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T-Mobile unveils new plan: 10GB family plan 4 lines for $100 (undercut rivals by $60)

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macrumors 65816
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Apr 3, 2012
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http://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-undercuts-at-t-on-4-line-10gb-family-plan/
T-Mobile undercuts AT&T on 4-line, 10GB family plan

Customers can sign up for the new deal through September, and the boosted high-speed data lasts all the way until the end of 2015. The company said the promotion is available for both current and new customers.
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4x100(5).jpg


Good through January 2016. It then goes back down to 1GB per line. Though a lot could happen in the wireless world in 17 months. It might be permanent by that time.
 
Notice though that its not shared data...2.5gb per line and you better believe they are going to enforce that per line part. Still a heck of a deal.

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But that Unlimited streaming music part....I do hope the other carriers piggy back on that part.
 
Applejuiced said:
Cant beat that deal.
Tmobile is shaking and changing the industry.
Verizon and AT&T must hate it:D
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Unless you're a huge portion of the family plans out there, where Mom and Dad and your wife are on the plan. You and your wife are heavier data users than your parents. You are stuck with 2.5 gig, not shared.
 
VolceOntra said:
How is this any different from the old plans?
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Today, it's all that stuff, but only 1GB of highspeed per line.

This promotion bumps it to 2.5GB per line.

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joshkhaos1 said:
Notice though that its not shared data...2.5gb per line and you better believe they are going to enforce that per line part. Still a heck of a deal.

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But that Unlimited streaming music part....I do hope the other carriers piggy back on that part.
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Even if they do enforce, 2.5GB is quite a bit, and they don't charge overage fees.
 
I7guy said:
If only there was decent tmobile service in my area, I would be all over this deal.
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Yup. I recently churned from TMO to Cricket. I don't mind paying an extra $5/month for better coverage and HSPA in more places than EDGE and GPRS.

I just got back from a vacation where I burned through the 500 MB high-speed portion of my unlimited bucket in the first four days. Cricket's throttled speeds were still faster than TMO's EDGE and GPRS.
 
AustinIllini said:
Unless you're a huge portion of the family plans out there, where Mom and Dad and your wife are on the plan. You and your wife are heavier data users than your parents. You are stuck with 2.5 gig, not shared.
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Still, after that you get data but throttled instead of paying overages like AT&T and verizon though.
$10-15 extra per GB used over.
 
What I'm wondering is, they offer this for 4 lines in all the promo details, but their setup can support 5 voice lines (like I have now). Can we pay another $25 to add a fifth line?
 
So how much for 2 lines? I just priced 2 lines at 1gb a piece and it came out to $80/month. You're telling me that 2 additional lines is only $10 a piece?

Kind of sucks if you need 4 lines to take full advantage of this. If this was 2 lines for $65/month or something like that, I'd drop AT&T in a second.
 
kmichalec said:
What I'm wondering is, they offer this for 4 lines in all the promo details, but their setup can support 5 voice lines (like I have now). Can we pay another $25 to add a fifth line?
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I'm thinking it would be less than $25 to add a fifth. Previously they charged $10 for with 1gb LTE, or $20 for 3gb LTE for the fifth line.

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I7guy said:
If only there was decent tmobile service in my area, I would be all over this deal.
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I'm in the same boat. They actually seem to have decent coverage in the areas I'm in 95% of the time. That other 5% is still a killer.
 
Applejuiced said:
Still, after that you get data but throttled instead of paying overages like AT&T and verizon though.
$10-15 extra per GB used over.
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Right, but you don't get overages until the combined usage is over 10 gb of data. That's a lot when your wife uses 1, your combined parents use 1.
 
This really is dirt cheap. Their network coverage is just good enough to be tolerable.

EDIT: I didn't even notice the unlimited streaming music thing until now. That is just simply amazing. Most of my data goes to streaming music. Nice to know that I essentially have 2.5GB on top of the music I stream. Very, very cool.
 
Not quite as good of a deal as it seems at first glance, at least for me. I have two lines on Verizon Edge with the 10gb plan, and before taxes and fees I'm paying $210/month (2 iPhones).

I priced out 2 iPhone lines on this Simple Choice T-Mobile deal, and even if I go down to 3gb per line, it still priced out at $174/month after you add on $10 for each line for Jump and the device payments. If I stay at 5gb per line to compare apples to apples it's $194, so only $16 difference.

You might save more adding on more lines, but even with Verizon it's only $15 per extra line on the 10gb or higher plan, plus the device payment, so it's really going to be fairly similar. I guess the savings is if you're willing to go with a lot less data like 1gb per phone.

Edited to add: it looks like maybe the deal in the op isn't on their website yet, and that apparently they're giving 2.5gb/line for the 1gb price, which changes it a bit (assuming I can get it with 2 lines and 4 lines isn't a requirement). I was pricing the 3gb and 5gb plans. So if I was willing to go with half the data I currently have, the bill could be $154 instead of $174, if I'm reading it right. Interesting, but not sure I'll bite. I would have to really watch my data with that.
 
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This would a perfect test case for their test drive program, especially if the family plan entails family members located in different areas. Just have everyone not currently on T-Mobile sign up for the test drive, and check for network coverage issues. If T-Mobile's network is the sticking point, then the test drive can go a long way towards verifying whether the network issues remain enough of a real problem to eliminate T-Mobile as an option.

Just in the 10 months I've been on T-Mobile, the LTE coverage in my area has gone from sporadic to just about everywhere I go on a regular basis. And the two dead spots in my daily commute are no longer there.

Generally speaking, T-Mobile has very good metro area coverage, and seems to have fortified it in the areas I frequent and travel to. The weaknesses that persist are their many network gaps in the outlying and rural areas, and inferior reception inside of large buildings due to their higher frequency bands. Given T-Mobile's focus on metro area LTE upgrades, I doubt that rural expansion will happen until they more broadly deploy lower frequency bands.
 
T-Mobile unveils new plan: 10GB family plan 4 lines for $100 (undercut rivals...

I wonder if I can test drive tmobile while still under contract with verizon? Would they loan me a phone to use? I've checked the coverage map in metro Detroit where I live and it seems good. But, if like you said, the service isn't so good in large buildings, that will definitely dissuade me. It's just that I am so ready to get rid of this iphone 4 8gb. It is slow and If I want to take very many pictures or download anymore apps, I have to delete things to make room. I'm so tempted to pull the trigger on an HTC One M8. But then I think I might wait for the iphone 6 to come out.

What to do?
 
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I'm confused how this works. If there are no overages what happens when a line goes over 2.5gb? Right now I pay $150 for 10gb shared plan with AT&T. My wife uses no more than 2.5gb and my mother in law uses around 50mb so basically nothing. That leaves me with 7.5gb to use. How would my situation work on T-Mobile if I went over 2.5gb but combined the three of us weren't over the total 10gb?
 
juice3250 said:
I wonder if I can test drive tmobile while still under contract with verizon? Would they loan me a phone to use? I've checked the coverage map in metro Detroit where I live and it seems good. But, if like you said, the service isn't so good in large buildings, that will definitely dissuade me. It's just that I am so ready to get rid of this iphone 4 8gb. It is slow and If I want to take very many pictures or download anymore apps, I have to delete things to make room. I'm so tempted to pull the trigger on an HTC One M8. But then I think I might wait for the iphone 6 to come out.

What to do?
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Yes. They loan you the Iphone 5s. They will put a $700 hold on your credit card. That will be charged if you don't return the phone.


barkomatic said:
This is a good deal, but I wish the carriers would compete a little more on individual plans as well.
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Ideally, Sprint would do something like this:

No more family plan, all individual plans

$30 a month: unlimited talk, unlimited text, 2.0 GB of data
$35 a month: unlimited talk, unlimited text, 3.5 GB of data
$40 a month: unlimited talk, unlimited text, 5.0 GB of data
$45 a month: unlimited talk, unlimited text, 7.0 GB of data
$50 a month: unlimited talk, unlimited text, 10.0 GB of data

They will really differentiate Sprint from others.
 
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