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Welcome to the new T-Mobile/Metro PCS thread. My name is Burden, and I will be helping you guys navigate in the wonderful world of T-Mobile. I am an Assistant Manager at T-Mobile in Southern California. I will tell you upfront that I know 0 about Metro PCS and their plans. T-mobile is running Metro PCS and T-Mobile as two separate companies. A lot has changed with T-Mobile over the past year or so. T-mobile got a new CEO who is badass and trolls all the other carriers, the merger with Metro PCS, LTE launch, and Uncarrier 1, 2, 3, and 4.0 to name a few. T-Mobile is trying to change the way wireless companies to do business and in my opinion is doing a good job. Here are the basics on T-Mobile. No contracts at T-Mobile. You will either be on Simple Choice or Monthly 4G (Prepaid). No contracts means no discounts on phones. On Monthly 4G you pay full price up front for the phone. If you are on Simple Choice you can pay the whole phone up front or you can make a down payment + the tax on the full cost of the phone upfront and then the rest of the phone is broken up into 24 payments on your bill. Want to try T-Mobile for free for 7 days? You can try T-Mobile for free on an Apple iPhone 5S for free for 7 days by going to http://explore.t-mobile.com/test-drive-free-trial and signing up. It is as simple as that. T-Mobile will send you the IPhone after you give them a credit card number. You try the service out for 7 days. You return the phone after 7 days to your closest T-Mobile store. If you want service you can sign up, if you don't it didn't cost you anything. If you don't return the phone you get charged $700. What's all this I hear about free music streaming? Basically if you are on the new Simple Choice plans that are $50 a month and higher or on a Simple Choice family plan, you can stream as much music as you want on your smartphone from top streaming services, including Pandora, iHeartRadio, iTunes Radio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify Milk Music, Grooveshark, Black Planet, Radio Paradise, Rdio, Songza, and Accuradio - and it won’t count towards your 4G LTE data plan. Music Freedom is included in your Simple Choice rate plan at no extra charge. For T-Mobile customers on our newest Simple Choice plan with unlimited 4G LTE data ($30 data feature), Rhapsody unRadio will be included at no extra charge. All other Simple Choice customers will get Rhapsody unRadio at a special discounted price of $4 per month. Customers with a grandfathered unlimited 4G LTE plan ($20 data feature) can either upgrade to our newest 4G LTE unlimited plan with additional tethering and get Rhapsody unRadio at no extra charge, or they can pay the special discounted price of $4 per month. Rhapsody unRadio allows you to listen to your favorite songs as much as you want, online and offline, unlimited skips and no ads. If your music streaming choice isn't included yet go to http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/free-music-streaming.html and vote for your streaming service that you use. T-mobile will be adding more music streaming services as they can. So vote if yours is not included yet. The Plans Simple Choice is designed to be just that, SIMPLE. Here is how it works. Line 1 / $50 month
$10 3 gigs. Speeds slowed after 3 gigs of data $20 5 gigs. Speeds slowed after 5 gigs of data $30 Unlimited with 5 gigs of tethering/mobile hotspot and Rhapsody Unradio for free. Data is per line and not shared. Monthly 4G
What is this JUMP! business I am hearing about? *****If you added JMP before February 23rd 3014 this is your JUMP program. JUMP! allows you to change your phone twice a year. It costs $10 a month per line, it gets you insurance for loss, physical/liquid damage, or theft. It also gets you Premium Lookout Protection for your phone and it allows you to change your phone twice a year. Basically if you chose to break your phone up into payments you come into the store after you wait an initial 6 months of getting JUMP! You give back your old phone in good condition*. What that does is it clears out whatever your remaining balance you have. You pick out your new phone, make the down payment + tax and start a new installment plan for 24 months. Pretty simple and it lets you have the latest devices. Once you do your first JUMP! upgrade you can JUMP! again any time after that. You can jump two times per year.**** *****If you added JUMP after February 23rd, 2014 this is your program. The new JUMP! 2.0 is a little different than JUMP 1.0. It is still $10 a month and still gets you insurance, however you must pay off half of your phone before you can jump to a new phone. They also allow it to be on tablets that T-mobile sells. Same conditions still apply where the device has to be in good condition, and same thing you make your down payment plus tax and then rest is billed to you over 24 months just like before.***** *Good condition means that the phone has no cracks on the screen, no broken/missing parts, no water damage, and it must turn on. If it has any of those it will not qualify. International Roaming T-Mobile has partnered with 100 countries to allow you to data roam for free. Yes free. It is at 2G speeds, but hey it should be enough to pull up maps and navigate your way around and send and receive a few e-mails. You also get free texting, and if you need to make a call it is .20 a minute. Not too shabby and it is included in the Simple Choice Plans. Here are the 100 countries. I heard T-Mobile is paying for Early Termination Fee’s if I leave my current carrier, is that true? You would be correct. Here is how it works. 1. You must have AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon and port your number over to T-Mobile 2. You must trade in an old phone. Depending on the phone and the condition T-mobile may or may not give you money for your phone 3. You must purchase a new phone on a Simple Choice Plan. Does not have to be broken up in payments. Does not work with Monthly 4G 4. You must upload your bill to http://www.switch2tmobile.com 5. Wait 8 weeks to get a Mastercard with your Early Termination Fee’s 6. Pay your ETF to your old service provider. T-mobile will pay up $350 per line in ETF’s on top of whatever your trade in is. The max trade in value is $300 so you could get up to $650 total per line in credits. *Good condition means that the phone has no cracks on the screen, no broken/missing parts, no water damage, and it must turn on. If it has any of those it will not qualify. I recommend that before you come into a store and trade in your phone that you back everything up before hand. It will make your life easier inside of the store. Particularly pictures. Contacts are easy to move over in a store, but for those of you with your whole phone filled with pictures and music please back it up first and then transfer at your house. Once you give your phone to T-Mobile you do not get it back. Like I said earlier I don’t know much about Metro PCS, but hopefully someone will be able to help you out. I know there were a few T-Mobile reps around, so please feel free to chime in. OP updated 8-27-14 Burden fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Aug 27, 2014 |
# ? Jan 9, 2014 19:58 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 04:43 |
That url to switch2tmobile needs fixing, but otherwise good job.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 20:01 |
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I am highly considering switching me + husband to T-Mobile because of the amazing ETF deal they have going on right now. But let me ask a couple questions. If we wanted unlimited data w/simple choice, is that $20 per line or is that $20 just charged once? I love the idea of $0 up front for a Gnex 5 too. However, if we both pay monthly for phones, then it might put the price close to what Verizon wants to charge.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 20:10 |
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A question of my own: I am still on a Classic 1000 Minute Talk plan with Unlimited Nationwide 4G. What rules apply to me regarding tethering and domestic/international roaming?Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:I am highly considering switching me + husband to T-Mobile because of the amazing ETF deal they have going on right now. But let me ask a couple questions. If we wanted unlimited data w/simple choice, is that $20 per line or is that $20 just charged once? I love the idea of $0 up front for a Gnex 5 too. However, if we both pay monthly for phones, then it might put the price close to what Verizon wants to charge. $20 per line. quote:2 Lines Plan
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 20:16 |
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I am a Costco indirect dealer and since we do Simple Choice I will be posting details about how we can match the T-Mobile deal when I get them. Right now you cannot do the ETF switch at Costco.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 20:18 |
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$120/month for both of us with unlimited still beats this month's $190/month Verizon bill, though! Even if we each got a new iPhone 5S, for $25/month each (so $50 total) we'd beat Verizon by $20. And that's without considering credit for trading in our devices which would bring the device payments lower. The Gnex 5 was only $16/month, probably less with credit.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 20:27 |
Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:$120/month for both of us with unlimited still beats this month's $190/month Verizon bill, though! Even if we each got a new iPhone 5S, for $25/month each (so $50 total) we'd beat Verizon by $20. And that's without considering credit for trading in our devices which would bring the device payments lower. The Gnex 5 was only $16/month, probably less with credit. Don't forget to also consider taxes/surcharges. If you're doing 2 whole EIP payments at a time for top-of-the-line new phones it's not as clear cut a decision until you see like a family plan of 3+ starting to be significantly cheaper than the Verizon alternative.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 20:35 |
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Okay talked to management at Costco. We can do it here. All the same terms apply but we also give a car charger and screen protectors as well as a $25 bill credit when you do it through us.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 21:11 |
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Burden posted:$10 2.5 gigs. Speeds slowed haver 2.5 gigs of data Assuming this was supposed to read "after"? As I mentioned in the other thread, I have been on T-Mobile for over ten years. I have been happy that entire time, but I am really thrilled with the direction they're taking things now. I hadn't bought an on-contract phone since 2005 so I was especially happy to switch to a contract free plan on our family plan. My family went from paying $140/mo + taxes for 5 lines with 1000 anytime minutes shared and unlimited texts and one line with a data plan to 5 lines with unlimited talk+text and 500mb of data for everyone except one line which has 2.5gb. New cost is $120 + tax. No more worrying about the one month a year that we approach 1000 minutes and everyone has data. My parents are pretty excited about the international roaming thing. They're going to Europe in September and carrying their own phones with minimal extra charges sure beats unlocking their phones and getting a prepaid sim. Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:I love the idea of $0 up front for a Gnex 5 too. However, if we both pay monthly for phones, then it might put the price close to what Verizon wants to charge. You probably know this, but if you get it straight from Google the Nexus 5 is $350 rather then the $396 divided into 24 payments T-Mobile will charge you. edit: Might want also want to link to the Moto G, a very solid Android phone for under $200 off contract. This will kick the rear end of any Android phone under $300. It's too bad T-Mobile isn't selling it in their stores. BeastOfExmoor fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Jan 9, 2014 |
# ? Jan 9, 2014 21:29 |
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$350+tax and shipping from Google, so it might work out to be about the same with the advantage of being able to pay it off monthly with no interest if you want to do that.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 22:35 |
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Long Francesco posted:$350+tax and shipping from Google, so it might work out to be about the same with the advantage of being able to pay it off monthly with no interest if you want to do that. Oh, I had assumed T-Mobile charged sales tax on top of it's monthly payments. Is this not the case? That certainly does make a significant difference.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 22:44 |
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I'm not entirely sure, but I think they charge tax for the whole thing with the down payment. I assumed the $396 was with tax included but if it's that plus tax it would be better to buy from Google. Although you wouldn't be able to get the etf deal without buying a phone from tmo.
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 22:57 |
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All true. Best to figure out which is cheaper for you in the long run. I wish this could be embedded in the OP: http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/9/5292302/t-mobile-ceo-john-legeres-ces-2014-press-conference-highlights
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# ? Jan 9, 2014 23:09 |
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BeastOfExmoor posted:All true. Best to figure out which is cheaper for you in the long run. I would wear this shirt
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 00:09 |
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All right, so we switched, but how long is it going to take our numbers to port? It's been over two hours. I am really hoping it doesn't take a full 24.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 00:37 |
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Qwijib0 posted:I would wear this shirt I got bored, so if you think this joke is worth a physical implementation http://www.spreadshirt.com/design-your-own-t-shirt-C59/product/109497765/view/1/sb/l
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 00:47 |
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I've been a very happy T-Mobile customer for over a year now, and I will keep sticking with you guys. Still love my Lumia 810 Last month I brought my parents over to the T-Mobile store in Bellingham, MA to get my dad a new flip phone with a pay-as-you-go plan (since he only uses his phone for emergencies) for his birthday, to replace his bargain bin phone. Mom decided to buy the exact same phone with the exact same plan for herself They both love their new phones! Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:All right, so we switched, but how long is it going to take our numbers to port? It's been over two hours. I am really hoping it doesn't take a full 24.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 01:14 |
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Can I just walk into a T-Mobile store and get a sim card for my new phone that I got elsewhere? Or do I have to order it online?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 02:05 |
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You should be able to walk into a store and get a sim, yeah.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 02:18 |
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It's cool that you can waltz in and get a sim if you're switching phones, but is there any way to save a buck on an activation code if you're setting up a new account?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 02:36 |
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Techokami posted:From personal experience with the above, it depends on the old carrier. You should get a text when it switches over, and you should have at least a temp number to make calls with while you wait. We each got a text that our old numbers are switched. But now we can only call each other. I was able to call the T-Mobile customer service for help, but when they tried to call my husband it went straight to voice mail. My phone does not get any incoming calls other than my husband either. And my friends aren't getting test texts I'm sending either. T-Mobile said we probably just have to give the port more time, but I'm really impatient. Hopefully by tomorrow morning it goes through fully.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 02:38 |
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About to switch to T-mobile. Trying to add 2 new smartphones, one with 500mb of data and the other with 2.5gb of data. I went to a store and the guy working there said they have to activate any smartphone with a 2.5gb plan standard but that I could call customer support and "probably" switch one of the lines down to 500mb. Is he bullshitting me or is this an actual thing?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 03:37 |
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Bentai posted:You should be able to walk into a store and get a sim, yeah. Uhh....how on earth does a phone company run out of these things.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 03:41 |
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ShadowHawk posted:Uhh....how on earth does a phone company run out of these things.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 03:59 |
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hanabi posted:About to switch to T-mobile. Trying to add 2 new smartphones, one with 500mb of data and the other with 2.5gb of data. I went to a store and the guy working there said they have to activate any smartphone with a 2.5gb plan standard but that I could call customer support and "probably" switch one of the lines down to 500mb. Is he bullshitting me or is this an actual thing? He is full of poo poo. Find a different dude.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 04:31 |
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hanabi posted:About to switch to T-mobile. Trying to add 2 new smartphones, one with 500mb of data and the other with 2.5gb of data. I went to a store and the guy working there said they have to activate any smartphone with a 2.5gb plan standard but that I could call customer support and "probably" switch one of the lines down to 500mb. Is he bullshitting me or is this an actual thing? Bullshit, but not at all uncommon. This is the joy of T-Mobile's "don't call it a franchise" retail model; go to a supposed T-Mobile store, get the lovely reseller experience because it is a lovely reseller. If you can't buy from someone more scrupulous, you can always walk out the door and immediately call 611 to unfuck your plan. No "probably" about it.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 05:51 |
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This is looking really tempting for me to jump ship from my grandfathered AT&T unlimited plan. However, if I want to bring over two lines do I need to trade in both phones? Or can I just trade in one since the other is already unlocked?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 07:32 |
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Burden posted:What is this JUMP! business I am hearing about? I'm assuming this $10/month is in addition to the monthly payment for the phone itself? So if I wanted to switch to this and upgrade to a Gnex 5 it'd be the $50 down + $17/month for the phone + $10/month for jump?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 07:38 |
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Lord Yod posted:I'm assuming this $10/month is in addition to the monthly payment for the phone itself? So if I wanted to switch to this and upgrade to a Gnex 5 it'd be the $50 down + $17/month for the phone + $10/month for jump? You would be correct. It is an additional $10 to your bill.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 07:56 |
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kimcicle posted:This is looking really tempting for me to jump ship from my grandfathered AT&T unlimited plan. However, if I want to bring over two lines do I need to trade in both phones? Or can I just trade in one since the other is already unlocked? If you want to get the ETF credit you must trade in your phone and purchase one in payments.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 07:57 |
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Hmm... so this switchover thing only works if you buy a new phone through Tmobile at full price? Can you explain that part a little more clearly, someone in the know?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 08:55 |
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I believe I read recently that Simple Choice plans come with 200MB of tethering included. Is that accurate?
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 09:11 |
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I'm seriously considering switching from AT&T because they suck and I hate them, but I have a few questions: 1) I get lovely cell signals at my house. We have a Microcell from AT&T, is there some sort of similar thing for T-Mobile? I googled (granted, quickly) and couldn't find any mention of a cell booster or anything. We'd almost certainly need one. 2) Is there any sort of requirement that the phone you trade in be a smartphone? The phone I regularly use has a busted screen, so its a no go from what I read above, however I have an older lovely dumb phone that has no such issues. Could I trade that in? 3) I have to trade in something to get the ETF reimbursement, right? 4) I don't live anywhere near a physical T-Mobile store. Will I have to go into a store to do this, or is there some way I can ship the phones in or whatever? 5) I have a corporate discount through my employer (15% I think), I'm assuming that only applies to the service itself, not to the monthly payment on the phone, right? Sorry, that's a lot more questions than I thought.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 09:15 |
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stimpy posted:I'm seriously considering switching from AT&T because they suck and I hate them, but I have a few questions: 2) No it can be a featurephone/dumbphone 3) Yes 4) I can't answer this but I'd assume you can do it over the phone/internet somehow 5) I would assume you're correct
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 09:18 |
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Multi-answer! The ETF refund does require a non-free data plan attachment, so a possibly-lovely-retail salesperson claiming you need to buy that $10 2.5GB plan is maybe not just lying to you in order to increase his commission payout. Also, you should be able to pay for the phone up front and still get the ETF credit: it requires that you pay full price for a phone from T-Mobile, but doesn't care whether it's via installments or up front. All metered data with Simple Choice is eligible for tethering- so if you're on the base 500MB, it's all fine to tether with, 2.5GB is all tether-able, "Unlimited" $20 plan is 2.5GB for tethering and unlimited on-device. There are 4.5GB, 6.5, etc plans available for tethering-heavy cases, but I'm not sure anyone ever takes them. The various tricks of leaning on HTTPS, VPNs, or useragent modifications can help you avoid detection, but are probably more work than most people are willing to put in. T-Mobile retail (including not-franchise locations that look like a T-Mobile store), Costco, Car Toys, and military exchange locations are eligible for the ETF refund. Online, phone activations, and other retailers won't work for this.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 11:00 |
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The T-Mobile website's confusing me. Was eyeballing a 3 line simple choice plan with unlimited data and earlier I could have sworn it said all three lines the data was slowed after 500mbs. Now it's only saying that's the case for lines 2 and 3 and the first isn't. I've been seriously considering switching over from AT&T but I really want my primary line to have the unlimited data without the throttling.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 12:26 |
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Ragnarok the Red posted:The T-Mobile website's confusing me. Was eyeballing a 3 line simple choice plan with unlimited data and earlier I could have sworn it said all three lines the data was slowed after 500mbs. Now it's only saying that's the case for lines 2 and 3 and the first isn't. I've been seriously considering switching over from AT&T but I really want my primary line to have the unlimited data without the throttling. You pick the data tier on a per-line basis. So you select a 3-line plan and then you add unlimited data to one of the lines.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 15:46 |
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AwkwardKnob posted:Hmm... so this switchover thing only works if you buy a new phone through Tmobile at full price? Can you explain that part a little more clearly, someone in the know? You purchase the phone full price since T-Mobile doesn't do contracts. If you want to pay the whole phone up front you can, but T-Mobile allows you to break the phone up into payments. You make a down payment + tax on the full price of the phone and then the rest of the phone is added to your bill for 24 months.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 17:53 |
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heffray posted:All metered data with Simple Choice is eligible for tethering- so if you're on the base 500MB, it's all fine to tether with, 2.5GB is all tether-able, "Unlimited" $20 plan is 2.5GB for tethering and unlimited on-device. There are 4.5GB, 6.5, etc plans available for tethering-heavy cases, but I'm not sure anyone ever takes them. The various tricks of leaning on HTTPS, VPNs, or useragent modifications can help you avoid detection, but are probably more work than most people are willing to put in.
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 19:00 |
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# ? May 8, 2024 04:43 |
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Some specific questions about this latest ETF offer: I have a family plan with two lines that I'd be looking to move over, both with an etf. One with an iPhone 5 and one with a 5s. 1.) Do I have to trade in the actual device on my ATT account? I have a couple spare iPhone 3GSes in working order. Can I just bring them in and be done with it, or do I actually have to have them functional on my lines? Does it even have to be a smartphone? 2.) the offer says I have to buy a phone with payments. Can I sign up for the payments and then pay the phones off immediately? 3.) Can I sim swap another phone right away or is there some kind of waiting period where I have to use the tmobile phone? 4.) how fast are the number ports, on average? Thanks!
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# ? Jan 10, 2014 19:48 |