Official Tmobile-Sprint merger discussion thread

[RedSpark]

https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/t-mobile-loses-bid-class-action-suit-over-sprint-merger

Consumers who are fed up with higher wireless prices won a victory last week when the 7th Circuit rejected T-Mobile’s appeal to dismiss a class action suit related to its merger with Sprint.

[RedSpark]

https://tmo.report/2024/05/confirmed-t-mobile-is-raising-prices-on-some-legacy-plans/

Post-Merger T-Mobile, Folks.

EDIT: Just got the text. Our connected devices will increase by $2 per line per month. We're on Sprint Max.

[PythonFanPA]

While I don't think anyone would ever enjoy having to pay more or want it....given concerns about how much it might be I had going in, if that's all the hike is end result, I can live with it.   We're on Unlimited Freedom w Taxes & Fees plan, with 2 lines and pay $105 exactly counting everything.  Worst case if above holds true that'd bump us to $115/mo. 

That said, no communication/text about it here yet.

[Trip]

Same, nothing yet on Unlimited Freedom.  Actually, just got an e-mail with my bill and it appears unchanged.

- Trip

[Dkoellerwx]

1 hour ago, Trip said:

Same, nothing yet on Unlimited Freedom.  Actually, just got an e-mail with my bill and it appears unchanged.

- Trip

On unlimited freedom as well. Haven't heard anything so far but apparently notifications are going out in waves until 7pm PDT, so not out of it yet.

[Yuhfhrh]

4 hours ago, PythonFanPA said:

While I don't think anyone would ever enjoy having to pay more or want it....given concerns about how much it might be I had going in, if that's all the hike is end result, I can live with it.   We're on Unlimited Freedom w Taxes & Fees plan, with 2 lines and pay $105 exactly counting everything.  Worst case if above holds true that'd bump us to $115/mo. 

That said, no communication/text about it here yet.

The thing is, if they do it once... They'll likely do it again. Small increases every now and then over the years will add up. Out of Verizon and AT&T's playbook. 

[Trip]

12 hours ago, Dkoellerwx said:

On unlimited freedom as well. Haven't heard anything so far but apparently notifications are going out in waves until 7pm PDT, so not out of it yet.

I never got anything, so I'm evidently in the clear.

- Trip

[clbowens]

12 hours ago, Yuhfhrh said:

The thing is, if they do it once... They'll likely do it again. Small increases every now and then over the years will add up. Out of Verizon and AT&T's playbook. 

The price of EVERYTHING is going up.  Get used to it.  🙂

All companies lie.  Get used to it.

Just choose which lying company is best for you.

[PythonFanPA]

22 hours ago, Yuhfhrh said:

The thing is, if they do it once... They'll likely do it again. Small increases every now and then over the years will add up. Out of Verizon and AT&T's playbook. 

You may be right, and by no means am I saying I'd be happy paying more.  I just meant to express that in the big picture right now, and in my case scenario - the impact is negligible really...both (a) compared to my expectations going in but even far moreso (b) the comparative scale against a *slew* of other things where I'm having to pay far more than I used to, which really even was more of a catalyst behind what I posted than I stated upfront.  Some angles of inflation are just insane frankly, and $2-5 a line just isn't remotely near what I'd call a poster child example currently. 

I still never received any text all that said btw...maybe the increases (***for now) only impacted native T-Mo older plans perhaps? 🤔

[Dkoellerwx]

18 hours ago, Trip said:

I never got anything, so I'm evidently in the clear.

- Trip

Same here.

[dkyeager]

Since T-Mobile will soon be adding c-band sites, here is an interesting article about extending its coverage: https://www.fierce-network.com/broadband/nokia-offers-fixed-wireless-technologies-extend-reach-capacity

[RedSpark]

https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/t-mobiles-rate-hike-raises-ire-over-price-lock-guarantees
 

It’s not going over well.

[dkyeager]

4 hours ago, RedSpark said:

https://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/t-mobiles-rate-hike-raises-ire-over-price-lock-guarantees
 

It’s not going over well.

Logically it is not worth doing anything about for many. For others it unleashes the dogs of war -- you know not where they will go. For many they will look at their account for changes.

[chamb]

6 hours ago, dkyeager said:

Logically it is not worth doing anything about for many. For others it unleashes the dogs of war -- you know not where they will go. For many they will look at their account for changes.

Some of the customers that will scream the loudest are the ones that constantly cause trouble for T-Mobile.

Constantly demanding additional free lines, free phones, etc.  Sometimes losing a few customers is not all bad.

[Paynefanbro]

I'm not defending the price increase at all as I was impacted and am annoyed by it, but it is funny seeing T-Mobile discount demons get checked by Verizon and AT&T users when complaining about the increase. I saw a post on Threads this week where a guy who is paying $250 for 8 lines was complaining about his bill going up and said he'd switch carriers. A bunch of Verizon and AT&T users promptly called him stupid and shared how they were paying that price for 3 lines and wanted to know what he did to get so many lines for so cheap.

[chamb]

2 hours ago, Paynefanbro said:

I'm not defending the price increase at all as I was impacted and am annoyed by it, but it is funny seeing T-Mobile discount demons get checked by Verizon and AT&T users when complaining about the increase. I saw a post on Threads this week where a guy who is paying $250 for 8 lines was complaining about his bill going up and said he'd switch carriers. A bunch of Verizon and AT&T users promptly called him stupid and shared how they were paying that price for 3 lines and wanted to know what he did to get so many lines for so cheap.

Unless it was a good friend that was going to make that mistake, I would just chuckle and leave him go.

It does not look like I will get a price increase, but if I did and it was only 5 dollars, I would not lose any sleep over it. I have a old Sprint Plan that was moved to T-Mobile.  Unlimited everything, 2 lines for $105.

[jonathanm1978]

I dont know where my pricing falls into the mix.. I have to send in my EMT license from national registry and state every year to keep the price that I have.. I think it's called a first responder plan. But here's the breakdown:

3 voice lines, 1 "connected" device, 2 wearables (my s23 ultra, wife's s23 ultra, daughter's phone, and my galaxy tablet, wife and I both have samsung watches).

The pricing breakdown is $213.50 for plans, $82.42 for equipment, and $95.12 for services (protection plans and I think that netflix stuff is in this).

The total is $391.04 for all of it.  So is that good? 

From my understanding, and I might be wrong, I think my tablet is the only device that will have a price increase of $2.00/mo on the plan it has. I got a text saying that my "connected device" plan will be adjusted.. and I only have one that falls under that connected device umbrella, if I'm reading correctly.

I understand both sides of the argument.. I don't want to pay more for something that was promised to never increase... but I do get that we're in some dire economic times and I've seen investments from both 401k and my own stock purchases just remain stagnant for nearly 3 years now. The 401k has took the hardest hit and hasn't been able to reach the price it was at in 2020..and is still about 10k shy of that point.

I had a bunch of Sprint stock that I held on to until it was no longer a thing..and it was swapped out for T-mobile stock. That stock has just recently got a small jump to the highest that I've seen it since the merger.. I think like $161.00 last I checked.  I'm sure some analyst somewhere figured in the churn that will come with the rate plan increases that they are implementing and it was decided that losing a few customers would be less of a hit than increasing the bottom line price on some plans.  I could understand if they were increasing across the board on everything, but from what I see, that's not the case unless I am not comprehending this text that I rec'd correctly. 

[jonathanm1978]

I also wanted to post a speed test result.. I only do these once in a while from my home area because we are gonna be the last to see changes, like load balancing.  Right now they are digging all over the place for fiber installs, so I'm not sure what the hold-up is on making the upload speed a little more in-line with download speeds, but here is the most recent from my area:

 

https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/10133670525

[dkyeager]

1 hour ago, jonathanm1978 said:

I dont know where my pricing falls into the mix.. I have to send in my EMT license from national registry and state every year to keep the price that I have.. I think it's called a first responder plan. But here's the breakdown:

3 voice lines, 1 "connected" device, 2 wearables (my s23 ultra, wife's s23 ultra, daughter's phone, and my galaxy tablet, wife and I both have samsung watches).

The pricing breakdown is $213.50 for plans, $82.42 for equipment, and $95.12 for services (protection plans and I think that netflix stuff is in this).

The total is $391.04 for all of it.  So is that good?

T-Mobile prices people pay are all over the map. The free lines are key, so take them if ever offered again.  Your priority level would be a key factor for your price.  Only T-Mobile would know the average prices people pay. 

Samsung has been offering very good deals at time of new model introductions so I have gone that route for factory unlocked, which allows me to also have a Verizon priority MVNO for when T-Mobile signal fails or I manually override.

Edited May 26 by dkyeager

[jonathanm1978]

I've wondered if being on the first responder plan has the priority over other 'regular' lines in the same way firstnet does (or, supposed to do with B14...I've seen normal customers on AT&T hit B14 so it's not {specifically} for Firstnet only)...

 

[Trip]

1 hour ago, jonathanm1978 said:

I've wondered if being on the first responder plan has the priority over other 'regular' lines in the same way firstnet does (or, supposed to do with B14...I've seen normal customers on AT&T hit B14 so it's not {specifically} for Firstnet only)...

"Priority" doesn't mean "exclusivity."  When emergency services don't need B14, AT&T can use it for everyone else.  The trade-off is that when it is needed for emergency services, they not only get all of B14, but they have also arranged for priority on the rest of the AT&T network as well. 

Beats having spectrum sitting unused most of the time and then not having enough when disaster strikes, as it could be without a partnership with a wireless company like AT&T.

- Trip

[jonathanm1978]

5 hours ago, Trip said:

"Priority" doesn't mean "exclusivity."  When emergency services don't need B14, AT&T can use it for everyone else.  The trade-off is that when it is needed for emergency services, they not only get all of B14, but they have also arranged for priority on the rest of the AT&T network as well. 

Beats having spectrum sitting unused most of the time and then not having enough when disaster strikes, as it could be without a partnership with a wireless company like AT&T.

- Trip

Luckily, that hasn't arisen in my area where I am, aside from having B14 (well, ALL of AT&T signal) not work at all in Coosa county, Alabama. I wish there was a service for first responders that would go to ANY available carrier, provider, etc..and in the absolute worst case scenario, would give us service. I've been on an ambulance, trying to find an address, and my driver actually had to pull over and we pulled out a map book and tried to find the road using the "old fashioned way".. and that takes valuable time away that sometimes may be vital to someone surviving. BUT, I will say that I've only seen that in Coosa county... both my Tmo and AT&T phones had zero service and I couldn't get GPS, and neither could my driver (VZW service). Maybe satellite will help with that in those times where that occurs.. but that's an extreme example.

 

 

Edit to add:

Let me add some context to this.. Coosa county isn't regular coverage area for my job.. so it's not a regular thing that we are dispatched to Coosa county.. and actually, there's been a change and that county now has it's own ambulance service that operates.. so the only time we might receive a request is if it's a multiple casualty scenario, or it's a transfer going home from our contracted hospital.  The way that reads above, it may seem like we are just out without some sort of GPS gadget to direct us on where to go, but for the most part, we know our coverage area pretty well. Dispatch can also give us cross streets for reference inside our coverage area (and our home county). Coosa just isn't a regular area for my job to run in. 

[dkyeager]

 

T-Mobile to acquire most of U.S. Cellular in $4.4 billion deal

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/28/t-mobile-to-acquire-most-of-us-cellular-in-4point4-billion-deal.html?__source=androidappshare

 

[dkyeager]

"U.S. Cellular said Tuesday it would hold on to its portfolio of cellphone towers, about 70% of its wireless spectrum licenses and interests in joint ventures with Verizon. The company said it would look for ways to monetize its remaining spectrum rights.

T-Mobile also agreed under the proposed deal to extend its leases on 600 U.S. Cellular towers and sign long-term leases on about 2,000 more. U.S. Cellular said the contracts would give it a dependable anchor tenant for at least 15 years."

https://www.wsj.com/business/telecom/t-mobile-to-buy-most-of-u-s-cellular-in-4-4-billion-deal-including-debt-779c4c09?mod=mhp

[schmidtj]

Here's the T-Mobile Announcement:

T-Mobile to Acquire UScellular Wireless Operations and Deliver Exceptional Value, a Superior 5G Experience and Unparalleled Benefits to Millions of Customers