T-Mobile Adds New Plans With More Hotspot Data

[WarmWinterHat]

It is a cancerous business tactic, I agree. I own my phone outright now after paying it off, but I still can't get a mobile plan cheaper than $85/month through my provider. The cheaper providers often are just resellers with less coverage, so it's a no-win situation.

Providers make these plans sound like a "good deal" by including large data buckets, but the reality is — which they know! — is that most people will never use up that much data, but they've gotta pay the monthly fee anyway.

Don't fall for it.

I'm not sure what plan you're on, or what country you're in, but $85 is a lot. I'm on an older unlimited t-mobile plan, with three lines for $80, but even if I was buying a single line there are much better options than $85. I've had pre-paid plans and the service, for me, has been identical, even out in the nowhere rural areas that I like to frequent.

These high-data mobile plans are as much marketing as anything else. If people would pay attention to how much data they actually use, they might not need them. I average around 3-5gb/month.

 

[burgman]

Considering the government aka the citizens own the airwaves it would be perfectly acceptable for the government to pass some laws to stop price gouging and deceptive advertising. Don’t worry however as the government isn’t looking out for you and rarely passes laws to protect you.

Move to Europe your interpretation of being taken care of fits perfectly. Don’t want the plan don’t buy it. I agree on deceptive advertising especially healthcare products. Learning to read the fine print and T&C should be taught, Not legislated

 

[burgman]

Recently upgraded to their new plans. It doubled my hotspot data while keeping all the same benefits as before, and saved me $5/month even after their new rate increase.

T-Mobile quick reply team in action…

 

[jblank]

Considering the government aka the citizens own the airwaves it would be perfectly acceptable for the government to pass some laws to stop price gouging and deceptive advertising. Don’t worry however as the government isn’t looking out for you and rarely passes laws to protect you.

Define gouging, please. Nobody is forced to subscribe to these plans, there are many other options for the consumer that are cheaper and cell phone plans aren’t a finite resource.

Government never looks out for the people and it’s not your friend. If people would use the power of the market and not just take the bi-annual Netflix price increases or refuse to buy the uber expensive new shiny, flashy thing, these corporations would learn and they’d adjust accordingly. You have just as much power to influence what businesses do as yet another unnecessary law would.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

What’s with “hot spot” charges ? Rubbish. It’s data one pays for. The telecoms have no reason to police its use.

While true, logically, the problem is the people who were using their hotspot as their main household internet service and consuming magnitudes more than an average mobile user. Originally that was why the carriers put limits on hotspot -- it's meant to be used to temporarily connect another device to the internet when WIFI isn't available.

 

[jblank]

lets keep screwing the people and make the shareholders richer YESSSS and less competition too by buying them!!!

You don’t understand. Take your business elsewhere, convince others to do the same. If the company, any company, gets pushback in the form of a massive drop in customers due to their business practices, they will learn.

We’re a T-MO house and I’m not pleased with the mandatory $5 a line increase on our plan, but I’ll take it for now because I’m happy with the service. When they do something egregious, it will piss my wife off first and we’ll leave them and let them know why.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Or Tello (who runs on T-Mobile) with their current promotion of $45 for 3 months of 'unlimited' everything.

What good is a 3 month promotion?

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Define gouging, please. Nobody is forced to subscribe to these plans, there are many other options for the consumer that are cheaper and cell phone plans aren’t a finite resource.

Government never looks out for the people and it’s not your friend. If people would use the power of the market and not just take the bi-annual Netflix price increases or refuse to buy the uber expensive new shiny, flashy thing, these corporations would learn and they’d adjust accordingly. You have just as much power to influence what businesses do as yet another unnecessary law would.

Complaining is much easier than acting and doing without to send a message to greedy companies. People are all talk and no action if it involves any inconvenience.

 

[BeatCrazy]

What’s with “hot spot” charges ? Rubbish. It’s data one pays for. The telecoms have no reason to police its use.

Because the top 1% uses ~30% of the data, and they do it by abusing hotspot.

Instead of paying for home internet, you have people that would use hotspot in a way to tether multiple devices, including TV/video streaming, and burn through >1TB per month of mobile data. Some even well beyond that.

Mobile capacity/spectrum is a fixed resource. When you have the majority of people using <10GB of hotspot and <100GB for a single line (per month), then some yahoo starts pulling down 2TB per month because of tethering.

So yes, the telcos absolutely have a requirement to 'police' its use. If your neighbor is hogging all the capacity on the tower because of tethering, etc. then the casual user is going to feel the pain. Then complain, maybe switch carriers.

And you can't say 'just build more towers!'. It's not that simple. Spectrum is finite, alongside things like backhaul capacity, network core capacity, etc. Thousands of people work at each carrier to properly manage and optimize these things, but every resource is finite.

 

[alexandr]

T-Mobile has their tricks to move subscribers onto higher priced plans

T-Mobile Automatically Upgrading Users to More Expensive Plans, But There's an Opt-Out Option

T-Mobile will be forcing customers on older smartphone plans to move to newer, more expensive plans, according to information that has been shared on...

www.macrumors.com

And if that doesn't work, they'll just raise prices on legacy plans again.

T-Mobile Hikes Rates for Legacy Customers. Which Plans Are Affected?

The $5-per-line price hike affects customers on older plans.

www.cnet.com

T-Mobile Hikes Rates for Legacy Customers. Which Plans Are Affected?

March 14, 2025

T-Mobile may rank well as many people's favorite wireless carrier, but customers aren't too happy about an unexpected increase in the price of their legacy cell phone plans.

Some T-Mobile customers with older cellphone plans learned yesterday that their bills will see a $5-per-line increase beginning with their April or May bills. This comes after the company raised rates last June on other legacy plans.

In a Reddit r/tmobile megathread, customers have been chiming in with which plans they have and whether they received the notification. (In many instances, people say their plans seemed to be unaffected, only to then add something like, "Edit: Never mind, just got the email.") Plans mentioned include:

• Magenta Max
• T-Mobile One and One PlusSimple Choice
• Simple Choice
• OnePlus Promo Plan
• Legacy Sprint plans

.

Yes, this was talked about here, but I don't think that's the same thing. I also don't think that's unprecedented in any way, but I'm getting a lot of angry reactions here, so I better stop)))

 

[Timpetus]

Because the top 1% uses ~30% of the data, and they do it by abusing hotspot.

Instead of paying for home internet, you have people that would use hotspot in a way to tether multiple devices, including TV/video streaming, and burn through >1TB per month of mobile data. Some even well beyond that.

Mobile capacity/spectrum is a fixed resource. When you have the majority of people using <10GB of hotspot and <100GB for a single line (per month), then some yahoo starts pulling down 2TB per month because of tethering.

So yes, the telcos absolutely have a requirement to 'police' its use. If your neighbor is hogging all the capacity on the tower because of tethering, etc. then the casual user is going to feel the pain. Then complain, maybe switch carriers.

And you can't say 'just build more towers!'. It's not that simple. Spectrum is finite, alongside things like backhaul capacity, network core capacity, etc. Thousands of people work at each carrier to properly manage and optimize these things, but every resource is finite.

Isn't just not offering unlimited data the solution? Cap it at something perfectly reasonable like 10x the average user and don't police hotspot vs. on phone use, because a GB is a GB whether it goes to my computer or my phone.

 

[kmm333]

The US carriers’ plans amaze me! For $60/months with Telenor Sweden I get unlimited data in Nordic region (100 GB/mon when roaming in EU, ESS and US) on two SIMs. No tethering limits. Public IP included. 😳

There's no question that the US carriers are quite greedy. But I will say, it is significantly more expensive to roll out and maintain a reliable network across the massive land mass that is the US vs. smaller countries like Sweden.

 

[Zaren]

T-Mobile has their tricks to move subscribers onto higher priced plans

T-Mobile Automatically Upgrading Users to More Expensive Plans, But There's an Opt-Out Option

T-Mobile will be forcing customers on older smartphone plans to move to newer, more expensive plans, according to information that has been shared on...

www.macrumors.com

Thanks for reminding me to check that again. I'm still on their old "ONE Plan TE" from when we first signed up with them. Our most recent bill was $131.74 for four lines of unlimited 4G everything. I have no incentive to upgrade our phones or our plan. If and when they try to force march me to another, more expensive, plan, I'll be looking at other options.

 

[tubedogg]

Recently upgraded to their new plans. It doubled my hotspot data while keeping all the same benefits as before, and saved me $5/month even after their new rate increase.

Really curious how you could have done this given the plans were only released yesterday.

 

[BeatCrazy]

Isn't just not offering unlimited data the solution? Cap it at something perfectly reasonable like 10x the average user and don't police hotspot vs. on phone use, because a GB is a GB whether it goes to my computer or my phone.

The US carriers tried that, 12-15 years ago. Public didn't like that approach!

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

[mathiasinthe314]

When they surcharged my One Plus plan a couple last year, we switch to Mint. Even though it is owned by T-Mobile, we were disappointed with customer service and had some issues. We switched back to T-Mobile and jumped on the Essentials plan. We pay $100 plus taxes and fees for 4 lines. With the $35 for T-Mobile Home Internet we're at about $147 all together. I know we're prioritized lower, but it's only been a pain once or twice.

 

[BillyBurke]

You don’t understand. Take your business elsewhere, convince others to do the same. If the company, any company, gets pushback in the form of a massive drop in customers due to their business practices, they will learn.

We’re a T-MO house and I’m not pleased with the mandatory $5 a line increase on our plan, but I’ll take it for now because I’m happy with the service. When they do something egregious, it will piss my wife off first and we’ll leave them and let them know why.

Where are you going to run? I've been with T-mobile for a couple of decades now and remain happy with their service. I travel to Europe and Japan from time to time. T-Mobile just "works" offshore.

 

[NervousFish2]

Where are you going to run? I've been with T-mobile for a couple of decades now and remain happy with their service. I travel to Europe and Japan from time to time. T-Mobile just "works" offshore.

If you travel overseas at all, they are vastly superior to ATT and Verizon. You get better and much cheaper data. ATT add on data is a scam.

 

[GDF]

I moved from T-Mobile and ATT postpaid to T-Mobile Prepaid to avoid providing my social security number. I don't think any service or price cut could get me back to postpaid if it means providing my SSN to these telecoms.

T-Mobile Sued Again Over Massive 2021 Data Breach

Washington state's attorney general says the company had years to fix vulnerabilities. T-Mobile says it's "fundamentally transformed" its approach to cybersecurity.

www.cnet.com

Guarantee it does not even matter anymore. Your information has been hacked so many times if you do anything with banks, credit, online, etc… that the hackers have everything. Unless you are just totally off the grid.

 

[Mity]

Guarantee it does not even matter anymore. Your information has been hacked so many times if you do anything with banks, credit, online, etc… that the hackers have everything. Unless you are just totally off the grid.

Depends. You can check your info here or in your Google account. My SSN was exposed because of AT&T and T-Mobile but my email and phone number have changed since then. So, some matching information is not available on the dark web. I highly recommend prepaid services because it's very clear the FCC and US gov have been purchased by corporations and the amounts they will pay us are meager compared to the damage done.

 

[rwrife]

Why do we need laws? Just don't sign up for it! Plain and simple...

Except the old plans now say they can no longer guarantee not having price hikes, like they do for the new plans.

 

[jblank]

Where are you going to run? I've been with T-mobile for a couple of decades now and remain happy with their service. I travel to Europe and Japan from time to time. T-Mobile just "works" offshore.

Haven't even considered because, as I said, I'm happy with the service.

 

[EuroChilli]

What good is a 3 month promotion?

Umm, it saves you from having to pay their normal price of $25/month (for 'unlimited'). You save 30 bucks over 3 months.

 

[demwun]

You don't have to opt in, you know...

The problem is it creates a chain reaction with service providers until it becomes the norm and you're left not having a choice or any other options.

 

[alexandr]

The problem is it creates a chain reaction with service providers until it becomes the norm and you're left not having a choice or any other options.

Yes, I understand, but that's nothing more than an excuse. You don't see T-Mobile offering free internet and text messaging in 250some countries starting a chain reaction, do you?