RedSpark

Just got off the phone with T-Mobile. We have eight lines on our family plan (Sprint Max). Switching to Go5G Plus would increase our bill by $35.00/Month. Switching to Go5G Next would increase our bill by $105.00/Month. Adding an additional line (putting us over 8 lines) also means we don't get the AutoPay discount for that line.... So an additional Apple Watch would be $15.00/month instead of $10.00/month. On the upside, I did learn that we still get the AutoPay discount as long as a Debit/Checking account is linked as the primary, even if you make an early manual payment on a credit card. We'll see how long that lasts for.... I'm not happy about any of this.

We all knew this was coming: https://www.lightreading.com/5g-and-beyond/t-mobiles-premium-pricing-passes-atandt-verizon/d/d-id/786190?#close-modal

New T-Mobile Plan dropped: Go5G Next..... "iPhone Forever" is back... Sort of. https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/t-mobile-unveils-go5g-next Also: We're currently on Sprint Max from the migration.... This looks interesting given that we like to upgrade our iPhones each year.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/dish-files-extension-buy-800-mhz-spectrum-t-mobile Dish is asking for 10 months to put the money together.

Given what's happening with Verizon now, T-Mobile needs to keep ahead of the game with spectrum: https://totaltele.com/verizon-gains-full-access-to-c-band-after-satellite-exodus/ Verizon had initially deployed 60MHz of C-band spectrum across 46 markets in 2022, a total that slowly expanded as the satellite operators gradually migrated away from the C-band. Now, full access to the company’s C-band holdings means the operator can provide a minimum of 140MHz of spectrum across the contiguous US, with an average of 161MHz. In 158 markets in the US ­­– covering almost 40 million people – customers will have access to the full 200MHz of spectrum. This could be reflected in the upcoming rankings, etc.

Dish: T-Mobile's 800 MHz still in play: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/dish-negotiations-ongoing-t-mobile-800-mhz

Another potential merger/acquisition in the hopper: https://www.lightreading.com/5g-and-beyond/who-will-buy-uscellular/d/d-id/785995 This has been a long time coming...

We're currently on the Sprint Max Plan having been integrated into T-Mobile's billing system. Anyone here make the switch from Sprint Max to Go5G Plus? T-Mobile is pushing it hard on the website. How did the numbers work out? Worth doing?

Some impressive numbers! Also… Merger synergies! Raising 2023 Guidance Postpaid net customer additions are expected to be between 5.6 million and 5.9 million, an increase from prior guidance of 5.3 million to 5.7 million. Core Adjusted EBITDA, which is Adjusted EBITDA less lease revenues, is expected to be between $28.9 billion and $29.2 billion, an increase from prior guidance of $28.8 billion to $29.2 billion. Merger synergies are expected to be approximately $7.5 billion, an increase from prior guidance of $7.3 billion to $7.5 billion. Merger-related costs are expected to be approximately $1.0 billion before taxes. These costs are excluded from Core Adjusted EBITDA but will impact Net income, Net cash provided by operating activities and Adjusted Free Cash Flow. Net cash provided by operating activities, including payments for Merger-related costs, is expected to be between $18.0 billion and $18.3 billion, an increase from prior guidance of $17.9 billion to $18.3 billion. Cash purchases of property and equipment, including capitalized interest, are expected to be between $9.5 billion and $9.7 billion an increase from the prior guidance of $9.4 billion to $9.7 billion. Adjusted Free Cash Flow, including payments for Merger-related costs, is expected to be between $13.2 billion and $13.6 billion. Adjusted Free Cash Flow guidance does not assume any material net cash inflows from securitization.

The AutoPay discount situation on T-Mobile isn't as bad as I thought it was, but it's still a bit ridiculous. I have my checking account registered as a primary payment method and I have my credit card entered as a secondary payment method. T-Mobile actually sends you a text a couple days before the payment date as a reminder that you have an upcoming AutoPay payment scheduled. I then went into the App and manually made a payment using my saved credit card information. Could be worse, but it's still annoying to have to do this monthly.

Looks like I'm fully onboard now. Just got my first T-Mobile Branded Bill which I can actually view interactively on the site.

It says that it can take up to 72 Hours for updates to take effect/show on the website and in the system. It took that long for my lines. I have a feeling this issue affects a lot of people and T-Mobile hasn’t said anything about it AFAIK.

Congrats! Make sure to check your line(s) profile info (Caller ID/E-911, etc.) to be sure it migrated over properly. Also, you'll want to update your payment method to continue receiving the AutoPay discount.

Not sure why the Caller ID's got messed up on our lines. We had E-911 addresses set up on each line for Wi-Fi Calling on Sprint. After the migration I had to re-enter all the addresses to ensure that Wi-Fi Calling would continue to work. (I received an alert on the T-Mobile website that no E-911 address was set.) I think it's official now. See this AutoPay Support Page: https://www.t-mobile.com/support/account/autopay To be eligible for the AutoPay discount each month, you must meet the following requirements: Be on Go5G, Magenta, T-Mobile Essentials, ONE Plan, or another tax inclusive plan (such as LineLink and Mobile Internet for hotspots). Be active on AutoPay at the time of bill processing. Have paid the prior month's bill by its due date. Cards with statements mailed to foreign addresses can’t be used for AutoPay. Payment method must be a debit card or linked bank account. Credit cards and digital wallets (Apply Pay/Google Pay) are not eligible. AutoPay isn't available for No Credit Check plans. The Rep on the phone told me that I would lose my AutoPay discount unless I updated my payment method to a new eligible one. So I linked my checking account for AutoPay and then immediately made a one-time payment on my Credit Card, which I have stored as a backup payment method. I now have a reminder set to make a credit card payment each time my monthly bill posts. Doing this enables me to get the discount while putting it on my Credit Card for the cash back. Also see this: https://tmo.report/2023/05/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-upcoming-t-mobile-autopay-changes/

Weird. Did you have the same issues I did with E911 addresses being blank and Caller ID's all set to be me as the Primary Line? Don't forget to update your default payment method for the AutoPay discount. I really hope they revert that policy back to include credit cards.

But wait.... There's more. I also had to go into "Account --> Profile --> Caller ID" and manually update the Caller ID name on each line. I just happened to check it because I was curious about data integrity after the migration... and well, it was messed up. The data migration made me the Caller ID for every line on the account, so I had to fix that for each line. T-Mobile had better warn people about this stuff, because there's going to be a massive influx of calls about incorrect account settings from Sprint customers. Maybe that's why they've been doing this migration gradually.... So they don't get slammed with customer service calls about migrated account information which is now showing incorrect.

I just happened to check my Sprint account today to see if by chance it was migrated. Turns out it was. I imagine I would have gotten a text message at some point. My account payment due date is about a week from now, so perhaps notice would have come around then eventually. Our plan still shows as Sprint Max and the rep said it's going to remain that for the time being.

Logged onto the Sprint website to check my Bill. Saw a message that my account was migrated to T-Mobile. I didn't receive any email/text notification about it beforehand. Went through the workflow to set up access to T-Mobile. During the migration, the system had me verify two lines for some reason: My line and another line on the account. Once the migration was completed, it showed the wrong line (the other line it asked me to verify) as a primary on the account. I called T-Mobile support and a friendly/helpful rep fixed it very quickly so that my line was put back as the primary. That was strange, but it's fixed. Also, the user roles for my account were messed up. It showed two lines associated with me as the primary account holder, so they had to remove the erroneous one. There was also a section of authorized users which were migrated over from Sprint and it listed them on the "old system". I had T-Mobile clear those out entirely so I could start fresh. I noticed that I had to update all of the E-911 Addresses for each line, so I did that. Those didn't migrate over from Sprint's system. Finally, I updated the AutoPay method to be my checking account, so I can keep my AutoPay discount ($40/month). I'll manually pay the bill early on my Credit Card (which I left as a backup payment method) so that I get my credit card cash back. Zero will be debited from the checking account on the due date (which per T-Mobile is a couple days before the due date). It's annoying that T-Mobile is doing this. Definitely not "uncarrier". Downloaded the T-Mobile App and deleted the "My Sprint" one. Logged into it and set up Face ID/Notifications. End of an era.

I'm getting that feeling as well. Still nothing.

Thought this was interesting: https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/verizons-hans-vestberg-touts-new-myplan-options More than 50% of all Verizon’s radios are using Verizon’s fiber. The question then is, why not the other 50%. Some of them are very rural and fiber isn’t available, they’re renting fiber or using some other technology for backhaul. What's the current percentage breakdown for T-Mobile?

"Sprint plan customers have been slowly migrated over time to the T-Mobile biller, and a high majority have already completed that migration (for better or worse). There may still be a small subset of customers still on the Sprint biller, but they are few and far between." Not exactly.... We're stuck on it, as are a number of other folks here.

Did T-Mobile announce this in the recent Earnings Call? I didn't have a chance to hear the whole thing.

And there goes another billing cycle on Sprint's site for me as well....

More bad news on top of the wireless sub losses for Dish: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dish-network-suffers-major-subscriber-102155011.html This isn't going well. https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/dish-pledges-to-slow-5g-network-spending-this-year/d/d-id/784758 Not a good idea to pause on a network buildout. Of course, Dish wouldn't have to do this if it had the money to keep building. Reminds me of Sprint choosing not to participate in the 600 MHz Auction and lying about why it didn't until it had to come clean in an FCC disclosure.

Save for Apple Retail Stores, I think most other company flagship stores are run at a loss, with the idea being that the cost of operation essentially amounts to what a billboard advertisement would otherwise run. At least with a flagship store, it's a giant "permanent" advertisement with the potential to offset its cost somewhat. However, if customer/employee safety is a factor here for why this SF location closed, that's a sign of the times unfortunately in a number of cities around the country. I don't see this being the last flagship store closure.