Relatively speaking, yes it is cheap. The US is a huge area to cover, much larger network is needed. I don't think that accounts for ALL of the price difference, but I'm sure at bit of it. The rest is probably corporate greed.
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T-Mobile Offering Two Lines With 6GB LTE Each for $80/Month
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I'm sure you "could," but not sure how Tmob would react when/if discovered. I know ATT at least use to get pissy when people put their iPhone SIM inside an iPad, though I suppose this is a bit different since it's two different SIMs, not sharing one SIM with two devices. As for signing up it looks like the plan won't be available until tomorrow.
We've been over this a ton of times. The UK is the size of one of our states. These carriers cover the whole country. So yes, it's going to be more expensive.
Edit: Here's an image that is a size comparison. So if you get a carrier that covers that whole area, lets talk about pricing then.
Sorry, I was just asking the question as a point of comparison - I don't really know how much it costs in the US. But anyway, my carrier in the UK (Three), does not charge roaming in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, HK, Indonesia, Israel, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, and yes, the United States.
I'm in NYC and switched from ATT to T-Mobile and haven't seen/noticed any deprecation in service. My wife and I each have 10GB and unlimited talk/text from a promotion they had when we switched - $100 (117.50 with tax). We still are under 6gb, so might switch to this plan and save even more. We're already saving about $30 or so from when we were ATT.
T-Mobile also has free roaming and texts on their post-paid plans. I think they are up to 150 countries or something like that, including the UK.
6GB each for 2 lines at $80 is pretty great considering you can stream music & video without touching your data bucket with Music Freedom and Binge On.
You only have to trade in your phone if you still owe money on it. You could, for example, pay of your phones first and have them unlocked. Then when you switch to T-Mobile they will write you a check for the remaining service cost on the AT&T contract. You can then use your AT&T phones on T-Mobile. If you aren't upgrading your phone this is actually the better way to do it.
If you still owe money on your phone it's a bit weird how T-Mobile handles it. T-Mobile gives you a trade in credit to your account, then when you submit your old contract they will give you the difference between your trade in value and contract. So if you still owe $800 on your contract (includes service and phone cost) and T-Mobile gives you a $600 credit on trade in they will write you a check for $200. That means you still have to come up with the $600 to payoff the old contract.
It all works out the same in the long run because you'll have a huge $600 credit to your T-Mobile account, but it's a bit annoying because you'll have to come up with the upfront money. That's why it might be better to just pay off your phones before switching. Either way you have to come up with that money.
Before you jump ship, call AT&T and tell the automated system that you want to cancel your service. That will get you to retentions and I bet they will give you a much better deal than what you currently have.
In my experience, AT&T is much more willing to compete on price than Verizon is. I spoke to AT&T retentions the other week and I now have 6 GB of data to share between two lines (which is what you have), and I'm paying $90 per month before my FAN discount. My FAN discount brings it down to $80 but the taxes and fees make the total $92 and change.
I've learned that being friendly with CSRs goes a long, long way. Also, dropping the word "T-Mobile" in the conversation helps, too. I bet you won't hang up the phone before you have a lower bill, more data, or both.
This is a savings over what I pay with ATT, but not enough to make me switch, given the difference in coverage.
Be careful what you wish for, they might ended going there and you get stuck for 2 years with spotty coverage. I'm one of those who fall for it.
T-Mobile doesn't have contracts. You can leave whenever you want. You just need to pay off your phone. My service with them has been great since I switched a couple years ago. Leagues above the AT&T service I had for 15 years.
Right, in retrospect VoLTE is not a very well thought out standard. It's choppy on Verizon as well. I would disable it altogether and wait for EVS (Enhanced Voice Services) to arrive on iPhone, which is much more robust.
which in its way is a contract
if someone can't afford to pay off their phone to leave, they could be stuck. Now, it's easier to do it than when we had 2-year contracts. And you could pay off the phone, sell it to re-coup some of the costs and get on a monthly plan with someone else. But it still makes sense for some to be "stuck".which in its way is a contract
That's not a contract. That's you paying for your device. T-Mobile allows you to make monthly payments but you can buy the phone outright if you want or pay it off early. No one stops you from doing that and you're not penalized for it. A contract is when they make you pay a fee if you decide to leave before your 2 years is up, which is what AT&T & Verizon do. T-Mobile does not. Pay off the phone, have it unlocked and sell it to recoup your payoff amount. Very easy.
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ATT won't have a better deal than this. I was an ATT customer for over a decade. I had very sweet deals for many years (packages that were never on the main system). ATT was always very good to me. When I was debating leaving, they tried (earnestly) to keep my business, but they couldn't come close to what T-Mobile's price/perks offered. Even with my 20% fan discount.
agreement, contract, whatever. If someone can't afford to pay off their device or have no desire to in order to change companies, they are stuck with that phone and company until the agreement is fulfilled. Yes, it is easy to pay off the phone, sell to recoup costs, and repeat at another cell company. My point was that the phone installment plans are still effectively a contract. Very different than the 2-year contracts of years past but still bind someone to a cell company until fulfilled.
Oh really? That sucks. I was planning on doing that before switching from Verizon. But to be honest, that $30 prepaid plan sounds pretty good as-is, haha, as I hardly use my phone as a phone any more.
Does anyone know if this deal stacks with work discounts? This is so tempting.
I was on that $30 plan for 3 months before switching over to postpaid unthrottled unlimited. You can often find $30 refills for a little bit less on places like eBay.
I don't think T-Mobile themselves offer any discounts on prepaid plans.
The person I was replying to can certainly do better with AT&T than $120 for 6 GB on two lines. As I told them, I'm on a 6 GB plan now that AT&T's retention department put me on the other week and I'm paying $90 for 6 GB on two lines before any discounts.
For me, T-Mobile's lower cost simply isn't worth it yet. Even with their enhancements to coverage, they're still far behind AT&T and Verizon in my area (Metro Atlanta) in terms of consistent, reliable coverage. T-Mobile's coverage only gets worse according to their own map if I hit the road and travel virtually any direction from Atlanta unless I'm staying within 10-15 miles of an interstate or major U.S. highway. They're improving, certainly, but they're not where they need to be yet for me to consider switching, personally.