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

161–170 of 187 posts

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#161

Post by commandar »

arrrg wrote: post #68
skrause wrote: post #18

> Because if all of us move to T-Mobile, the other carriers will have no choice to join them in being customer friendly. No, if all people move to T-Mobile, they will just start behaving like the other carriers. The only reasons they're customer friendly is because they have a low market share and try to win customers, not because it's their company culture. Just look at their German parent company, Deutsche Telekom…

Yeah, the goal is to have a marketplace where market pressures lead to all competitors being incentivized to behave like T-Mobile does currently. I’m just not sure whether that’s possible. And I agree, Deutsche Telekom in Germany is awful and incompetent when it comes to customer service. If only their network weren’t so goddamn great … (It feels like a reversal of the situation in the US: Their technology is great a…

>And I agree, Deutsche Telekom in Germany is awful and incompetent when it comes to customer service. If only their network weren’t so goddamn great … (It feels like a reversal of the situation in the US: Their technology is great and they are very competent at building their infrastructure – but how they treat customers is the exact opposite of that. And when I say technology I mean the network, not the technology they use to interface with customers.

Amusingly, you just described VZW in the United States. Fantastic network, absolutely awful at dealing with their customers.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#162

Post by 001sky »

stevenleeg wrote: post #29
skrause wrote: post #18

> Because if all of us move to T-Mobile, the other carriers will have no choice to join them in being customer friendly. No, if all people move to T-Mobile, they will just start behaving like the other carriers. The only reasons they're customer friendly is because they have a low market share and try to win customers, not because it's their company culture. Just look at their German parent company, Deutsche Telekom…

But at least there are no 2 year contracts to keep us locked into T-Mobile if they ever turn into dirtbags!

But at least there are no 2 year contracts...

The usa was 5 years behind the eu in forcing contracts, so yes this is just another marketing gimmick. classic bait & switch tactic. all of the carriers forced contracts after they bought out the regional mobile providers during the decade 1995-2005.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#163

Post by JVIDEL »

Yeah, I went to Tmob a few months after their big relaunch/remodeling/whatever that made quite a splash in nearly every blog as the "end of bullshit"

The results? well the plans were just as expensive as those from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, except that Tmobile had by far the worst coverage of all, I didn't get any signal inside my office.

The plan mobility was crap as well, with some plans you were stuck and couldn't move, they wanted me to buy a new SIMcard to change plans and I had to get the new one from one of their stores in particular else it wouldn't work. Why do that if not to keep me locked in a crap plan?

They said it was the end of carrier trickery but they forced me get a ridiculously expensive plan in order to be able to pay for an additional international calling service, meaning that I had to pay for a bunch of crap I did not need just to be able to qualify for that small extra feature.

Overall my experience was pretty bad and Tmob's new strategy can be summed as much ado about nothing with a lot of fine print in the middle.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#164

Post by ewang1 »

bshep wrote: post #151
michaelgold wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the iPhone 5s has wifi calling. Is this accurate? http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/52768?start=0&tstart=0

Although Facetime Voicecalls are not the same thing, its similar and works with any iOS 7

Not really... FaceTime only lets you do iOS to iOS. Wifi calling lets you call any phone number.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#165

Post by rdtsc »

X-Istence wrote: post #38
alive-or-not wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same as Apple - when they were almost dead they had to use and contribute to open source projects and treat the customer fair. Nowadays they are making it clear all iThings out there belong to Apple and working hard to wall Mac OSX as well.

Apple still contributes to open source A LOT.

> Apple still contributes to open source A LOT.

Oh wow you capitalized "A LOT". I am sure you'll be able to list at least 30 large known open source projects actively maintained or contributed to by Apple.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#166

Post by greg5green »

voltagex_ wrote: post #141
Hengjie wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They do (although I was only able to test this in a very small part of Idaho) allow roaming on to AT&T. Supposedly it's free with a data limit.

Yes, there is free UMTS/HSPA/EDGE roaming on AT&T for post-paid plans (aka not the $30 100 minute/5gb plan) and there is a data limit. For my plan, its 50 megabytes, which doesn't seem like much, but AT&T throttles you to 128kbit/s, so you really have to work hard to get to that 50 megs.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#167

Post by draebek »

goggles99 wrote: post #118
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…

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…

FWIW, Verizon MVNOs do not get to use Verizon's LTE network AFAIK. Actually, that may be the case with AT&T too? I'm not sure.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#168

Post by alexpopescu »

greenmountin wrote: post #99
Shivetya wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so tired of two year contracts, but I have a list of 'approved' carriers I can choose from and have my phone partially paid for. Until recently T-Mobile was not on the list. Now all I need to do if wait out my current two year with the other guys. There is certainly nothing smart about paying seventy, eighty, or more, per month for a smart phone. If anyone is smart its the guys charging for it and getting it.

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 think this is quite incorrect. I've recently got the new iPhone and looked at the possible options across AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile (I haven't included Sprint for a reason I cannot recall right now).

If you calculate the costs over a 2 year span, the differences are quite significant: http://jots.mypopescu.com/post/61007400356/iphone-5s-choosin...

_nb_: I haven't included any interest/depreciation rates though.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#169

Post by dwaltrip »

Shivetya wrote: post #83
stevenleeg wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at least there are no 2 year contracts to keep us locked into T-Mobile if they ever turn into dirtbags!

I am so tired of two year contracts, but I have a list of 'approved' carriers I can choose from and have my phone partially paid for. Until recently T-Mobile was not on the list. Now all I need to do if wait out my current two year with the other guys. There is certainly nothing smart about paying seventy, eighty, or more, per month for a smart phone. If anyone is smart its the guys charging for it and getting it.

T-Mobile savings might be enough to more than cover the cost of breaking your contract. Their best plans are $30-$50 a month.

Re: T-Mobile Rocks

#170

Post by adharmad »

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?

Possible typo. Maybe the author meant $2000/year
Post reply on HN