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Carrier T-Mobile Family Plan: unlimited talk, text, data* on all 4 lines for $100 a month

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macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 3, 2012
1,190
1
T-Mobile_Simple_Choice_Plans-630x206.jpg


$50 (1st line) + $30 (2nd line) + $10 (3rd line) + $10 (4th line)

Line 1: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of 4G LTE data, unlimited 2G
Line 2: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of 4G LTE data, unlimited 2G
Line 3: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of 4G LTE data, unlimited 2G
Line 4: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of 4G LTE data, unlimited 2G

With no contract. Cancel anytime.
You can add 2GB for an extra $10 to any line you want.

http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/family.html
 
Last edited:
T-Mobile has terrible service in my area, and even when I do get service their 4G is very slow compared to ATT and Verizon...
 
As of today I have cancelled and ported over my number from AT&T to T-Mobile. I can't handle AT&Ts extra slow data speeds. I get between 5-10Mbps on my 4S on T-mobile just at my house. 3G on T-Mobile is fully active in my area. On my Nexus 4, I get 17-21Mbps.

One thing to note, iMessage will not work on T-Mobile since they are an unsupported carrier. If you have a plan with unlimited messages, that shouldn't matter.
 
Seems affordable.

But many of us get discounts. I get 24% ATT discount. So math gets fuzzy with ATT's $400 per line iPhone subsidy when trying to compare with T-mobile's new plans. And not every needs a smartphone.

Right now I have 4 lines on ATT. 700 min plan with rollpver with any mobile and 10 A-list and $20 family unlimited text. I have 2 $30 iPhone data plans unlimited. And 2 flip phone lines. (My mother uses one line) and one line I keep as a ghost just to get another iPhone upgrade and immediately switch line to flip phone and cancel data.

2 smartphone lines. 2 flips. $155 is my total bill with discounts and all taxes. I use between1-2 GB data and my wife uses 1-2 GB data usually.

So on paper the T-mobile plans are $700 cheaper after 20 months (the time in between ATT subsidy upgrades). $3100 for my current ATT plan vs $2400 for t-mobile plan (add $10 per line for additional 2GB data).

So spread is $700 cheaper for t-mobile.

But not so fast....

Add back the $400 iPhone subsidy ATT gives me per line. $400 x4 lines equals $1600 in subsidy.

So what started out as $700 advantage for t-mobile quickly becomes $900 cheaper for me to stay with ATT over a 20 month period. And than I will be eligible for another full upgrade

Even of you guys say no fair. Cause I have 2 flip lines with no data. I can add $20/300mb data to each of those flip lines with smartphones.

So add $40 extra to my 2 flip line a month x 20 months. That adds $800 to my total ATT bill.

That still makes my ATT subsidized phone bill with 4 lines all with data $100 cheaper than T-mobile's plans.

I add a 5th line and ATT'a family plan is even more cheaper!!

This is why carriers are in a catch 22 situation with family plans. They supported family plans as "growth" and bragging rights to claim they have "added millions of customers" when all they really did was add a line at $10/month.

Remember 60% of Americans are on family plans and 88% are on discounted plans and family plans.
 
NewAnger said:
As of today I have cancelled and ported over my number from AT&T to T-Mobile. I can't handle AT&Ts extra slow data speeds. I get between 5-10Mbps on my 4S on T-mobile just at my house. 3G on T-Mobile is fully active in my area. On my Nexus 4, I get 17-21Mbps.

One thing to note, iMessage will not work on T-Mobile since they are an unsupported carrier. If you have a plan with unlimited messages, that shouldn't matter.
Click to expand...

What if you use iMessage with apple id instead of phone numbers?
 
NewAnger said:
As of today I have cancelled and ported over my number from AT&T to T-Mobile. I can't handle AT&Ts extra slow data speeds. I get between 5-10Mbps on my 4S on T-mobile just at my house. 3G on T-Mobile is fully active in my area. On my Nexus 4, I get 17-21Mbps.

One thing to note, iMessage will not work on T-Mobile since they are an unsupported carrier. If you have a plan with unlimited messages, that shouldn't matter.
Click to expand...

You might want to try toggling it on/off a few times or rebooting the phone. iMessage works fine with T-Mobile on all the iPhones I've tried as long as you have a data connection.
 
You get what you pay for. Mediocre service in major cities and zero service (GPRS/EDGE) once you're out of the city. There's a reason why people are still leaving them in droves.
 
aneftp said:
Seems affordable.

But many of us get discounts. I get 24% ATT discount. So math gets fuzzy with ATT's $400 per line iPhone subsidy when trying to compare with T-mobile's new plans. And not every needs a smartphone.

Right now I have 4 lines on ATT. 700 min plan with rollpver with any mobile and 10 A-list and $20 family unlimited text. I have 2 $30 iPhone data plans unlimited. And 2 flip phone lines. (My mother uses one line) and one line I keep as a ghost just to get another iPhone upgrade and immediately switch line to flip phone and cancel data.

2 smartphone lines. 2 flips. $155 is my total bill with discounts and all taxes. I use between1-2 GB data and my wife uses 1-2 GB data usually.

So on paper the T-mobile plans are $700 cheaper after 20 months (the time in between ATT subsidy upgrades). $3100 for my current ATT plan vs $2400 for t-mobile plan (add $10 per line for additional 2GB data).

So spread is $700 cheaper for t-mobile.

But not so fast....

Add back the $400 iPhone subsidy ATT gives me per line. $400 x4 lines equals $1600 in subsidy.

So what started out as $700 advantage for t-mobile quickly becomes $900 cheaper for me to stay with ATT over a 20 month period. And than I will be eligible for another full upgrade

Even of you guys say no fair. Cause I have 2 flip lines with no data. I can add $20/300mb data to each of those flip lines with smartphones.

So add $40 extra to my 2 flip line a month x 20 months. That adds $800 to my total ATT bill.

That still makes my ATT subsidized phone bill with 4 lines all with data $100 cheaper than T-mobile's plans.

I add a 5th line and ATT'a family plan is even more cheaper!!

This is why carriers are in a catch 22 situation with family plans. They supported family plans as "growth" and bragging rights to claim they have "added millions of customers" when all they really did was add a line at $10/month.

Remember 60% of Americans are on family plans and 88% are on discounted plans and family plans.
Click to expand...


Yup. As much as I want to save money by thinking of switching to tmobile, I have a 18% corporate discount on all data and lines, in addition to the subsidized phone pricing like you mentioned. It actually works out to be better by staying on AT&T.. the only thing for tmobile is that their data pricing is much more reasonable at 2/$20 in the era of tiered data pricing.

Also their refarmed coverage is still very lacking.
 
I still do not know how they can say their 4G is faster than AT&T's and their call quality is better? I have service basically anywhere I go with AT&T, but with T-Mobile it is horrible in Central NJ.
 
Wicked1 said:
I still do not know how they can say their 4G is faster than AT&T's and their call quality is better? I have service basically anywhere I go with AT&T, but with T-Mobile it is horrible in Central NJ.
Click to expand...

I cancelled my AT&T account yesterday and ported my number over to T-Mobile because the iPhone 3G speeds are faster compared to AT&T. On my iPhone, today I am getting between 6Mbps - 10Mbps on T-Mobile compared to 0.00Mbps - .5Mbps on AT&T. Verizon was even worse, I had no data and no 3G while at home.

Edit, Sorry, I forgot I already posted the same thing in this thread yesterday.
 
Remember you need to add the EIP to those plans. There is no contract but you need to finance the phones on your plan.

Top tier smartphones have EIP's at $20/month.
 
It looks good, but like many others, I get a 20% corporate discount at Verizon, which puts pricing at a much closer competitive rate.
 
Wicked1 said:
I still do not know how they can say their 4G is faster than AT&T's and their call quality is better? I have service basically anywhere I go with AT&T, but with T-Mobile it is horrible in Central NJ.
Click to expand...

Their HSPA+ 4G IS faster than AT&T. They have a HSPA 42 network while AT&T only goes up to HSPA 21. LTE is another story because Tmobile doesn't even have their LTE network live yet.
 
Wicked1 said:
I still do not know how they can say their 4G is faster than AT&T's and their call quality is better? I have service basically anywhere I go with AT&T, but with T-Mobile it is horrible in Central NJ.
Click to expand...

I don't either, T-Mobile doesn't even have 4g.more like faux G.

AT&T has 4g but not tmobile
 
thehustleman said:
I don't either, T-Mobile doesn't even have 4g.more like faux G.

AT&T has 4g but not tmobile
Click to expand...

Yup, T-Mobile is trash. AT&T has more LTE than T-Mobile has in Massachusetts basically. Whereas AT&T/VZW cover almost all of the highways with LTE/HSPA, T-Mobile covers them with super speedy EDGE! :D
 
NewAnger said:
One thing to note, iMessage will not work on T-Mobile since they are an unsupported carrier. If you have a plan with unlimited messages, that shouldn't matter.
Click to expand...

Huh? I've been using iMessage w/ T-mobile on my iPhone 5 for several months. Are you having trouble activating it?
 
NewAnger said:
One thing to note, iMessage will not work on T-Mobile since they are an unsupported carrier. If you have a plan with unlimited messages, that shouldn't matter.
Click to expand...

Might be because of the port, try deactivating and than reactivating it will work has been tested.
 
Look like it has gone live on T-Mobile website now...

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/family-plans.aspx




$80 for line 1 and line 2 + $10 for 3rd line + $10 for 4th line = $100 for 4 lines.

Line 1: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of data
Line 2: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of data.
Line 3: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of data
Line 4: unlimited talk, unlimited text and 500MB of data



$90 for 3 lines: $30 each
$100 for 4 lines: $25 each
etc...

$10 more to get 2GB of data instead of just 500MB
 
How is this different. If you are paying for the phone in installments, you would be under some sort of contract.
 
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