For t-mobile ipad, if I just got another t-mobile sim and added it to my unlimited family plan, would i be able to achieve unlined data on the ipad, or will they figure out that it is not an iphone (which I would say when I bought the SIM card) but in fact an ipad and turn the data off?
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Carrier T-Mobile free data experiences?
- Thread starter nzalog
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With all the T-Mobile "I have crappy service here" bashing, answer one question:
1. Do you travel often, and need data service all over the US?
If the answer is "yes", then T-Mobile may not be for you.
If the answer is "no", then take all of the "T-Mobile is crappy here" with a grain of salt - unless someone is reporting their data signal in the precise places you need it (within a block of your home/work/school/etc) it's useless.
T-Mobile here is very hit-or-miss. It just so happens that where I need it, it is *VERY* "hit". On my iPhone 4S 3G, I get 15 Mbps+ at work, 10 Mbps+ at home. There are some parts of down (including some areas downtown, strangely,) that I get a truly pitiful signal. But where it matters to me, I get a good signal. I nearly never travel to other cities, so T-Mobile's service (or lack thereof) means exactly nothing to me. On those few occasions that I do travel, I can make do with whatever signal I get.
1. Do you travel often, and need data service all over the US?
If the answer is "yes", then T-Mobile may not be for you.
If the answer is "no", then take all of the "T-Mobile is crappy here" with a grain of salt - unless someone is reporting their data signal in the precise places you need it (within a block of your home/work/school/etc) it's useless.
T-Mobile here is very hit-or-miss. It just so happens that where I need it, it is *VERY* "hit". On my iPhone 4S 3G, I get 15 Mbps+ at work, 10 Mbps+ at home. There are some parts of down (including some areas downtown, strangely,) that I get a truly pitiful signal. But where it matters to me, I get a good signal. I nearly never travel to other cities, so T-Mobile's service (or lack thereof) means exactly nothing to me. On those few occasions that I do travel, I can make do with whatever signal I get.
Even travel... Much distance travel is by air.
Atlanta, to Orlando, to Savannah, to Boston, to NYC , to LA. All have had good TMo service.
Im content with travel performance. But if you live/work in the boonies...
I don't need at home or work, I have wifi. Its been great traveling.
I'm not sure why traveling all over disqualifies people from "crappy service bashing." T-Mobile bills itself as a nationwide network, and even Sprint, problematic as they are, seem to offer at least some level of coverage nationwide.
T-Mobile repeatedly bashes AT&T and Verizon and tries to bill itself as a carrier worthy of switching to, and "breaking up" from your old carrier. Not "hey, T-Mobile is great if you stay in urban areas and don't travel... if you do travel or are out in the suburbs, then maybe you shouldn't switch."
If T-Mobile wants to play, they should at least perform half as well. Or, they should bill themselves honestly: a low-price carrier that COULD be better if its Chief Executive didn't prefer to talk trash on Twitter all day and half-heartedly seek buyouts on his network, rather than spend time and resources to fix his network so it could speak for itself. That way, instead of getting disappointed, people would know up front that they're going to have to sacrifice speed in the suburbs, and get no coverage in the sticks, in order to pay less.
That said: I DO have the T-Mobile free 250MB data plan (got it during the promotion) on my iPad Air. Do I like it? Sure, you can't beat free, and when you're not paying for your data, beggars can't be choosers. When you're in a good coverage area, the LTE speeds are decent if you're paying for them, obviously phenomenal if you're not. And I've even paid for the monthly data pass a couple times, both to support T-Mobile and to keep using fast data on them past my 250MB. And I feel I mostly got my money's worth when I pay.
But it's also shown me the limitations of T-Mobile. It's okay for casual use in heavily populated areas, but that's it. Definitely not a carrier I would switch to for my iPhone (even though I once wanted to), or go on a regular plan for on my iPad. There's just way too many holes, and they still rely way too much in Edge in a lot of areas.
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At first I thought you were right and then remembered that I was correct after all. I have unlimited edge so I'd like to be able to use edge for things that don't require a lot of bandwidth and reserve my lte for when I want speed.
If you only have a set amount then what you're saying applies. But for those of us on tmobile with family plans what I'm saying applies.
All I was saying is that the speed doesn't matter if you have a finite amount of bandwidth. Your browsing habits determine how much you use, your speed just determines how frustrated you will be using it.
I can see if you have a limited amount of high speed data you would wanna save it for when you really need to hustle on something versus getting email in the background or whatever, but really if you find yourself using a good amount of data then fork over the extra $10 and go to the next higher tier.
It doesn't matter which tier one buys it only makes sense for someone to want to allocate which bucket the minutes come from depending on which online activity one wants to do. But if you're just determined to argue your point regardless then I don't feel like wasting my edge nor my lte on that kind of nonsense so I'll leave it at that...
T-Mobile free data experiences?
I bought a cellular iPad because of the free 200mb tmobile plan. It is nice to have. Obviously not for video, but for email and basic browsing. I hit the limit last month so I popped in an AT&T sim and bought the 1gb for 3 months for $25 plan (it doesn't auto-renew). Tmobile needs a similar 3 month plan.
I bought a cellular iPad because of the free 200mb tmobile plan. It is nice to have. Obviously not for video, but for email and basic browsing. I hit the limit last month so I popped in an AT&T sim and bought the 1gb for 3 months for $25 plan (it doesn't auto-renew). Tmobile needs a similar 3 month plan.
Has anyone verified or tested this? When I called T-Mobile (several times to get answers from different reps), the reps all said that you only get throttled data with the 500mb plan, not the free 200mb plan. They said regardless if you are pre-paid or post-paid, there is no unlimited, slow data once the 200mb are used. I assume the data will just cut-off at 200mb even though my free 200mb is post-paid and attached to my t-Mobile voice account. But if deeddawg is right, then that would be fantastic! Can any post-paid free 200mb users chime in?
Personally, I don't give a rats a__ about T-Mobile's advertising. Just as I don't care one lick about their coverage in Los Angeles, or New York, or Bismark North Dakota. I care about their coverage in the city I live in - specifically at my house, at my work, and in the places I frequent. As long as they have minimal voice service elsewhere, I'm okay with them.
That is true for all carriers to me. I don't care about having 20 Mb/s in Lincoln, Nebraska, or Tucson, Arizona. I care about having 20 Mb/s near me. My speed in Lincoln or Tucson could be 64 kb/s for all I care. (And all of the cities I listed are ones I actually *DO* have a reason to visit from time to time.) The fact that Verizon has more fast speeds over more land area of the US means nothing to me when I spent 99% of my time in my own city. The speed and reliability in my own city is what matters.
That's why I brought it up.
If you do travel often, then yes, "nationwide coverage at high speeds" may very well be a big selling point for you. But the vast majority of Americans don't do that much travel to make their nationwide footprint that big a deal. If my area had a competitive local carrier, I'd seriously consider them. What I am concerned with is local coverage, and cheap prices.
(Note: I do have a work-provided Verizon phone - I just got it last week, as I might start traveling for work soon. Since that is now a possibility, I do actually care about nationwide coverage. But since I'm not paying for it, it doesn't matter that much.)
My experience:
I actually took my new iPad Air to T-Mobile to get a sim card and the 200MB free data with a nefarious purpose in mind: To test out T-Mobile coverage in my area. It's free (except the sim card) and I can run around with my iPad to try all my usual spots.
It works; you really do get free data.
My results: Most places with T-Mobile I get 2 fewer bars than AT&T, and no service in many places on campus. My test was a failure; T-Mobile isn't the carrier for me.
When you use up the 200MB, the data just stops. No slowdown. You can pay for more right then.
It seems slower than AT&T LTE in the same location. I ran a few speed tests and couldn't really get over 4-5 mbps where AT&T would get me about 15. Sigh.
It's really only useful as an emergency backup. You'll blow through 200MB so fast you won't even know what hit you. I found adding my iPad to my AT&T Mobile Share to be far more useful; now it also doubles as a mobile hotspot for my laptop with a ridiculously long battery life.
I actually took my new iPad Air to T-Mobile to get a sim card and the 200MB free data with a nefarious purpose in mind: To test out T-Mobile coverage in my area. It's free (except the sim card) and I can run around with my iPad to try all my usual spots.
It works; you really do get free data.
My results: Most places with T-Mobile I get 2 fewer bars than AT&T, and no service in many places on campus. My test was a failure; T-Mobile isn't the carrier for me.
When you use up the 200MB, the data just stops. No slowdown. You can pay for more right then.
It seems slower than AT&T LTE in the same location. I ran a few speed tests and couldn't really get over 4-5 mbps where AT&T would get me about 15. Sigh.
It's really only useful as an emergency backup. You'll blow through 200MB so fast you won't even know what hit you. I found adding my iPad to my AT&T Mobile Share to be far more useful; now it also doubles as a mobile hotspot for my laptop with a ridiculously long battery life.
I'm a postpaid Tmobile user and can now confirm that you DO NOT receive throttled data after your 200MB runs out. When it runs out your data is completely cutoff unless you purchase more data or wait until the next cycle.
I stream video alot and i burn up the whole 200 megs in 30 minutes..if you turn lte off and dont stream then if you only use it maybe an hour a day here and there then it may last you 10 days....when you run out and you check refill options on your ipad then you best deal is the prepaid without auto renewal....they have a 3gig plan good for 30 days for 30 bucks....so comes out to 3.2 gigs a month for 30 bucks...all on the same sim card too..and hotspot tethering to yor laptop or whatever is included with that deal.....
The only bad thing about the free data is that tins tied to the device. You can not swap the sim between say an iPad and a nexus 7. Plus, if you get a new iPad for any reason, the SIM card will not transfer over and they tell you you need to get a new SIM card to use on the new iPad.
I finally just gave up. I have three unused T-Mobile sims that I got free back when they had the sale but I use more then just over 200MB per month on my cellular mini while out so T-Mobile doesn't work, I use AT&Ts 1GB for three months. I threw away about 150MB last three months that I didn't use.
I finally just gave up. I have three unused T-Mobile sims that I got free back when they had the sale but I use more then just over 200MB per month on my cellular mini while out so T-Mobile doesn't work, I use AT&Ts 1GB for three months. I threw away about 150MB last three months that I didn't use.
Pretty happy with my T-Mobile data. Only used about 50-60 MB a month so this works great. I have a Verizon iPad 3, so it doesn't have AWS or LTE. But still, it works fine with the 1-2 bars inside my house (I get more bars outside).
This is 100% incorrect. I had some issues with my iPad Air. Had a T-mo sim in it already activated and have been using it. Took my Air to the Apple store and they swapped me for another iPad and put my existing sim in it. Could log into my T-mo account but wouldn't surf the web. Had to just call T-mo and have them switch the IMEI on my account. Immediately began working and showed the amount of data used.
The coverage is kind of spotty in my area but I can't argue with free. If coverage gets better in my area, I might consider switching my phones to tmobile so it is a good indicator of that for me.
Just an update on my situation with tmobile. I have a sony xperia z1s with the $50 plan. I also have an ipad mini lte with the free 200mb plan and a Nexus 7 2013 with a free 200mb plan. At the minimum you will still need to have the $10 on demand data plan to have access to the free 200mb for the tablets but since i have a phone plan my $10 on demand plan is waived on each tablet, making my account around $56 ish a month. I have great wifi at both work and home and since those are the only places im at that is why i have a reduced data plan. i also carry my z1s phone so there is no need to carry my nexus 7 when i have my ipad mini lte. at the moment i feel like i have way too much technology on my hands than i know what to do with. i still have a note 8.0 lte that i'm not currently using just because of my other items. 
no problems in the san diego area so im happy with service.
no problems in the san diego area so im happy with service.Just an update on my situation with tmobile. I have a sony xperia z1s with the $50 plan. I also have an ipad mini lte with the free 200mb plan and a Nexus 7 2013 with a free 200mb plan. At the minimum you will still need to have the $10 on demand data plan to have access to the free 200mb for the tablets but since i have a phone plan my $10 on demand plan is waived on each tablet, making my account around $56 ish a month. I have great wifi at both work and home and since those are the only places im at that is why i have a reduced data plan. i also carry my z1s phone so there is no need to carry my nexus 7 when i have my ipad mini lte. at the moment i feel like i have way too much technology on my hands than i know what to do with. i still have a note 8.0 lte that i'm not currently using just because of my other items.
Hi,
I also have a postpaid account with T-Mobile and recently purchased the rMini iPad (like you I added the tablet to the "on demand" line). I haven't used the cellular connection much but was told by tech support that after you used up the free 200 mb, you're throttled to 2g speeds. Is this information correct? Thanks!
Info is incorrect. No throttling with the free 200mb plan. See post #64 above. I wondered the same thing.