireless is literally Cingular, rebranded (announced at the iPhone keynote, no less).
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#159T-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 a few months ago and it's been great. I was afraid I was going to have to switch away, since we're going to be out of the country a lot next year. I'm super happy to be able to stick with them now.
Re: T-Mobile to offer free unlimited international data, texts
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
For me, that's not the painful part. The painful part is the six week limit. When I was in Taiwan, I was handed a prepaid dumbphone and a 4G wireless hotspot with iffy battery life and some indoor coverage issues. Being able to send/receive SMSs and brief phone calls with my smartphone's home number, and keep up on email and light browsing on my own phone without being at the mercy of the hotspot, would have been ver…
I think that the case T-Mobile is going for is not the person who lives in another country for long periods of time for work but the traveller who has to constantly go back and forth between areas, or just a frequent vacationer. I imagine it's just better for you to get your own plan if you're spending 3/4 of the year there.
Getting my own plan was a legal impossibility, and would have done little to help anyone in the US get hold of me.
car's suggestion is at least an interesting half-solution. I didn't even consider a T-Mobile "wi-fi calling" phone at the time, as I'd been under the impression, right up until today, that T-Mobile had only had that feature for a couple years before abandoning it.