T-Mobile Announces 'Test Drive', A One Week Network Trial With a Free iPhone 5s

[agsystems]

ATT just raised activation and upgrade fees with 2 year contracts ...

Sounds like use NEXT or forget it

Activation Fee
The activation fee is a $40 one-time charge for activating a new line of service with us. An activation fee is applied to each device added to a new wireless account and each additional device added to an existing account. The activation fee will be added to your first or next bill.

Upgrade Fee
The upgrade fee is a $40 one-time charge that applies when you purchase a new wireless device at a discount to replace an old device. The upgrade fee will be added to your next bill.

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=52268&cv=820&_requestid=1895590#fbid=BQAdazTjsQZ

 

[avanpelt]

I've thought about taking my Verizon iPhone 5s into a T-Mobile store and asking for a SIM just to try out the coverage. I wish they had SIM cards that auto-disabled themselves after 7 days so I could use my phone and apps on their network for a week to test it out without having to set up an account with them. That's the nice thing about Verizon LTE devices -- unlocked out of the box even on contract.

 

[boshii]

I criss cross the country a lot by car and LTE has been popping up everywhere. I pray to God that the Sprint buyout is stopped.

The Sprint buyout will not stop anything. Legere will still be the CEO and he even said last night the uncarrier movement will keep going no matter what.

 

[kingtj]

Yep, but again ....

The only real sticking point with T-Mobile are the areas still lacking decent coverage. I'm in the process of moving to Brunswick, MD (small town right on the border of Maryland and West Virginia) and that whole area has only 2G EDGE data speeds on T-Mobile.

AT&T has 4G LTE working pretty much bullet-proof in the same area, by contrast.

I really love my T-Mobile account and all of the things the company has been offering with the plan .... but I don't know how long I can tolerate the practically non-existent data coverage at my new place? (Sure, I can and do connect to wi-fi at home, but that doesn't do me any good elsewhere in the area.)

I even have a signal booster and it's of no use either, because it requires a 3G or 4G signal to boost and none exists!

Once again, proud to be a T-Mobile customer.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I'm not at all trying to sound condescending, but there is literally a swath of comments dedicated to answering that.

Well you succeeded none-the-less. Congrats for being so effortless in that endeavor.

But, sorry, none of the posts you quoted answered my question. Of course you just assumed I had not seen those. However, I am relieved you have an activity to keep you out of trouble for the summer as thats a lot of work for nothing. (Note: I am trying to be condescending).

 

[Altimax98]

The only real sticking point with T-Mobile are the areas still lacking decent coverage. I'm in the process of moving to Brunswick, MD (small town right on the border of Maryland and West Virginia) and that whole area has only 2G EDGE data speeds on T-Mobile.



AT&T has 4G LTE working pretty much bullet-proof in the same area, by contrast.



I really love my T-Mobile account and all of the things the company has been offering with the plan .... but I don't know how long I can tolerate the practically non-existent data coverage at my new place? (Sure, I can and do connect to wi-fi at home, but that doesn't do me any good elsewhere in the area.)



I even have a signal booster and it's of no use either, because it requires a 3G or 4G signal to boost and none exists!

Your situation is the point of Test Drive. John said it last night, maybe Tmobile isn't the best in your area YET. And if it isn't then you haven't invested a dime, and only a fraction of time. Go back to your old carrier and wait. They said you can do it once per year per card per household.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

You can't restore an iPhone with Find my iPhone activated without the original user's Apple id.

They may be refurbishing the test devices.

Ah. Thanks. I knew I was missing something.

 

[horsebattery]

Well you succeeded none-the-less. Congrats for being so effortless in that endeavor.

But, sorry, none of the posts you quoted answered my question. Of course you just assumed I had not seen those. However, I am relieved you have an activity to keep you out of trouble for the summer as thats a lot of work for nothing. (Note: I am trying to be condescending).

If copying and pasting is a lot of work to you, then I can definitely understand why you also decided to ignore the answers in front of you:

Why would that matter. The returned phone can't be sold as new after the test drive and I would think T-Mobile would also restore the phone to factory settings after each test drive as well. What am I missing here?

I'm wondering if that has to do with it preventing the phone from being restored easily, and T-Mobile performing extra steps to get it ready to be resold, etc. Similar to a re-stocking fee.

And sure! Singling out selective/lazy readers is my top priority!

 

[Chupa Chupa]

If copying and pasting is a lot of work to you, then I can definitely understand why you also decided to ignore the answers in front of you:





And sure! Singling out selective/lazy readers is my top priority!

Yes, scanning forum posts and cutting and pasting to bash other poster's legit question for no real reason isn't what I would call enjoyable... so yes, that's tedious work for me.

And that answer you posted didn't really do it for me. Sorry. Another poster responded and phrased it more exact and certain. That's what I was looking for.

 

[horsebattery]

Yes, scanning forum posts and cutting and pasting to bash other poster's legit question for no real reason isn't what I would call enjoyable... so yes, that's tedious work for me.

And that answer you posted didn't really do it for me. Sorry. Another poster responded and phrased it more exact and certain. That's what I was looking for.

*shrugs* If the key word that you're looking for is refurbishing, then that's still been said and answered numerous times.

And as I've said, there was no intentional bashing to begin with until you decided to take it upon yourself and explicitly state that you were trying to be condescending. I'll still maintain that taking all of ten seconds for copying and pasting isn't tedious though. But, to-ma-to to-mah-to.

 

[calderone]

The only real sticking point with T-Mobile are the areas still lacking decent coverage. I'm in the process of moving to Brunswick, MD (small town right on the border of Maryland and West Virginia) and that whole area has only 2G EDGE data speeds on T-Mobile.

AT&T has 4G LTE working pretty much bullet-proof in the same area, by contrast.

I really love my T-Mobile account and all of the things the company has been offering with the plan .... but I don't know how long I can tolerate the practically non-existent data coverage at my new place? (Sure, I can and do connect to wi-fi at home, but that doesn't do me any good elsewhere in the area.)

I even have a signal booster and it's of no use either, because it requires a 3G or 4G signal to boost and none exists!

At least you know you can walk away without hassle. That is in my opinion, the big deal.

 

[antman2x2]

T-mobile coming back strong!

 

[rdlink]

Very smart, one of the biggest barriers would be people not wanting to bother switching to begin with just to see if they still get coverage.

I actually bought prepaid AT&T and TMO SIMs awhile back to pop into my VZW 5S so I could see whether their service was acceptable. But it didn't work out all that well, because I needed my other phone number to work, so I couldn't leave them in all of the time, and was constantly struggling with getting them going on swap out.

This would be a nice test for TMO, because I could carry the second phone in parallel with my normal phone, and compare the two in real time.

----------

I've thought about taking my Verizon iPhone 5s into a T-Mobile store and asking for a SIM just to try out the coverage. I wish they had SIM cards that auto-disabled themselves after 7 days so I could use my phone and apps on their network for a week to test it out without having to set up an account with them. That's the nice thing about Verizon LTE devices -- unlocked out of the box even on contract.

You can just buy a prepaid one. I did it. Cost me about $20 or so.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

And as I've said, there was no intentional bashing to begin with until you decided to take it upon yourself and explicitly state that you were trying to be condescending. I'll still maintain that taking all of ten seconds for copying and pasting isn't tedious though. But, to-ma-to to-mah-to.

Oh lordy. Look posting five quotes to tell a poster he is blind or lazy = finger wagging. Finger wagging is always a condecending act. So please, own your post and don't lay the blame of starting something on me.

The difference between your post and my response is that I was open and honest about being condescending to you where as you created a faux loophole saying you didn't mean to be even if the content of the post actually was derogatory. Regardless you responded to my original post in the manner you did so I didn't fire the first shot. Sorry. You could have just linked to one response and been diplomatic saying something like "you may have missed this post..." But you chose to use the machine gun instead.

 

[horsebattery]

Oh lordy. Look posting five quotes to tell a poster he is blind or lazy = finger wagging. Finger wagging is always a condecending act. So please, own your post and don't lay the blame of starting something on me.

The difference between your post and my response is that I was open and honest about being condescending to you where as you created a faux loophole saying you didn't mean to be even if the content of the post actually was derogatory. Regardless you responded to my original post in the manner you did so I didn't fire the first shot. Sorry. You could have just linked to one response and been diplomatic saying something like "you may have missed this post..." But you chose to use the machine gun instead.

Considering your preference for selective responses though, I'm sad that I couldn't offer you a wider selection. But maybe two machine guns next time.

And no, the finger wagging (and the above) was after-the-fact that you stated your intention to be condescending. Not that it would help now, but my original intention for including the multiple quotes was because I genuinely felt bad for the other posters for cherry-picking one of them only, and hence the disclaimer that I provided, which obviously backfired considering how much you're harping on me for that. I'm sorry you felt that way, and I'll leave it at that.

 

[Orlandoech]

I've thought about taking my Verizon iPhone 5s into a T-Mobile store and asking for a SIM just to try out the coverage. I wish they had SIM cards that auto-disabled themselves after 7 days so I could use my phone and apps on their network for a week to test it out without having to set up an account with them. That's the nice thing about Verizon LTE devices -- unlocked out of the box even on contract.

This is exactly what I did, but I stayed with TMo, as VZ has screwed me over so many times in the 1.5yrs I had them as a provider.

I will go to ATT before I ever go back to VZ.

 

[avanpelt]

You can just buy a prepaid one. I did it. Cost me about $20 or so.

I just might do that. Coverage is the only concern I have with T-Mobile. Not worth saving the money if I can't use the phone where I need to use it.

----------

This is exactly what I did, but I stayed with TMo, as VZ has screwed me over so many times in the 1.5yrs I had them as a provider.

I will go to ATT before I ever go back to VZ.

I know it's all subjective, but I haven't had any real issues with Verizon to speak of. I'm just thinking about giving T-Mobile a shot because it seems like they're in the business of trying to disrupt their industry -- which I appreciate.

I've used all of the national carriers over the years except for T-Mobile. Sprint was by far the worst in terms of being able to actually use the phone for calls. It doesn't sound like that's particularly changed based on the myriad of posts I've read about their seemingly empty promises of working continuously to build a better network.

 

[nburwell]

I imagine these would be used iPhone 5S models that we would get? I can't imagine getting a brand new one (but maybe I'm wrong). Although I know T-Mobile used to have horrible coverage around where I live, this seems like an easy way to test out if it's still the case. I highly doubt they can run with the data speeds that AT&T gives me, but I'll give it a shot for a week.

 

[PatriotInvasion]

AT&T's new Mobile Share Value plans along with AT&T Next are more than competitive with T-Mobile now and offer me more shared data for the money.

Free streaming of music really doesn't effect me because AT&T provides more than enough data for less than T-Mobile.

 

[Zepaw]

I will totally do this in the fall before the iPhone to see how I like their network before making the switch.

As long as they get the iPhone 6 and the network holds up in Minneapolis, I'm totally dropping AT&T.

Had T-mo in Minneapolis a couple years now and highly recommend it.

 

[Medic311]

Verizon's LTE speeds in the philly area are not only consistently slow, but they are what my iPhone 4S with 3G used to be in 2011. they won't listen to my complaints and just say a network technician will contact me within 3-5 business days. never happens. i've reported slow network issues to them half a dozen times and given them all of the required info they need. i even point them to their own support forums with customers fuming over the LTE speed issues in philadelphia. enough is enough.

i realize they don't like customers like me who have an iPhone 5 and unlimited LTE grandfathered plan. i use 20GB/mo. i realize they want me to go on a tiered plan so they can make more money on a monthly basis from my data usage, but at the same time they are making out somewhat b/c i haven't taken a phone subsidy since 2011. they are charging me a higher plan price than t-mobile to account for a subsidy but i have not taken it so i can keep unlimited LTE. they have been pushing me and pushing me lately, to the point where i will no longer be a customer as of the end of this week.

the t-mobile deals/promos keep getting better and better with each uncarrier event, and i find myself following them almost like i follow apple announcements. i feel like t-mobile is the place to be as they are on the upswing and their network only gets better from here, they care about their customers, and they are truly the best value at least for me and where i live and where i travel to. switching to them will save my family over $60/mo and everyone will have a data plan. not only that, but they will buy out all of our ETFs and we'll all have iPhone 5S's for cheap since we'll re-use the ones from verizon and trade in cheap blackberries from eBay, we'll all have a data plan and now thanks to this latest announcement my family members can stream music without it using their data allotment. not only that but when iOS 8 comes out and we can do wifi calling/texting, that solves most of the coverage issues. i've tested out t-mobile's network for the last 2 1/2 months with a $90 android phone and the $30/mo unlimited data plan, and the network is more than sufficient. the only place where signal was an issue was when i went to some small town out in bumbleville PA that only had 2G. however i noticed the next town over had LTE according to the coverage map and the town i was in was literally just a 10 mins drive from the LTE coverage, so i expect that it too will get blanketed in the near future.

it just keeps getting better and better with t-mobile.

 

[Medic311]

This isn't a good thing. Carriers should not be in charge of what gets to be "free" because those services get a tremendous advantage.

RIP net neutrality.

i don't really follow your argument considering the mobile OS of phones used to be proprietary to the carrier and you could only buy ringtones and basic apps from the carrier. and you could only see news alerts that they gave you. remember Verizon's Get it Now?

all T-Mobile is doing is saying that they want music streaming to be included for free for all of their smartphone devices with data plans. since carriers don't have proprietary OSs anymore, this is the only way they can do it - by listing which apps are compatible with their free music streaming policy. they are not charging you more money for doing other things with your data plan, they are not restricting your access to other things on your data plan, it just means that music is now free. you also forget that all of t-mobiles plans, with exception to the simple choice 500MB plan, do included unlimited data (not at LTE speeds though). so theoretically the argument of neutrality violations by saying that in order to do other things with my data plan (non-music) i need to buy a more expensive data plan would be null in a court of law.

remember when free nights and weekends minutes came about? i didn't hear any complaints about that violating telecommunications laws about restricting how you use telephone service (the laws stemming from abuses by AT&T long distance back in the day). everyone welcomed that.

what about these cloud services where certain applications and media items are backed up for free without using the cloud storage allotment? should that be illegal too?

 

[KdParker]

Sounds good to me. Only reason I haven't gone with t-mobile is the connection issues I had years back.

If the coverage matches what I have now with Verizon, I might make the jump. My only concern is the open areas out west that have consistently no service with t-moble

 

[Fofer]

To be fair, setting up a new account with T-Mobile to try out for 14 days doesn't require you to port numbers, either.

I don't think so. If you "set up" an account with ATT, VZW, Sprint, or T-mo my assumption is that you are responsible for your share of service, taxes, and data used.

i.e. If you use 30 gig of mobile internet data with AT&T, you have to pay all those data overage charges even if you cancel and return the phone inside your 14 day window. You just aren't charged the ETF and refunded the cost of the phone / less any restocking fee.

T-Mo's "test drive" on the other hand seems to forgo all of that. As long as you return the phone in 7 days - $0 even for 50+ gigs of data use.

Huh? You "don't think so?" I don't think you read my posts closely, or I'm misunderstanding your point. Seems to me like we're agreeing with each other. The 7-day "Test Drive" is completely free, no re-stocking fee, no hassle, and no charge for the week of voice and data usage. And regular signups, even for a 14-day experiment, is not. I get that.

What I was responding to was the assertion that another benefit of Test Drive was that customers "don't need to port their numbers." My point was that new potential customers who sign up regularly don't HAVE to port their numbers over either. It can be done later on, after a week or two, even after the "14 day return window," and only if they want to retain their phone number. I have done this a few times. I just maintain plans with both my old and new cell carrier, and when I am actually ready to make the switch, THEN (and only then) do I do the number porting.

I have already posted a couple of times that Test Drive is a cool and welcome program, with less hassles than signing up normally and experimenting for 14 days and then returning it regularly. The FAQ on their page explains the difference quite clearly. I was simply adding that the "lack of requirement to port over your number" is not, in fact, a differentiating factor here, that's all.

 

[mrbrown]

Yea I don't get that either

Find my iPhone prevents the phone from being restored (ie Activation Lock). If you don't disable it before you return the phone, it is useless to them.