cletus

I use Ting myself. There is a whole thread on it here http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/2606-the-ting-thread/

Remember that Ting has that most MVNOs on the Sprint do not have: Voice and SMS roaming on Verizon. I actually find this the best selling point over other MVNOs. Voyager may be cheaper but the lack of roaming kills it for me.

On the other hand, if lack of coverage doesn't bother you then the $30 T-Mobile plan might work for you if you never leave the city. Although my experience with it left a lot to be desired (such as reliable data coverage)

Going only by the one sheet everybody has posted on, the only reference to "non discountable" was the "My All In" plan.  That's the plan that gave you everything including the 5gb of hotspot data.  Then there was the bullet that said discounts applied to data packages now.  We need some clarification to be sure, but it looked like maybe the discount now applied to data too. Though I imagine that they will keep it to the primary line only.  Like I said, lots of clarification is still needed.

On the other hand, Sprint could continue to screw with everyone and keep their current discounting rate where it applies only to the primary line. Following the current discounting policy (for a 23% discount) wouldn't it look like

2 lines $131.60

3 lines $191.60

4 lines $241.60

Line 1 $50 x(1-.23)= $38.50

Line 2 $40 x1          = 40

Line 3 $30 x1           =30

Line 4 $20 x1           =20

Data

Line 1 $30 x(1-.23)= $23.10

Line 2 $30 x1          = $30

Line 3 $30 x1          = $30

Line 4 $30 x1          = $30

The discount comes off the data packages now. I accidentally cut off the end of the discount line, it just says discounts do not come off hotspot data add ons. Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 4 Beta

So if I understand this right... for me it would be

line 1:

50+30(23% off so $23.1)

Line 2:

40+30(23% off so $23.1)

$136.2 before taxes?

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/10/4511160/t-mobile-announces-jump-two-phone-upgrades-per-year-for-10-monthly

"For $10 per month, customers will be able to upgrade their phones up to two times per year. It's similar to what we heard earlier today, though phone upgrades won't be unlimited. Also, you'll need to wait six months until you're eligible for your first upgrade. While there are definitely some caveats to this new plan, it's a far sight better than AT&T and Verizon's full two-year wait period before customers can upgrade with a subsidy."

"Additionally, T-Mobile is launching cheaper family plans: for $100 per month, four family members can get unlimited talk and text with 500MB of full-speed data per month, with no contract or credit check required. However, you'll need to put down a deposit (T-Mobile says it's about equal to one month of service) in lieu of a credit check."

At $10 a month I am not sure that I would consider it but it seems other people are pretty pumped about it.

Non discountable? If that means no employer discounts then I may never come back to Sprint unfortunately. I believe my discount @ Sprint is something like 23% and that wasn't enough to keep me on Sprint without a Triband phone to upgrade to. (I use Ting now so sort of still on Sprint). Sprint really rubbed me the wrong way by how they changed how employee discounts were calculated and caused a $5 monthly increase to my bill. 

How is this new. When you are paying for the phone out right under no contact. I don't see how this is so wonderful. Oh by the way TMobile marks up by at least $50 on msrp. If I see a new phone that comes out on Sprint, I'll just go and buy it sans contact - the price I get for my trade in. Do that anytime I want.

if you have the cash to frequently buy phones outright then yes, maybe this isn't the best plan for you. However, if a few extra bucks a month gives you an easy trade in to the latest and greatest phone without any hassle it sounds like a good idea to MANY people. The reason? Most people tend to balk at lump sum purchases and not object to small monthly purchases even when the small monthly purchases end up costing more in the long run. That is what makes this a very interesting option.

But, under T-Mobile's latest strategy, new subs pay unsubsidized prices for their devices.  So, what is the allure of "new customer" prices?

 

Honestly, it sounds like T-Mobile is already hedging its bet on eliminating subsidies.

 

AJ

I'd wait for the details (2:30PM ET today). Would I consider a $2-$5/mo charge for anytime upgrades provided I didn't have to pay off the 'balance' (ETF by another name) of my current phone? Absolutely. It will be interesting to see how much they charge for this.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/10/4510570/t-mobile-to-introduce-jump-unlimited-phone-upgrade-plan

"The Verge has learned that T-Mobile will introduce an unlimited phone upgrade scheme today called Jump that would allow subscribers to "upgrade when [they] actually want to" by paying the same amount for a new phone that a new customer pays, as often as they like without waiting a certain number of months or years to qualify for upgrade pricing. Rumors that such a plan might be introduced were first reported first by TmoNews, which suggests a monthly fee may be involved and that subscribers would need to trade in their current handset to qualify."

This seems like a really great way for T-Mobile to lure in the smartphone power users especially when combined with their pricing model. Now that I am on a Sprint MVNO I definitely see the lure of avoiding 2 year contracts and this would be appealing even to me if it wasn't for T-Mobile's swiss cheese coverage where I live. That said I am really excited for the changes this could bring to the mobile market here in the US. We've been hamstrung by high prices and contracts for far too long.

I see your point now: the $6-7bil per year Sprint has been spending is borrowed money and they can't keep borrowing $6-7bil a year at reasonable rates.

Actually, they can keep borrowing at even better rates than any other US telecom now. This is due to softbank being able to borrow on the Japanese bond market at EXTREMELY favorable rates. Even with their recent downgrade to junk status they still come out ahead on any borrowed monies than the competition. 

That's pretty sweet. So I'm still on an employee advantage plan with sprint and need an airwaves at my home location. Unfortunately, I found out that with a complementary Airave if you stop using it or cancel service you have to return it to technical support. I guess it isn't really unfortunate as Sprint provided the hardware and waived the monthly service fee for me to continue to receive highly discounted service when I moved to our current home. Hopefully when 800 SMR fires up in my area the Airave can go to another subscriber, but for the time being it is a must.

I believe Ting does sell the Airrave (for like $250 bucks, ugh) but they may supply you with one as well if you call in and ask. Maybe if you tell them your current setup you can keep the Airrave and transfer service to Ting?

So, I did sign up for Ting after my contract ended as I plan to wait for triband phones to come out and I am actually quite happy so far. I got a promotion so I spend 90% less time driving around which means my actual mobile data use has plummeted. The customer service is great as they really do mean it when they say you won't have to wait on hold to call them. Porting #s + phones took about 3 hours total for both lines which is not too bad. My previous bill for 2 lines at Sprint with employee discount + taxes was $157/mo. My last month at Ting cost me only $74 with taxes (actually $49 with the referral code I used). That is pretty great considering I get voice/SMS roaming and I didn't have to purchase new phones as our EVO3Ds work fine for now. If anyone has questions I'd be happy to answer them.

oh and I almost forgot my absolutely shameless referral code plug below. You save $25 and I save $25 if you use it.

https://za8ilf19763.ting.com/

What if someone else buys them to screw with Sprint?

Verizon is still allowed to buy Tier 3 carriers and recently - cant find article - it even bought a GSM carrier which it stated it would convert to CDMA.

From my point of view the deeper entrenched an affiliate is to one carrier's technology the less and less attractive they are to competing carriers. Will Verizon/AT&T view Shentel as a candidate for buyout? Maybe, but then they are left with towers they have to completely rollout on. It'd be cheaper for Sprint, for instance, to pay a higher amount in the buyout than Verizon simply because the capital they need to use those towers is so much less.

Why not just buy them? Sounds like they're already part of the company.

The reverse is also worth asking: Why not just leave them? In this arrangement Sprint has less risk and less capital expenditure. If Shentel runs into problems then Sprint can probably buy them for cheaper than they could now. If it was prohibitively expensive for Sprint to run subs there then Sprint would do a cost analysis and determine if it is is worth it to buy them out. TBH, Shentel is probably better at running it's area than Sprint is at managing it's entire network.

Well... the speed is not a function of frequency as it depends on channel bandwidth.  

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/28/t-mobile-buys-lte-spectrum/

 US Cellular just inked a deal to unload 10MHz of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum, padding its pocketbook with a whopping $308 million in cash. Pending FCC approval, that wireless load will be making its way over to T-Mobile, which would then own the vast majority of AWS. It's good news for T-Mobile customers, no doubt, especially those in the Southeast -- according to a press release, the spectrum T-Mob just snatched up covers 32 million people in cities like St. Louis, Memphis, Little Rock and New Orleans.

I think we should close this topic and rename the other topic "Sprint Clearwire acquisition news" or something as the other thread has more posts and more current discussion.

I think they should get a waiver until  the concerns about maximum power for E Block are finalized.. That seems reasonable to me.

No, like the tech bloggers, you are missing the point.  And, living in Hawaii, you may not be in position to understand the true nature of T-Mobile network deployment, since you have just small areas of populated land that need coverage surrounded by Pacific Ocean that does not.

 

On the mainland, T-Mobile has deployed HSPA+ basically in islands -- pardon the pun.  Many cities have HSPA+, but some cities plus the highways and rural areas in between are stuck on EDGE or GPRS.  T-Mobile LTE deployment is following the same pattern.  Only those sites that already have HSPA+ because they have advanced backhaul are also getting LTE.  Thus, those areas without LTE will likely be without HSPA+, too.

 

So, the T-Mobile HSPA+ fallback is hardly the panacea that many make it out to be.  The only reason it should really come into play is LTE coverage failure because LTE is a more fragile airlink.  In comparison, Sprint is taking care of that problem by deploying LTE 1900 at full site density and utilizing LTE 800 for superior coverage.

 

AJ

This is correct and 100% in line with my experience in Austin and San Antonio when I tried T-Mobile out. In the very core urban areas T-Mobile is great but there were times in Austin where my coverage went from LTE (admittedly they are still rolling out the network here) to HSPA and then shortly to edge. The fact of the matter is that the T-Mobile LTE rollout and their current HSPA network are incredibly limited outside urban areas and T-Mobile has NO PLANS to further expand it's native coverage, full stop. So going to HSPA was in my experience just a way of T-Mobile letting me know that I would on edge or roaming very, very soon. The T-Mobile network is very fast when you have access to it but in the case of Austin, when you even get into the east side of town you quickly drop to Edge. If you think the drop from Sprint 4G (both WiMax or LTE) to 3g was bad, try going 30 down to a roaming connection instantly. Unless you never, ever, leave the interior metro area of a city I would never recommend T-Mobile after my experience.

edit: As an aside, Sensorly shows native coverage for WIMAX in Austin is close to the native coverage 2g/3g of the T-Mobile network here and Sprint LTE native looks to be about 50% more coverage than T-Mobile 4g coverage. So, yes, T-mobile doesn't have just islands it has an archipelago within cities themselves.

I just posted on the S4GRU Calendar a chat scheduled next weekend to count down the end of the iDEN Network.  More details:  http://s4gru.com/index.php?/calendar/event/25-s4gru-live-chat-countdown-the-final-hours-of-iden/

 

 

Also, don't miss you opportunity to Sponsor the final 24 hours of the iDEN countdown clock.  We have an E-Bay auction going on here:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300923642492

 

Hope to see you next week in The Lounge!

 

Robert

Wow, 36 bids already!

Connection optimizer is actually very interesting. It used 3G to signal when to turn on my 4g radio in my EVO 3D. The downside is that I feel it is a little..... optimistic.. about where WiMax actually exists.

Still, it doesn't bother me and I find myself using more WiMax bandwidth than I did before. It does make me use more battery than normal due to having the 4g radio on but that is fine as I am usually near a charger during the day.

The victim here in Austin is probably Grande Communications which has built out it's own DOCSIS 3.0 network and competed against TWC and AT&T for over a decade. I have great internet speed (30/3 for around $35/mo) and all cable packages come with a full TIVO box and not some shitcan TWC DVR. They offer speeds up to 110 down to residential customers and have pretty great customer service.

I hear TWC's response is that they plan to blanket public areas with superfast WIFI for TWC subscribers only.

<snip>

And even corporate markets have issues with event crowds, since Sprint seems to lag the Big Two on DAS deployments and COWs for events.

This is actually very true. Here in Austin the Verizon and AT&T (even T-Mobile) trucks that were parked around big event areas for SXSW really highlighted the weak Sprint network. I had literally no data during these events because Sprint didn't roll out additional coverage. In 2010 Sprint had one of the better network performances during events but this year they were dead last. This kind of thing is what really frustrates people who have Sprint service. I actually ended up having to connect to a friend's Verizon hotspot to get an email sent out.

What is the clearwire 2500 LTE footprint going to be? Current WiMAX?

Less than that I believe. They already cut back on their initially announced LTE deployment. Once Sprint buys them I would imagine that Sprint would take some towers down that they feel overlap too much and consolidate towers.

I'm all for AT&T advertising their blazing fast LTE network but this is going too far.

EBay has been very frustrating to deal with.  They put my account on restriction and pulled the auction until I could call and verify.  I was on hold for two hours last night, finally got them to reinstate my account and my listing.  

 

However, as of this morning, it still had not been reinstated.  So I called back.  They gave me an hour of talking around and around, asking me to reverify all the information all over again.  I asked the service rep if they had the notes saying they were going to reinstate my account last night.  He found them.  So I asked if this was not sufficient to reinstate my account.  He said no, and now he would need to reverify all my account information and go back over what an iDEN countdown clock is.  *sigh*

 

I advised him that I would not go back over and do again what was already noted on my account and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor.  A supervisor came on the line and informed me my account has been closed now because I am a risk to EBay members and disconnected the call.  Nice.

 

EBay sucks.  I guess they know they virtually have a monopoly for online auctions.  So I guess we will have to do an auction online here at S4GRU.  Unless anyone else has any better ideas.  *sigh*

 

Robert

I am not surprised. I ran an online game server for a while and we tried to auction off a launch day banner for an expansion we implemented and were stopped by ebay because they simply didn't understand we were selling naming rights to a digital item in exchange for a donation. Anyway, we ended up having people PM offers and then posting the amount (without a name) on the forums. It worked out okay but then you run the risk of people promising money and not delivering. Restricting it to members who are already Sponsors might be a good idea.