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T-Mobile LTE & Network Discussion V2


lilotimz

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With my new job, I'm always on calls on the go and having the ability to do voice and data at the same time is a need for me. I honestly don't want to switch but Sprint hasn't announced any plans for VoLTE.

 

I'm assuming it will be available once markets are dense but we don't know how long that will be

That's understandable. Honesty I dont see VoLTE coming to sprint until late 2017-2018. You have awhile. By that time you probably wouldn't even bother to switch back to Sprint.

 

 

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My sanity came back when I switched. I have never seen 3g since the day I switched and I could actually hear the person on the other end of the call. Plus, my price is 2/3 of sprint's plan which is nice.

I dont blame ya. Sprint has still not been able to deploy 800 mhz CDMA and LTE for the most part thanks to SB county. So Cal desperately needs that 7x7 sliver of 800 mhz spectrum to deploy a 5x5 LTE and a CDMA carrier to help with coverage indoors and to provide some additional capacity for data and voice. Having CDMA 800 deployed on every tower everywhere will help sprint to consider shutting down some CDMA carriers to free up more spectrum for LTE.

 

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Maybe for you, its been pretty damn good for me..

Yes. VoLTE on T-mobile is pretty good. I don't understand why AT&T is so shy about VoLTE and making it available to very limited devices.

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Have you considered trying AT&T, Fraydog? The unlimited plan is great, especially with the Freelancers Union discount gusherb originally mentioned. Even without the television service, you could get the $100 monthly 15gb plan for just under $80 monthly with the discount.

AT&T just isn't as good as Verizon here in Chester and the surrounding area. It is far better than it was but the way my family plan (my mother is on my plan) works on Verizon I have the 16 GB Carryover plan with Safety Mode and Canada/Mexico calling for $160 a month for two lines. AT&T is actually more expensive. T-Mobile lacks B12 here and Sprint really only covers the Interstates here.

 

If anything I'm trying to peel people off the Deathstar. I have a couple of friends on AT&T and their Snapchats are almost always out of order due to AT&T not sending out snaps.

 

As you're about to see off Speedtest, if it ain't broke...

 

56415fd99b9b6dc2830886f9095dc4c4.jpg

 

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AT&T just isn't as good as Verizon here in Chester and the surrounding area. It is far better than it was but the way my family plan (my mother is on my plan) works on Verizon I have the 16 GB Carryover plan with Safety Mode and Canada/Mexico calling for $160 a month for two lines. AT&T is actually more expensive. T-Mobile lacks B12 here and Sprint really only covers the Interstates here.

 

If anything I'm trying to peel people off the Deathstar. I have a couple of friends on AT&T and their Snapchats are almost always out of order due to AT&T not sending out snaps.

 

As you're about to see off Speedtest, if it ain't broke...

 

56415fd99b9b6dc2830886f9095dc4c4.jpg

 

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

Well, those are some very good speeds Verizon is giving you. From what I know, in most small towns, the cost of living usually is less expensive. The trade-off is people living in small towns generally need to pay more for Verizon wireless service, as its the company which typically has the best speeds/coverage in a small town. Likely its still a value considering the difference in cost of living. Hopefully I'm right about that regarding Chester, Illinois being more affordable. Its something I'd consider moving to a smaller town if I knew I could rely on a good doctor there. My medical needs are such where I don't want to lose having a good doctor, though for the most part I'd love to move otherwise. If so, I'd definitely consider things like wireless coverage now, as its become so important nowadays to have. It really does come down to what works best, regardless of cost in my opinion.

 

Although, there are deals to be had. People just need to know how to look for them and make sure they aren't making it a priority to where the quality of their service suffers with a company that can't provide. It is something T-Mobile seriously needs to get working on when the band 12 becomes available for them to begin deploying at the end of this year/beginning of next year here in the Chicago area. With the limited amount of spectrum, congestion - especially with Binge-On affecting the network, etc., band 12 is quite important here and I think will make more of a difference here than it does in many other places. That is my estimate of it, at least.

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Un-carrier 12 Announced

 

New plans called T-Mobile One are essentially Sprint's Freedom plans being trailed, just priced differently.

 

1 line = $70

2 lines = $70+$50

3 lines = $70+$50+$20

4 lines = $70+$50+$20+20

 

Up to 8 lines at $20 if you sign up for autopay, otherwise there is an additional $5 per month per line fee.

 

$25 buy-up per line for HD video streaming.

 

No more LTE bucket hotspot, only 2G unlimited hotspot.

 

$20 for unlimited LTE on a tablet as an "add a line"

 

Plans available 9/6/16

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Un-carrier 12 Announced

 

No more LTE bucket hotspot, only 2G unlimited hotspot.

 

$20 for unlimited LTE on a tablet as an "add a line"

 

Plans available 9/6/16

Well, I don't use much hotspot, but it is incredibly nice to have when you're on vacation with no access to WiFi (for a tablet/laptop.)  Sounds like they'll allow for 480p streaming with unlimited 2G for basic browsing/emails.  For now, I'll hold onto my $150/4 line unlimited promo for as long as I can.  The 14GB hotspot at full speed is too good to let go.

 

Definitely a good offer for new customers though.  Although me personally I'd hold out for another unlimited plan promo.

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Well, I don't use much hotspot, but it is incredibly nice to have when you're on vacation with no access to WiFi (for a tablet/laptop.)  Sounds like they'll allow for 480p streaming with unlimited 2G for basic browsing/emails.  For now, I'll hold onto my $150/4 line unlimited promo for as long as I can.  The 14GB hotspot at full speed is too good to let go.

 

Definitely a good offer for new customers though.  Although me personally I'd hold out for another unlimited plan promo.

 

Well yes and no. The unlimited 2G is for hotspot data, but the language is grey for how video streaming while using the hotspot would be. I read it as all hotspot data is 2G which means video is useless.

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Well yes and no. The unlimited 2G is for hotspot data, but the language is grey for how video streaming while using the hotspot would be. I read it as all hotspot data is 2G which means video is useless.

Well then this plan really is a huge letdown.  They should have kept the ~14GB or so for everything else aside from video and let BingeOn handle the video portion.  They're slowly removing features now.

 

EDIT: It's now $15 for 5GB of high-speed hotspot on the new plans.  Yikes.

 

 

Smartphone Mobile Hotspot: Add 5GB of high-speed tethering when you need it for $15.

 

via https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/t-mobile-links/t-mobile-fact-sheet.htm

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As I briefly mentioned in the Marcelo thread, I like the concept of this new plan by T-Mobile, but not the execution of it. It seems these new plans are going to be standard at T-Mobile, and if so, that means T-Mobile service will start at $70 monthly. I think this is stupid, even if its a move by T-Mobile to get people wanting cheaper plans to be on MetroPCS, so T-Mobile can look big, bad, and exclusive now, rather than the cheap, somewhat pathetic company they've been and in some ways still are (at the top, mostly).

 

The HD add-on for video is a decent idea, but then again if I were a current customer, I'd be worried about T-Mobile trying to sneak this feature on, saying they are making this "video optimizing" standard, and that all customers must pay this added fee. I see it easier for T-Mobile to implement towards all customers, since it isn't forcing people off of their old plan onto a new plan. I definitely can see that snake Legere doing this somehow. Notice on these new plans no more high-speed tethering, after all.

 

The real rates of this plan with HD, are $95 monthly for the first line, $75 monthly for the second line, and $45 each additional line. I really don't these rates for HD unlimited are bad at all. The problem is with the starter, non-HD rates being the lowest-priced plans. What T-Mobile really ought to have done here, and it would have been much more simple too, along with being less worrying to legacy customers not wanting an "HD add-on" charge, is to have two separate plans.

 

The plans should have been like this. SD Unlimited - $45 monthly per line with autopay, $60 monthly per line without autopay. HD Unlimited - $75 monthly per line with autopay, $90 monthly per line without autopay. Up to 30gb per line in a month, before any possible deprioritizing may occur. The rate would be a bit less on the first line, but the additional lines wouldn't receive such deep discounts. T-Mobile could have that standard, then simply offer promotions to cover situations with additional lines.

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Well then this plan really is a huge letdown.  They should have kept the ~14GB or so for everything else aside from video and let BingeOn handle the video portion.  They're slowly removing features now.

 

EDIT: It's now $15 for 5GB of high-speed hotspot on the new plans.  Yikes.

 

Yep, and this is how T-Mobile will try to make more money. They created the welfare economy by offering heavy discounts to attract customers and now have to raise prices to offset the network burden. 

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Yep, and this is how T-Mobile will try to make more money. They created the welfare economy by offering heavy discounts to attract customers and now have to raise prices to offset the network burden. 

 

I'm thinking they are trying to create an image that despite these plan changes, they are somehow in the same league as AT&T and Verizon. So now, people who don't want to spend $70 or more to begin with, will be told to go to MetroPCS. This is T-Mobile's way of pretending they are improving their image, just like when they said they soon will match Verizon's coverage.

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Yep, and this is how T-Mobile will try to make more money. They created the welfare economy by offering heavy discounts to attract customers and now have to raise prices to offset the network burden.

I do think it's a great idea for them to gradually increase prices, especially when their pricing was of the cheapest in the industry for a great product, but they're changing too much at once. People are used to included high-speed tethering (14GB/month was included yesterday.) Today, it's None, and costs $15 for 5GB! People are used to 14 GB included for free. BingeOn was an option for subscribers on older plans. Now, it's required. The pricing is also a bit more than people on the promotional plans previously ($160/4, as opposed to the $150/4 or $100/2 that many people jumped on.) To market this as an Uncarrier movement is rather ironic as there's nothing but adding pain-points, instead of removing them.

 

EDIT: Typo

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I do think it's a great idea for them to gradually increase prices, especially when their pricing was of the cheapest in the industry for a great product, but they're changing too much at once. People are used to included high-speed tethering (14GB/month was included yesterday.) Today, it's None, and costs $15 for 5GB! People are used to 14 GB included for free. BingeOn was an option for subscribers on older plans. Now, it's required. The pricing is also a bit more than people on the promotional plans previously ($160/4, as opposed to the $150/4 or $100/2 that many people jumped on.) To market this as an Uncarrier movement is rather ironic as there's nothing but adding pain-points, instead of removing them.

 

EDIT: Typo

 

I think it's geared towards new subscribers, not existing. That's the key difference and it makes sense from an acquisition standpoint. 

 

The real question is what happens when someone wants to upgrade their phone or make account changes?

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  • 2 weeks later...

What are people's thoughts on the Tmobile One + plans?

It's much better than the previous plan.  I'm not sure how to feel about the unlimited 3G tethering, or the 14GB high-speed tethering.  Both have their perks.  The international roaming is a much better offer though.  They require a 24hr pass to be manually activated every day for HD viewing, which isn't bad but is tedious for some customers.  But I think the tiered plans were better overall.  The differences in price ranges accommodated a lot of people's needs and a lot of people don't need/want to pay for unlimited data when they don't need to.

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What are people's thoughts on the Tmobile One + plans?

 

I like it now that it's been tweaked. It's simple and easy to understand, and with the tweaked hotspot it's still very useful to those who need that feature. I'm a bit skeptical of allowing unlimited hotspot use, even at "just" 3G speeds on the non-plus plan, as I don't think that's a story that will end well. T-Mobile is going all-in for a market share grab, but I'm just not sure their network will support it in the long run. So, with an 18-month time horizon, I see it as a "plus" for Sprint. :D

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So I took a business trip from Houston to Baton Rouge in I-10 and T-Mobile was not up to the task. My Verizon iPhone with Unlimited data was working without any issue 99.9% of the time while T-Mobile dropped down to EDGE several times. Even in Baton Rouge, LTE data on T-Mobile was extremly slow and not working at times. Ran several speedtests and T-Mobile was at or around 1MB down. Sprint was working well, not as well as Verizon but close and even into Denham Springs, you were able to see what a difference Sprint made in a year. B26 all over the place and areas that had 3G last year are now running B25/26 & B41.

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That's great to hear! Sprint is very clearly making good progress, with much anecdotal evidence of that here on S4GRU. T-mobile seems to be crumbling under the weight of their subscriber growth and spectrum crunch; adding unlimited LTE hotspot service will only serve to compound the problem.

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