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

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

#31

Post by xster » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:29 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!

T-Mobile sounds great on paper but it's like selling sports cars for 1000$ and you don't know you just bought a Lada until you take it for a spin.

I drove from the Canadian east coast to California with a T-Mobile unlimited plan. For 90% of the trip, I was actually roaming on other carriers' networks. I derived zero value from my payment to T-Mobile since I can't actually use my phone except for 911. Now I'm in San Francisco for half a year and speed is around 0.05Mbps in about 30% of the city. And they're not uninhabited spots of town either.

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

#32

Post by xster » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:31 AM UTC

craftkiller wrote: post #15

T-Mobile has realized exactly what a carrier is supposed to be and ironically named it "Uncarrier". No more subsidizing phones, no more contracts, just a pipe. We will move data between your phone and the world for a flat fee and that is the end of the story. I switched to T-Mobile about a month ago because I agree with their business practices and want to support their growth.

Carriers outside North America are what carriers are supposed to be.

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

#33

Post by lobster_johnson » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:32 AM UTC

I wonder if they have added more roaming agreements to their network. Last time I was in Norway, there was no coverage at all -- no network, no calls, never mind Internet access -- which I found strange. Usually you will be able to connect to via local network and pay for roaming charges. Norway is all GSM, same frequency band, and my plan has International calling, but I still had to swap out the SIM card for my Norwegian one. Could be a fluke, of course. Edit: Or it may be that pay-as-you-go doesn't provide international roaming.

I love T-Mobile's approach, and the whole reason I use them is because they are the underdog who's doing things a little differently.

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

#34

Post by shitlord » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:32 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!

As much as I love T Mobile's policies, I hate their coverage. I get 0 bars inside non-wood buildings, but when I step outside, I get a few bars. I live in a somewhat hilly area, so I get spotty reception in certain parts of town. I really wish they would spend more money trying to improve their coverage instead of telling everyone how they are so different. Because even if they are different, if they have poor coverage, they won't get a lot of customers.

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

#35

Post by rallison » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:41 AM UTC

I have been quite pleased to see T-Mobile continuing to provide AT&T and Verizon with some competition. I sampled T-Mobile for a couple of months with their $30 unlimited data/text plan and was pleasantly surprised with the performance in the LA area - on a Nexus 4 (without LTE), speeds were generally better than on AT&T. The only reason I finally went back to AT&T was for rural coverage, as I do enough traveling that this was an issue. Were it not for that, I would have gladly stayed with T-Mobile.

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

#36

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:44 AM UTC

staunch wrote: post #17

freehunter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be willing to pay for this service here in the US for a reasonable price. There are plenty of things I would love a low-end data plan for, but can't justify the cost of $45/mo for prepaid data at 1.5GB/mo like Net10 offers. Think of electronics projects that could benefit from an anywhere, always on connection even if it's super slow. But is that project worth $45/mo, and is it worth it if you run out of data…

They have an unlimited plan for $30 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148698

[deleted]

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

#37

Post by elq » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:44 AM UTC

brownbat wrote: post #29

staunch wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have an unlimited plan for $30 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6148698

Had. [EDIT: Er, Have. With apologies, see below discussion.] I'm paying $25/mo for a limited no-contract BYOB plan. They're still taking my money for it, but I'm a little scared, since I can no longer find it on the site. Over the last six months, I've seen T-Mobile BYOD plans at $15, 25, 30, 35, 45, and up. Now, you can't get any plan from T-Mobile under $50 per month, and that "cheap" plan comes with less high spee…

The still have that plan - http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans it's just a bit hidden.

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

#38

Post by grecy » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:45 AM UTC

I continue to be dumbfounded that intelligent people would call this "free". The degree to which marketing has invaded our everyday lives is astonishing.

It's not free, you're paying a monthly fee for it.

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

#39

Post by SeoxyS » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:45 AM UTC

This is huge. I recently spent ~$200 on AT&T's $30/120MB bundles on a two-week trip to Europe. I thought I was getting a good deal, too. It's fantastic to see the market shifting slightly in favor of the customers.

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

#40

Post by eurleif » Thu, Oct 10, 2013, 1:45 AM UTC

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/

>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.

I'm not an economist, and I haven't looked into the details of the cell phone market in depth, but here's a possible alternative opinion. I'm not asserting that this is the case; just wondering if it might be.

Would T-Mobile be able to treat customers as well if they were more popular, or are they only in this position because their ratio of customers to cell towers, spectrum, and other capital is lower? And if the latter is true, isn't that an inefficient use of resources, which market forces (i.e. the merger) would have corrected if not for government intervention?