Carrier T-Mobile Goes After StraightTalk and Net10

[Tiger8]

It seems that T-Mo is now working on the prepaid market. They always had a plan for $40 with unlimited talk and text and 500 MB of data, but next week they will offer a $45 plan for unlimited talk and text and 2 GB of Data. This is very close to Net10's 2.5 GB plan and Straight Talk 3 GB plan, and is much better than the other smaller guys (H20, Airvoice, etc..)

http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/simple-starter-40-dollar-plan.html?AID=11031750&PID=552179

Expect the Prepaid crowd to respond with even better values, and thank T-Mobile either way!

 

[Menel]

Straighttalk has the benefit of coverage... using ATT Towers.

I know plenty of people who would love to support TMo's valiant efforts... but need the tower coverage from ATT... so it's Cricket/StraightTalk for them.

 

[jlake02]

I saw that yesterday. I adore T-Mobile for its price cutting. Hope this is the new trend in America.

 

[1981d]

It's more like T-Mobile is playing catch up. You can get a better deal (3gb vs. 2gb) on T-Mobile's own network by going with a Straight Talk T-Mobile SIM. Or you could actually get service, you know, in buildings and outside major Cities with ST ATT SIM for the same $45 price. T-Mobile's entire un-carrier strategy is simply a recognition by them that the public was not going to embrace their inferior network at ATT/VZW price points. Robin Hood they are not

 

[Woochifer]

You're forgetting about T-Mobile's $30 prepaid plan that comes with 5 GB of high-speed data and 100 voice minutes. Perfect for people like me who don't use a lot of voice minutes, but want a higher data allowance. Wanting more than 2.5 GB of data (Straight Talk's cap at that time) and not needing unlimited voice minutes were the primary reasons why I opted for T-Mobile over Straight Talk.

As far as the network goes, I thought that Straight Talk leased their towers from multiple providers and that it's not the case that because it uses AT&T towers, it has AT&T's coverage. FWIW, I've had very few issues with T-Mobile's metro area coverage -- only in a handful of very large buildings and in outlying areas.

Also, I also noticed that T-Mobile now whitelists major music streaming sites from their high-speed data caps, even on prepaid plans. Even though they advertise that the whitelisted music streaming only applied to postpaid Simple Choice plans, I confirmed that music streaming no longer counts against my prepaid data cap. This reduced my monthly data usage by around 2 GB.

T-Mobile also quietly added tethering to their prepaid plans as well.

Because these were unannounced changes, they could go away at any time. But, for the time being, T-Mobile hasn't given me any reason to jump ship, even though I can do with at any time, since I have a prepaid plan and unlocked phone.

 

[CEmajr]

Also note that Net10 and Straighttalk have almost zero customer service while TMO tops the industry as well as has actual retail locations for their customers.

Does Straighttalk still not allow video stream and hotspot/tethering or has that been fixed now?