T-Mobile Automatically Moving Legacy Plan Customers to New Plans

[DEMinSoCAL]

That has been my experience as well. I created a shortcut for my Action Button whereby one press and I am automatically switched to the DeathStar if the cell service gets weak with Verizon.

Can you discuss how you did that? I've got ATT and Verizon eSIM's and ATT is my default for calls but Verizon is my default for data as it proves time and time again to be faster.

I'd like to configure the action button to switch the cellular data service back and forth between the two.

Thank you in advance!

 

[kmichalec]

I have 9 voice lines for $160 on my T-Mobile simple choice plan with unlimited everything + CAN/MEX + 20GB Hotspot each line, plus 2 old free 200mb tablet lines (not being used). Was originally $120 for 4 lines, have 3 free "on us" lines and pay $20 x 2 for an additional 2 lines. It's hard to beat less than $18/line avg.

For those who got the email and are porting away, are they paying off device financing since they are changing the terms of our contract?

Anyone attempted porting that many lines to US Mobile? Interested in checking them out if I get the notice...

 

[rjp1]

T-Mo has a similar feature, which I've been using quite a bit, but it slows down after 5gb. However there's only been a couple of times when we went over that. Glad to hear it works in Japan, as we're planning another trip there. And you're absolutely right — restarting the phone is no reason to complain!

The service in Japan was excellent. I’m not sure if you get throttled speeds or if it cuts you off after 20. I’m pretty sure it cuts you off since they sell top ups. When I got close to 20 on that trip - I bought an eSIM from somewhere else for like $10-15 to finish the trip. It was easier than worrying about what would happen if I hit the limit and stuck with no way to buy another one.

 

[Borker1]

Just insane thing to wake up to and see today.

Not even from T-Mobile, but from my wife.

I'm the primary account holder and I didn't even get the text about this.

I've been with T-Mobile via Sprint since the beginning.

We're looking at a $60+ monthly hit from this forced change.

They clearly hate the troops.

We're moving elsewhere tomorrow.

Good luck with that. Unless you are moving to a MVNO which always gets lower priority its slim pickings out there.

 

[alexandr]

The service in Japan was excellent. I’m not sure if you get throttled speeds or if it cuts you off after 20. I’m pretty sure it cuts you off since they sell top ups. When I got close to 20 on that trip - I bought an eSIM from somewhere else for like $10-15 to finish the trip. It was easier than worrying about what would happen if I hit the limit and stuck with no way to buy another one.

For sure, having to resort to wi-fi is no good 🙂
Did it also let you choose which carrier to use in Japan?

 

[Jetscreamer]

I don’t get why anyone with a single line isn’t just using a MVNO. Visible is great and cheap. When I want a new phone, I buy one. I get to choose what streaming service I want to pay for each month instead of being forced to pay for netflix or whatever my carrier thinks I want.

People have this idea post-paid plans make them more respectable in the eyes of the carriers. Because only wealthy and affluent people use post-paid. I have been on Visible and using one of their savings plan with a locked in price. No surprises.

 

[rjp1]

For sure, having to resort to wi-fi is no good 🙂
Did it also let you choose which carrier to use in Japan?

When I was there in February/March it was NTT, which is supposed to be one of the best carriers. No option, but worked out great.

 

[mk313]

People have this idea post-paid plans make them more respectable in the eyes of the carriers. Because only wealthy and affluent people use post-paid. I have been on Visible and using one of their savings plan with a locked in price. No surprises.

Everyone I know uses one of the big 3 for their cell service & I've never in my life heard that rationale. I'd be surprised if 1 in 1,000 post-paid users felt that way.

I think it really just comes down to convenience. Most people buy from the carriers that advertise the most & have the largest local presence. You can go into a local Verizon store, but not a US Mobile store. When you buy your phone at the Apple Store, you can get automatically set up on any of the Big 3 carriers, but not the smaller MVNO's. Also, when you get your first phone, you are most likely coming off a family plan, and if you've had a good experience with them, it makes a certain amount of sense to stay.

You also have the larger carriers willing to give you a free phone with a new line of service. That is a pretty attractive offer for a lot of people.

Without knowing anything about their subscriber numbers, I would bet a lotto money that Mint Mobile & Verizon have more subscribers than US Mobile and the other independents. Not because people think that using Mint makes them look wealthy, but because those two have more advertising dollars.

I'd also venture a guess that, aside from Mint & Visible (and if AT&T has a similar service), that greater than 50% of the people in the US could not even name two other MVNO's. It's just the nature of being small.

 

[mk313]

I have 9 voice lines for $160 on my T-Mobile simple choice plan with unlimited everything + CAN/MEX + 20GB Hotspot each line, plus 2 old free 200mb tablet lines (not being used). Was originally $120 for 4 lines, have 3 free "on us" lines and pay $20 x 2 for an additional 2 lines. It's hard to beat less than $18/line avg.

For those who got the email and are porting away, are they paying off device financing since they are changing the terms of our contract?

Anyone attempted porting that many lines to US Mobile? Interested in checking them out if I get the notice...

I think you're gonna be in the same boat as me. The free lines make it hard to switch. US Mobile is $32.50/line IIRC after the introductory year. 9 lines * $32.50/line is $292.50/month, almost double what you are paying with T Mo. Even if you get hit with the $6/line charge on your 6 non-free lines, you're still way better off on T Mobile. And that's before you even consider any extras you get with T Mo, like Netflix or whatever. And to get that price on US Mobile, you have to pay for the entire year in advance.

 

[alexandr]

When I was there in February/March it was NTT, which is supposed to be one of the best carriers. No option, but worked out great.

Good enough for me! 😀

 

[T-R-S]

US Mobile:

View attachment 2641959

thanks for posting - bye bye TMoble

 

[ZebraDude]

Do you folks work for US Mobile?

There is much more than just towers for cell service, there is nearly as important cell service priority (QCI level).

Its Unlimited Premium plans are QCI 8, which provides smoother performance during network congestion, while QCI 9 is used for its Unlimited Starter plans, which may experience slowdowns first when the network is busy.

I got the "fun" text this week as well. I closed out my mother's Apple Watch account and ported out her iPhone out to TA DA US mobile (I've has an account for a year and half (did I say that Consumer Reports rates them the top dog!) I have a domestic pool of 5GB of data and I have a M4 iPad Pro on Light Speed (t-mobile) , Her iPhone 17 on Dark Star (AT&T) and my Second line on my Google Pixel 10 Pro XL on LightSpeed on Light Speed (T-mobile 5G SA, yes Android can be on T-mobile SA just not iPhone, Today (something due to the generic carrier bundle from Apple that they are forced to use)

I kept one line one T-mobile direct for now as am still working this one out in my head. When Lightspeed gets 5G SA for iPhone (I love the voice quality of New Radio over 5G) I will jump over!

 

[ZebraDude]

“lower-priority” during network congestion times, for whatever network they use (eg. for Visible, it’s Verizon).

FYI...US MOBILE has some plans/options that give you higher Priority.

 

[vbctv]

I think you're gonna be in the same boat as me. The free lines make it hard to switch. US Mobile is $32.50/line IIRC after the introductory year. 9 lines * $32.50/line is $292.50/month, almost double what you are paying with T Mo. Even if you get hit with the $6/line charge on your 6 non-free lines, you're still way better off on T Mobile. And that's before you even consider any extras you get with T Mo, like Netflix or whatever. And to get that price on US Mobile, you have to pay for the entire year in advance.

Everyone I know has or is moving to MVNOs. I know alot that have gone to Visible or US Mobile (Dark Sky). I was a T-Mobile customer for 10 years and left last year for Visible. But I also have a story and was screwed over by T-Mobile. Mostly because/c the area I live in. So not sure if you are familiar with Northeast Ohio, but Cleveland area, I'm in a suburb called Lakewood. Well I had their T-Mobile Home Internet ($25/months deal) and for 2 years it worked perfect, then came 5GSA and that's when the issues started. Speeds started dropping and they oversold it in my area so bad where during peak times it was unusable. And the other issue was they installed 2 new towers really close by, normal tower was 2 blocks away, but once they installed the 2 new towers, but gateway started ping-ponging and I was having to call to get tower reset all the time. So left for ATT Fiber.
Then I started noticing my cell service downhill, not able to get data here and there. Again I'm in a major metro area that is being oversold. I call 611, and they tell me that I'm a legacy customer and that my data is deprioritized (I was on T-Mobile One Plus Promo), na that if I wanted priority data I would need to update my plan to a newer plan for the best data. Which I called BS but that was my last straw. In a matter of 3 weeks they lost me as a customer. And then after porting out, they still messed with me, because they kept billing me for my watch plan only and I cancelled it like 4 times, finally after 5 months, they cancelled it and I was totally gone.
T-Mo is great, but where they oversell it, you will run into issues. Before the overselling I was seeing 800-900 on the Home Internet, my phone speeds were over a gig at my house. But once that overselling happens. And they like to use the terms legacy, but it seems now they are just getting rid of legacy and forcing everyone to the same plans.
For me I'll stick with Visible, service has been great. But I have the iPhone Air (no mmwave) and found out my area is like 90% mmWave, so speeds aren't the best around me, but if I take the bus down to North Olmsted, Fairview, Rocky River area, they didn't allow Verizon to put up mmWave towers, so it's all C-Band there and I'm seeing gig+ speeds there... And yes Visible is treated just like Verizon for the higher plans...

And also someone said you can't finance iPhones when on MVNO. Not true, just do T-mobile version, and have it delivered to your house, not store. It's been a workaround for years. T-Mobile version is only one that is truly unlocked and they don't check. I'm doing mine on the Citizens Loan thing and I'm on Visible...

 

[UltimaKilo]

If you ask me, anything over $100/month for four lines is too much, but if the perks work for you, have at.

You think so? $22 of it is Applecare+

 

[GDF]

You have different phone numbers as they are on different networks. But I don't share my other network number.

I don’t understand why that helps then if you have to have two numbers. I only want the phone number active that I get my calls on. What would be the point of the second number then? Just for data coverage? I assumed US Mobile would automatically switch to the best carrier when you have a weak signal, which sounded cool. Otherwise just not understanding the point.

 

[spazzcat]

I don’t understand why that helps then if you have to have two numbers. I only want the phone number active that I get my calls on. What would be the point of the second number then? Just for data coverage? I assumed US Mobile would automatically switch to the best carrier when you have a weak signal, which sounded cool. Otherwise just not understanding the point.

You can't just automatically move your phone number, your network service is tied to your number. The point is just what you said data coverage. If I am in a bad VZ area my phone will automatically use my ATT connection. But you need to have a phone number to access service on network.

 

[B.A.T]

I'm on the Simple Choice plan with unlimited data for 4 lines. I'm paying $35.65 per line (two kids reimburse us each month for their phone line). I have not gotten a text or email and the app says I'm on the Simple Choice plan. Sooner or later ( probably sooner) this will end and when it does I'll evaluate my options. All four phones are paid off so leaving will be easier if that's what we decide to do.

 

[mk313]

Everyone I know has or is moving to MVNOs. I know alot that have gone to Visible or US Mobile (Dark Sky). I was a T-Mobile customer for 10 years and left last year for Visible. But I also have a story and was screwed over by T-Mobile. Mostly because/c the area I live in. So not sure if you are familiar with Northeast Ohio, but Cleveland area, I'm in a suburb called Lakewood. Well I had their T-Mobile Home Internet ($25/months deal) and for 2 years it worked perfect, then came 5GSA and that's when the issues started. Speeds started dropping and they oversold it in my area so bad where during peak times it was unusable. And the other issue was they installed 2 new towers really close by, normal tower was 2 blocks away, but once they installed the 2 new towers, but gateway started ping-ponging and I was having to call to get tower reset all the time. So left for ATT Fiber.
Then I started noticing my cell service downhill, not able to get data here and there. Again I'm in a major metro area that is being oversold. I call 611, and they tell me that I'm a legacy customer and that my data is deprioritized (I was on T-Mobile One Plus Promo), na that if I wanted priority data I would need to update my plan to a newer plan for the best data. Which I called BS but that was my last straw. In a matter of 3 weeks they lost me as a customer. And then after porting out, they still messed with me, because they kept billing me for my watch plan only and I cancelled it like 4 times, finally after 5 months, they cancelled it and I was totally gone.
T-Mo is great, but where they oversell it, you will run into issues. Before the overselling I was seeing 800-900 on the Home Internet, my phone speeds were over a gig at my house. But once that overselling happens. And they like to use the terms legacy, but it seems now they are just getting rid of legacy and forcing everyone to the same plans.
For me I'll stick with Visible, service has been great. But I have the iPhone Air (no mmwave) and found out my area is like 90% mmWave, so speeds aren't the best around me, but if I take the bus down to North Olmsted, Fairview, Rocky River area, they didn't allow Verizon to put up mmWave towers, so it's all C-Band there and I'm seeing gig+ speeds there... And yes Visible is treated just like Verizon for the higher plans...

And also someone said you can't finance iPhones when on MVNO. Not true, just do T-mobile version, and have it delivered to your house, not store. It's been a workaround for years. T-Mobile version is only one that is truly unlocked and they don't check. I'm doing mine on the Citizens Loan thing and I'm on Visible...

Haha! Our first house was in Fairview Park. That really sucks though, but glad it worked out in the end, albeit with another carrier.

 

[ZebraDude]

And also someone said you can't finance iPhones when on MVNO. Not true, just do T-mobile version, and have it delivered to your house, not store. It's been a workaround for years. T-Mobile version is only one that is truly unlocked and they don't check. I'm doing mine on the Citizens Loan thing and I'm on Visible...

on the MVNO using Apple Card monthly payments I thought (I could be wrong, I hope I am) this year I had to sign on to my account before the flow would process my purchase??

 

[vbctv]

on the MVNO using Apple Card monthly payments I thought (I could be wrong, I hope I am) this year I had to sign on to my account before the flow would process my purchase??

Didn't make me do that, I just ordered from my old iPhone on the Apple Store app. But I'm NOT doing Apple card payments, I did the Citizens Loan (2 Year). So maybe it's different. But the workaround for the Citizens Loan has always been the T-Mobile version...

 

[MrENGLISH]

Ok, I was looking at their site last night, and I didn't see any explanation of what the hell Dark Star, Light Speed and Warp are! So if Warp is VZ, Dark Star is AT&T — is Light Speed T-Mo?

Also out of curiosity, is your ability to switch between VZ & AT&T the option that they charge an extra $10/m for? Or is your multy-network setup different somehow?..

Yes, Light Speed is T-Mobile.

I'm currently on the Unlimited Premium annual plan + Multi-Network Add-on annual plan.
Total came to $344 for the year ($299 for Unlimited Premium Annual + $45 for Multi-Network Add-On Annual).

So that works out to be $28.67 a month and includes cellular plan for my Apple Watch.

The Unlimited Premium plan also includes the ability to Switch Networks which is different from the Multi-Network feature. Switch Networks allows you to internally port your main number from one carrier network to another for a total of 30 days. Whereas Mutli-Network will be more like a secondary line for calls and data.

If you want to easily swap data usage from one network to another, I recommend the Multi-Network plan. I don't know if it's a limitation of the Multi-Network Plan or Dark Star Network but I'm capped at 100GB data per month. Whereas my main line on Warp is unlimited data.

 

[mk313]

T Mo's marketing people have some moxie.

One of the things they removed from my account when they just migrated me to a new higher priced plan was free international texting and data in 215 countries. They replaced it with free texting in 215 countries and free high-speed data in 11 countries. If you read that carefully, you may notice that it's not really an upgrade.

Now, before my new plan even goes into effect next week, they are sending me marketing texts alerting me to this great new feature on my account. The ability to BUY 'International Passes' for my next trip. They come with high speed data and calls in 215 countries.

At least let the changes take effect for a month or two before you start trying to upsell me the same feature you just took away from my plan.

 

[alexandr]

Yes, Light Speed is T-Mobile.

I'm currently on the Unlimited Premium annual plan + Multi-Network Add-on annual plan.
Total came to $344 for the year ($299 for Unlimited Premium Annual + $45 for Multi-Network Add-On Annual).

So that works out to be $28.67 a month and includes cellular plan for my Apple Watch.

The Unlimited Premium plan also includes the ability to Switch Networks which is different from the Multi-Network feature. Switch Networks allows you to internally port your main number from one carrier network to another for a total of 30 days. Whereas Mutli-Network will be more like a secondary line for calls and data.

If you want to easily swap data usage from one network to another, I recommend the Multi-Network plan. I don't know if it's a limitation of the Multi-Network Plan or Dark Star Network but I'm capped at 100GB data per month. Whereas my main line on Warp is unlimited data.

Thanks so much for breaking this down!

 

[LightsaberSmoke]

I’ve never had a google voice number, have changed my carrier multiple times, and no one has ever noticed

I have never had to port my number either