Just the fear of getting an earful from my wife if the T-Mobile service leads to dropped calls or something
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 Adds More Data, No-Cost International Texting to Simple Choice Plans
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Just the fear of getting an earful from my wife if the T-Mobile service leads to dropped calls or something
I travel a ton for business and specifically switched to T-Mobile from Verizon recently for this reason. So far it's been awesome. The ability to get data while traveling for free is a major, major benefit - and it works great. Calls made while traveling are cheaper. My Verizon bills while traveling could easily be in the 300 to 400 range due to calls and data, with T-Mobile, I'm around 120 for the same kind of usage.
Just the fear of getting an earful from my wife if the T-Mobile service leads to dropped calls or something
You won't get dropped calls, since you live in a metro area like Chicago. What's the zip code?
----------
Around the world right? What kind of data speeds do you get?
60013
My main hesitation to flipping to T-Mobile though is that I would need to take advantage of their ETF waiver promo (I'm still under contract with AT&T until start of October). I do not want to trade in my current iPhones (they are already unlocked) and then be forced to buy one of theirs at full price. Just doesn't make any sense. I've seen where some people turn in any basic phone, but then I think you still have to buy the new phone through T-Mobile.
Thank you. I guess they just separated them visually because of the Unlimited plan's special usage.
can anybody tell me why the carrier should know or control whether my device is tethering its data?
I think you might be a bit too excited and didn't read carefully what T-Mobile offers.
It's not DATA, it's TEXTS. Plus, I read "from the United States" to mean that you will still get charged for texting while roaming in Europe, so you should check this.
T-Mobile's data is generally much more expensive when roaming overseas than AT&Ts. With AT&T, I used to be able to at least pre-pay for 50MB of data at about $1 per MB.
T-Mobile usually works out to over $2 (sometimes well over) per MB. It's their biggest disadvantage, IMO.
I would love to be wrong, but don't think I am.
Also, on the iPhone, T-Mobile blocks tethering, at least in my case. My Android phone, which is on the same plan, does not have tethering blocked.
So much wrong...
You must not have read the OP. Try again. Let me point out to you with green arrows.
TMo does NOT block tethering on the post paid plans discussed in this thread.
Massively, massively wrong.
T Mobile includes free international data. It is not texts. It is data, and it is free. I pull down a ton of email and internet while traveling, and it has not cost me a penny.
I really struggle to understand why you bothered to post what you did when you so clearly have absolutely zero idea what you are talking about.
----------
Never actually tested the speeds, but it looks like the free data is 3G. It certainly felt fast enough to me - email and web pages generally loaded up pretty quickly.
EDIT:
Wow! So happy to be wrong! Just talked to T-Mobile and switched from the "unlimited" $70 data per line to "global unlimited" for $65 per line. Unlimited calls to selected countries, with $0.20 per minute calls while roaming internationally (selected counties).
Thanks!
Last edited:
macUser2007 - it's a great plan. It's nice to be wrong when the benefits work in your favor, right?! If you travel like I do, and it sounds like you do, you'll be much better off with your new plan. I personally think it is the best in the business.
So, I have a question about the timing of these changes.
Let's say I sign up my family today (or anytime before March 23rd). And I sign up the 5 lines as:
Line 1: Unlimited
Line 2: 2.5 GB
Line 3: 500 MB
Line 4: 500 MB
Line 5: 500 MB
After March 24th, will they then automatically change to:
Line 1: Unlimited (remain at previous price?)
Line 2: 3.0 GB
Line 3: 1.0 GB
Line 4: 1.0 GB
Line 5: 1.0 GB
Or will Line 1 jump up by $10/mo? Thanks!
Let's say I sign up my family today (or anytime before March 23rd). And I sign up the 5 lines as:
Line 1: Unlimited
Line 2: 2.5 GB
Line 3: 500 MB
Line 4: 500 MB
Line 5: 500 MB
After March 24th, will they then automatically change to:
Line 1: Unlimited (remain at previous price?)
Line 2: 3.0 GB
Line 3: 1.0 GB
Line 4: 1.0 GB
Line 5: 1.0 GB
Or will Line 1 jump up by $10/mo? Thanks!
This is pretty much what happened in Europe over 10 years ago which is why our tariffs are so low now compared to the US. Give it another couple of years and US plans should be comparable with ours in Europe. The big players in the US have been gouging customers for far too long with little or no competition.
T-Mobile is good because it's cheap but their service is absolutely dreadful, honestly. They need to get it up to par if they want to remain competitive. I like my $50/month plan but, honestly, I'm ready to go to Virgin Mobile ($30) with Sprint's network next year if they don't improve coverage.
Soooo happy the govt. blocked the ATT/T-Mobile merger. None of this would have happened. In fact, rates would have gone up with less competition. The LTE is so good, I may dump TWC (another merger with Comcast that needs to be blocked) and just use my T-Mobile hotspot at home. It's faster.
Well, these things are very localized and there's never a one size fits all answer. All carriers have poor service areas, no carrier is great everywhere or horrible everywhere. I actually ditched Sprint a year or so back due to the poor call/data service I received here in my part of the Bay Area. It was truly horrible. Verizon was much better, and so far T Mobile has been on a par both here and throughout my US/international travels (with the added benefit of the much better international data plan). It was these plans that made me switch to T-Mobile and so far it's worked out great.
Just keeps getting better and better!
I switched my whole family (four iPhones) from AT&T to T-Mobile here in Northern California about 4 months ago, and there is no looking back. My bill is half as much, my coverage is better (here anyway), I have absolutely unlimited 4GLTE data, and now I'll be able to text my family in Germany for no extra cost. I'm loving it! And when I go back home to the "old country" this summer, all my texting and data will be free (included) there, too. And, to call from Germany to the U.S. is only 20cents a minute. Unless something majorly changes, I will never, ever go back to AT&T....
----------
I guess it depends upon the area. I like in the City of Elk Grove (population 120,000) which is a just south of the major city of Sacramento, in California, and my coverage in Elk Grove and Sacramento (and even in between the cities in the car if I'm streaming music) is actually very good. Right on par with what I had with AT&T.... And I have a feeling T-Mo's coverage will only get better as more and more people dump Verizon and AT&T and the other big guys who gouged us so long...
I switched my whole family (four iPhones) from AT&T to T-Mobile here in Northern California about 4 months ago, and there is no looking back. My bill is half as much, my coverage is better (here anyway), I have absolutely unlimited 4GLTE data, and now I'll be able to text my family in Germany for no extra cost. I'm loving it! And when I go back home to the "old country" this summer, all my texting and data will be free (included) there, too. And, to call from Germany to the U.S. is only 20cents a minute. Unless something majorly changes, I will never, ever go back to AT&T....
----------
I guess it depends upon the area. I like in the City of Elk Grove (population 120,000) which is a just south of the major city of Sacramento, in California, and my coverage in Elk Grove and Sacramento (and even in between the cities in the car if I'm streaming music) is actually very good. Right on par with what I had with AT&T.... And I have a feeling T-Mo's coverage will only get better as more and more people dump Verizon and AT&T and the other big guys who gouged us so long...
I just called T-Mobile to get further clarification on those who already have unlimited data- namely, those who have the unlimited data before March 23.
The rep clarified (and checked with the plans department) that existing customers with unlimited data (before March 23) will be grandfathered in at their regular price and will continue to have 2.5GB of high-speed tethering. Grandfathered in customers with unlimited data will NOT get bumped up to 5GB of high-speed tethering. You will have to pay for the new plan (the additional $10 per line) to get the extra 2.5gb (to total 5gb) if you wanted the 5gb of tethering.
In a nutshell, if you already have unlimited data with T-Mobile now (before March 23), you will only have 2.5GB of tethering AFTER March 23. Not 5GB.
The rep clarified (and checked with the plans department) that existing customers with unlimited data (before March 23) will be grandfathered in at their regular price and will continue to have 2.5GB of high-speed tethering. Grandfathered in customers with unlimited data will NOT get bumped up to 5GB of high-speed tethering. You will have to pay for the new plan (the additional $10 per line) to get the extra 2.5gb (to total 5gb) if you wanted the 5gb of tethering.
In a nutshell, if you already have unlimited data with T-Mobile now (before March 23), you will only have 2.5GB of tethering AFTER March 23. Not 5GB.
The only care if you're using unlimited, because it would be a way for you to get home broadband piggybacked off of your cellular plan and that would cause just a wee bit of problems.
That's why the FCC ruled that mobile carriers can't limit tethering on allotted data plans but it doesn't extend to unlimited. If you have 5GB of data, it's yours to do whatever you want. If you have UNLIMITED data, it's not unreasonable to think people would simply dump their broadband and then hook their laptops and PS4s up to it.
----------
You mean the constant rollouts and expansions they've been doing over the past few years?
Dude, you can't act like getting towers going across the country is something they can do overnight. TMo's coverage is significantly better than it used to be, and they're getting ready to branch out further.