Whew- that's good: I read the headline and thought that T-Mobile had unveiled a new tier for their JUMP! plan: upgrade your phone every week!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
T-Mobile Announces 'Test Drive', A One Week Network Trial With a Free iPhone 5s
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I would try again down the road with a LTE device. T-Mobile hopes to have half of their rural Edge network upgraded to LTE by the end of the year with a majority of it done mid next year.
For some of those rural sites (outside of some that are cost prohibitive to run backhaul to) they will be going right to LTE and not using 3G - so a 4s wouldn't be able to pick up on those improvements.
Wow, T-Mobile is really stepping up it's game. This is a fantastic example of a company taking on the customer's risk in order to get more customers.
It's going to work very well for them. Nice to see a company make big changes like this in the name of competition.
It's going to work very well for them. Nice to see a company make big changes like this in the name of competition.
If you want unlimited high speed data, pay for an unlimited high speed data plan. Your speed of access to other content is not being limited or narrowed. All data is equal until you hit your high speed cap.
The only problem I have with this program is the $700 hold T-mobile puts on your credit/debit card. I can understand their reason for doing this, but a lot of people don't have that much money to just "put on hold" for at least one week -- probably more like one month before the "hold" is released and you have your $700 back.
I left T-mobile because of the poor reception in my neighborhood (I literally lived in a "dead zone" where any T-mobile phone would drop its call). I'd be interested in trying out their plan, but not with a temporary $700 ding on my credit card.
I left T-mobile because of the poor reception in my neighborhood (I literally lived in a "dead zone" where any T-mobile phone would drop its call). I'd be interested in trying out their plan, but not with a temporary $700 ding on my credit card.
I mean, I guess it's cool that you get free music streaming.....
... but is it not weird that T-Mobile is going through your usage to see what apps you're using?
... but is it not weird that T-Mobile is going through your usage to see what apps you're using?
The potential for problems depends on how they decide to take this. As it stands, they are subsidizing the costs entirely for services they've partnered with and allow other services to contact them and sign up. Assuming T-Mobile does not cherry-pick services, then this would be a boon to all of them, particularly the ones with low amounts of data (e.g. the free, 500MB tier).
It's a difficult position for them. On the one hand, T-Mobile (seemingly) is trying many different ways to entice customers to switch to them. Paying for their customer's data usage in my opinion is a great way, as I'm now more inclined to stream on-the-go. But they apparently cannot win because of the "slippery slope" argument many seem to be making.
[Edit] For the record, I'm for net neutrality, but also for selective priority based on type, so long as it is guaranteed that every user and content provider have equal access/footing in consuming/serving that content. That is why I support what T-Mobile is doing in this case, because they are not discriminating different types of streaming services; Pandora, Spotify, iTunes Radio, etc. all have equal opportunity in joining this plan.
More likely, they're creating exceptions based on the source of the traffic. It would not be dissimilar to how certain carriers discount speed testing applications from their customer's data usage.
Last edited:
Love seeing this. Game changing - good on you T-Mobile. How long until other carriers follow suit?
This would be amazing.. if I had T-Mobile around here. The free music streaming is awesome too. Hopefully Apple is giving them free iPhones so they can gain a bunch of iPhone subscribers, then Apple can buy them and start an iNetwork. Yeah, I know, not going to happen.. but I can wish. 
They stated in keynote, there is no business contract with music providers.
They want to do all eventually. Its manual and labor intensive to figure out all the various servers, mirrors and load balancing servers, protocols used etc and get whitelisted in their routers.
But that's just it. All data is NOT equal. Again, T-Mobile is giving certain services an advantage over others precisely because data is so expensive. If Service A is "free" thanks to a carrier, new service B cannot compete unless the carrier also makes its data free. Carriers should NOT have that kind of power.
No. Data is expensive on other networks, which is why T-Mobile is hoping this will be another incentive for customers to switch. The point of their conference today was to put an emphasis on customer data utilization, and in this case, music.
This is FANTASTIC. I am tired of paying VZW prices and I am intrigued by TMo to say the least. This is a win win for me. Already signed up to be notified when I can sign up for real. Smart move T Mobile, well done.
Couple this with the free 200 MB of data per month, which works great for me on a tablet, as well as WiFi Calling working on T-Mobile's network on iOS 8 (and the iPhone 6, when it comes out) -- and you've got me VERY intrigued to check out T-Mobile as my new provider in a few months. I switched from AT&T to Verizon 2 years ago and finally have a smartphone that works reliably as a phone. But Verizon still doesn't let me talk and surf at the same time (over cellular, at least) and the bill's pretty high. If T-Mobile's network is good enough for me (hopefully a week is long enough to test in the places I roll most) then I may end up taking the leap after all.
As a loyal AT&T customer since 2007, I thank T-Mobile greatly. They have done so much to change the carrier market which AT&T has followed in many cases.
I've saved money on my AT&T bill by a LOT, have better quality and value of service, and additional savings on new 2 year renewals. All of it was because of what T-Mobile has done.
Now if AT&T were to adopt free data for iTunes Radio and Pandora, I would be even more thrilled!
So while I am with AT&T still, I thank T-Mobile for everything they have done and continue to do to make my service even better. Kudos!
I've saved money on my AT&T bill by a LOT, have better quality and value of service, and additional savings on new 2 year renewals. All of it was because of what T-Mobile has done.
Now if AT&T were to adopt free data for iTunes Radio and Pandora, I would be even more thrilled!
So while I am with AT&T still, I thank T-Mobile for everything they have done and continue to do to make my service even better. Kudos!