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Carrier T-Mobile $30 Prepaid plan (100 min, unlimited text, 5GB of 4G LTE data)
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I will agree with you for their HSPA+ network that it is better than Sprint's. But if you look at T-mobile's 1900 Mhz 3G coverage it is a sham. They say it covers 100 million population and 23 cities. In reality it is a spotty network of sparse 3 G towers with signals so weak that the coverage falls to Edge inside buildings. While CTO Neville Ray is quick to compare with Sprint and AT&T the reality is that he refuses to provide a 3G coverage map. T-mobile can only get iPhone customers by deceit. Having used the iPhone 5 and retired it, Know what a shoddy 3G network T-mobile has. Apple should refuse to partner with T-mobile if it wants to maintain spoiling its name due to shoddy coverage by T-mobile.
I hear you.
They're nowhere near ready for the iphone. It will be a 2G edge festival with most iphone users.
Maybe within a year or so but by then Verizon and AT&T would have LTE everywhere while they're still catching up to refarmed their 3G.
The main drawback to this plan is the 100 minutes. I don't talk much, but I believe I use more than 100 minutes. Rather take 300 minutes or so with 3GB of data instead.
The T Mobile network sucks. It's super slow. Even if its a great deal monetarily you are getting screwed with the crummy service.
I was in the same situation 30 mins ago when I decided to chat a tmobile rep. He said this offer is only available at walmart or other retail stores. you have to go buy the activation kit.
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so I have straightalk, and I am thinking to switching to this plan. Do you guys think its worth it or will I suffer poor call/internet speeds in florida. and will i get the 4g or 3g on my unlocked iphone 4.
thanks
What about Straighttalk at Wallymart... $45/month for unlimited everything...
4G
AT & T or TMobile compatible phones (same network)
4G
AT & T or TMobile compatible phones (same network)
I have been a T-Mobile iPhone user for about a three years now..at first i had to deal with the terrible speed of EDGE since the iPhone is not built to run on T-Mobile's network..about two months ago i was finally able to get 3G on my iPhone 5 thanks to T-Mobile's attempt to upgrade their network to be able to drag more iPhone users to join their network...I'll admit at first i was really excited about this but after two weeks of 3G coming in and out, weak signal, dropping calls i finally said i've had enough, my iPhone would drop from 3G to EDGE at random times and even go NO SERVICE!!!...so I cancelled my T-Mobile service last friday and got AT&T and i can honestly say its one of the best decision i have made..LTE is a whole different ball game! there's no point on having an iPhone unless you have the speeds to go with it!!!!
i hear all sorts of bad things about straight talk, how their unlimited data plans aren't really unlimited and how iphone users seem to have trouble getting mms and facetime to work properly.
for me the two bad things about the t-mobile plan are the crappy coverage in my area and the lack of 3g. the latter is supposedly coming with all the refarming going on, but it's of no use if the former is still a problem.
The only reason I put up with the 2g speeds is because of the $30 monthly fee. Is it worth it to me to pay an additional $60-$70 more per month to get LTE speeds? No it's not.
I am hoping that the refarming process will be done here in the Raleigh area within the next few months. In early November, it was done in the Crabtree Valley area and I got some really fast speeds on my iPhone 5. Lately though it's back to EDGE in that same area. Maybe they were just doing some testing.
i only see a 50/60/70 $ plan ? the 50 isnt even 2gigs like u guys keep tlaking about it says only 100mb of 4g
hm okay i see it. so is it really 5gn of web data? here in new jersey it looks like my area has good tmobile coverage... trying to see whats the best way to go about this . what if i were to port my number to google voice and just make calls over data lol would this work ?
hm okay i see it. so is it really 5gn of web data? here in new jersey it looks like my area has good tmobile coverage... trying to see whats the best way to go about this . what if i were to port my number to google voice and just make calls over data lol would this work ?
Mobile personal hotspot is another $15 a month atleast, not sure if USB/bluetooth tethering is free or not.
ok thanks for your input. I wont switch to this $30 prepaid tmobile service than. I love my current straightALK SERVICE;$45 unlimited everything. Even though data is not really unlimited but I never run into problems with it. And yes I use data a lot for streaming and everything and call/network quality is phenomenal as well.
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i talked to rep about this as well as I have a old tmobile account that i keep for an emergency. He said just buy the kit from walmart, than call customer service. They will convert your present account into this rate plan. and you can port number as well.
It has never been about LTE. I would have been happy with 3G. The question is after buying an $800 iPhone 5, would I even accept any money to use this fine phone on Edge, and a weak 3 G signaL ? I am giving T-mobile 2 months. Liar CTO Neville Ray announced Minneapolis refarmed, the realities is that a fifth of their towers in the 4G area are giving 3G signal. Do not throw your good money after bad on T-Mobile. Is it any wonder the company even refuses to show its 3G coverage maps?
Agreed!
The T-Mobile plan sounds tempting, and I had it once but the 2G was not the best. What really made me switch was I would have so-so coverage here at my home in Dallas, and NONE in Lehigh Valley PA/ my other home! So AT&T wins for me....for now.
Ah T-Mobile, just as ridiculous as the rest of the US carriers, they just don't seem to be able to get anything right.
So I went to walmart today to look for the sim activation kit, but ofcourse they don't have it, so I bought a prepaid phone for $20 just to get the sim.
Came home, tried to activate, and it says "Invalid SIM card number". I see that the number on the actual sim card is different from the one on the outside of the box. So I ask customer support, and they say that the card number is not scanned for activation and tell me I have to go back to fix the problem THEY created, even though I watched the cashier scan it. Now I ask about the different number on the outside of the box, and they say it's good and I can just use that one instead.
I ask them; but are you sure that will work since it's a different serial? I don't wanna end up paying for 1 month and not have it work. And they say it's all good, I should just go ahead and use that.
Ofcourse this is exactly what happens, I activate, and my phone does not work. If I call the number from another phone, it goes straight to voicemail even if my phone is turned on and have service. So basically I activated another simcard now. Jeez this BS is just too much. Now I'm gonna go back to support and demand they send me a replacement SIM for the serial I just activated and paid for, free of charge ofc.
So I talked to customer support again, they can not help me at all. They want me to return the kit, and they would not even refund me the $30 I paid for activation. On the top of this, I'm signed up for auto-refill every month, but I can't log in to my account to change this, as to do that you have to receive a code by sms on the phone number tied to the account, and I cannot receive sms since it's the wrong sim. Am I dreaming or is it possible to have customer support this bad?
So I went to walmart today to look for the sim activation kit, but ofcourse they don't have it, so I bought a prepaid phone for $20 just to get the sim.
Came home, tried to activate, and it says "Invalid SIM card number". I see that the number on the actual sim card is different from the one on the outside of the box. So I ask customer support, and they say that the card number is not scanned for activation and tell me I have to go back to fix the problem THEY created, even though I watched the cashier scan it. Now I ask about the different number on the outside of the box, and they say it's good and I can just use that one instead.
I ask them; but are you sure that will work since it's a different serial? I don't wanna end up paying for 1 month and not have it work. And they say it's all good, I should just go ahead and use that.
Ofcourse this is exactly what happens, I activate, and my phone does not work. If I call the number from another phone, it goes straight to voicemail even if my phone is turned on and have service. So basically I activated another simcard now. Jeez this BS is just too much. Now I'm gonna go back to support and demand they send me a replacement SIM for the serial I just activated and paid for, free of charge ofc.
So I talked to customer support again, they can not help me at all. They want me to return the kit, and they would not even refund me the $30 I paid for activation. On the top of this, I'm signed up for auto-refill every month, but I can't log in to my account to change this, as to do that you have to receive a code by sms on the phone number tied to the account, and I cannot receive sms since it's the wrong sim. Am I dreaming or is it possible to have customer support this bad?
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I'm going to try it in January see how I do with a VoIP service like google voice for calls so I don't use my minutes . I called and asked how the 4g was here in jersey and the map shows I'm very well covered including voice and data . The only other place I go is NYC an of course that covered fine . For 30$ I went and got the 1$ micro sim on the website and the guy told me to put it in a blackberry cut it then insert Ito iPhone 5 and should work ... Haha not much to loose but damn so I want a thirty dollar monthly bill
Yup, I agree with this post 100%. T-Mobile isn't ready for the iPhone in any capacity at all. The network isn't ready for it. At least Sprint has 3G everywhere (even though it might be slow).
By the end of 2013, VZW and AT&T will be almost done with LTE and start LTE-A, and Sprint will have been huge strides in their rollout as well. TMobile? They will be still be refarming, so poor iPhone users can get 3G, while iPhones on AT&T/Sprint/VZW will have had LTE for a while now.
LTE service on an iPhone 5 in the States (without a FAN discount) is expensive. Bottom line. I have a favorable plan due to grandfathering with AT&T (450 mins/1000 texts/2 GB) and my monthly bill with tax and fees included is roughly $82 a month. And that isn't even very high compared to many others using an iPhone 5 on VZ/AT&T/Sprint.
I'm in a weird spot because I'm interviewing for a new job and a potential FAN discount would be the best case scenario. To be honest, if you are using an iPhone 5 in the States then you probably resigned your contract this past fall and the ETF will be hard to justify leaving your current situation.
MY ETF aside, the 3 alternatives (this T-Mobile plan, Straight Talk, and Virgin Mobile) all seem pretty flawed. The T-Mobile plan appears to offer questionable coverage inside buildings. I'm also getting the impression in this thread that we are not to believe entirely that the 4G coverage itself is consistent. Straight Talk had issues with data nationwide at the end of this past summer plus it's messy when it comes to Visual Voicemail and MMS. From what I understand the data on ST goes first to Chicago and then relayed back to your location, causing it to be a bit slower than traditional 4G speeds. Virgin Mobile is an official iPhone provider so you get MMS, VVM, and the like but I keep hearing that Virgin's data (Sprint) is slow slow slow.
LTE is amazing, and I'll probably end up sticking with AT&T, but I do feel like we are getting completely screwed over by VZ/AT&T/Sprint. An individual smartphone bill should not be more than $60 a month with normal usage.
I'm in a weird spot because I'm interviewing for a new job and a potential FAN discount would be the best case scenario. To be honest, if you are using an iPhone 5 in the States then you probably resigned your contract this past fall and the ETF will be hard to justify leaving your current situation.
MY ETF aside, the 3 alternatives (this T-Mobile plan, Straight Talk, and Virgin Mobile) all seem pretty flawed. The T-Mobile plan appears to offer questionable coverage inside buildings. I'm also getting the impression in this thread that we are not to believe entirely that the 4G coverage itself is consistent. Straight Talk had issues with data nationwide at the end of this past summer plus it's messy when it comes to Visual Voicemail and MMS. From what I understand the data on ST goes first to Chicago and then relayed back to your location, causing it to be a bit slower than traditional 4G speeds. Virgin Mobile is an official iPhone provider so you get MMS, VVM, and the like but I keep hearing that Virgin's data (Sprint) is slow slow slow.
LTE is amazing, and I'll probably end up sticking with AT&T, but I do feel like we are getting completely screwed over by VZ/AT&T/Sprint. An individual smartphone bill should not be more than $60 a month with normal usage.