The T-Mobile/MetroPCS Megathread - Our CEO trolls your CEO.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The T-Mobile/MetroPCS Megathread - Our CEO trolls your CEO.

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Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

BeastOfExmoor posted:

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

I would wear this shirt

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 00:09

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:42

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

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

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 00:47

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Kanish posted:

Does it transition automatically? Like If I go into my apt and service cuts out on a call will It stay connected as long as it on wifi?

no, cell calls would drop rather than jump to wifi. Wifi calls won't migrate APs either (in an enterprise environemnt).

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 22:16

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Wizard of Smart posted:

I have some friends who have asked me about the feasibility of using this promotion from T-Mobile to get out of their contracts with AT&T, then port over to cricket. Is that something that is possible, or should I tell them they're boned?

Yeah they're basically asking me to help them avoid etfs.

I guess? They'd still need to buy the tmo phone, and then be on tmo until the etf was paid, then pay off the new phone that's on the payment plan and then sell that to buy another cricket phone. Seems like a lot of effort to save $10/mo vs. a comparable t-mobile plan.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 22:19

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

AwkwardKnob posted:

So could I just trade in any phone that T-Mobile has on its list of acceptable devices, and keep the Galaxy Note 2 I've been using for my new T-Mobile contract? Or is buying a new phone through their deal a required part of the process? It would be nice to switch and save the money on having to pay for a phone at all.

If I bought the device at a discount through Verizon when I signed up for my 2-year contract, this plan might not be as cut-and-dry right? Verizon would probably charge me an early termination fee, as well as try to charge me the remaining price for the phone itself? Sorry for asking extremely specific, kind-of-dumb questions but when it comes to Cell Phones it seems like the only way to navigate everything.

T-Mobile's plan sounds awesome, but the complications I'm thinking of are slowly making it seem like a hassle. Maybe a hassle worth undertaking to save a bunch of money, but still.

You can trade in any phone, but you still need to buy a new one from t-mobile. In theory, your old device does not have the right bands to work on tmo LTE/HSPA so you want a new device, and you only have one device now because you don't save every phone you've owned so you get some credit for your current phone toward the one you'd need to buy anyway and as a bonus, no ETFs. Making you buy the new phone is their commitment hook, rather than a contract. Difference is you can turn in the phone and pay the difference (or buy the phone outright) to walk away at any time.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 22:39

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Brock Landers posted:

Assuming your current phone has the right bands: trade in a crappy phone, buy one of their $100 phones, swap sims, sell the $100 phone for whatever you can.

It's not that you can't do that, or that it might not be a savings for some people, it's that the effort level required is not going to be worth it, if they even have a decoy to trade.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2014 23:11

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:

My new Samsung Galaxy S4 has wifi calling on it. I'm not sure if this is a T-Mobile thing but it might be. Anyways, if we go travel, and I use wifi calling from a hostel/hotel, is that charged per minute in a foreign country, or is that only if I call using cell towers?

Wifi calling is billed as regular minutes from the US, so if you are calling/texting US numbers it's like you're at home. If you call a local-to-the-country-you're-in number it's billed as international. I rented a 4G hotspot from xcom global when I went to europe so I bounced off that for calls and data on the cheap(ish).

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 20:50

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Gom Jabbar posted:

I am thinking of jumping ship from sprint and have a question, I am in the military but will be transferring overseas in August, if I do the zero down on a phone and suspend my account for the 2 years I will be gone, does that suspend the phone payment or will it have to be paid off?

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-3541

military suspensions continue to bill the installment plan.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2014 20:18

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

ohgodwhat posted:

This coming weekend, I'm going to switch to T-Mo from a grandfathered unlimited data plan on Verizon. The ETF credit is what is making this worthwhile for me.

My issue is that I was really hoping to get a Moto X, but it seems that's no longer offered through them. I guess I'd have to get a different phone and flip it? How would that work with the Jump! program then? Wouldn't I have to turn in the phone I originally bought?

if you want to flip a bought phone to pay for the X, then you can't do Jump!

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 23:59

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Mr.Radar posted:

In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, it appears that T-Mobile is now targeting the check-cashing industry for the "uncarrier" experience. Today they announced they are launching a prepaid Visa debit card with very low fees for T-Mobile subscribers and generally low fees for non-subscribers, including free check deposits via smartphone for both. This card looks like it's one of the best prepaid debit cards around and will be a real boon for people who can't get a regular bank account for one reason or another, with estimated savings of up to $1500 in fees compared to using check cashing services.

I suspect they want to launch a service much like M-pesa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa

But you need a card and check depositing infrastructure first because that's the primary I/O for the unbanked.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2014 19:06

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Astro7x posted:

Sprint user here. Have been with them for the past 5 years, was awesome when we had a huge family plan going and were each paying $20/mo, but now that more people have dropped off we're paying $40-$45/mo and we just have dumb flip phones. It's close enough to a smart phone cost that I think it's worth switching. So I am guessing I can't take advantage of any phone trade in ETF deal going on. Anyway, after looking over the plans I had some questions I can't find answers to.

Me and my wife want to get two iPhones.
-Is the $30 "nerd plan" with 100 minutes include anything such as Nights and Weekend minutes that are free? Or is that the WiFi calling which is how you expect to get by? I Use 400 minutes a month in total so I'm questioning if this is even practical. I'm guessing we'd have to do two individual plans for this too.
-If we go with the "Simple Choice" plans with two lines, can we change the plans in any combination whenever? For example, if 500MB is not enough for me, but it is for the wife, can I upgrade just my phone to a 2.5GB plan and keep hers at 500MB? It seems kind of dumb to start off with a higher end plan if the only limit is data speeds, and I figure we could at least see if the lower one works for us at first to save money.
-How slow is the limited speeds beyond the data cap?
-I actually have an old AT&T iPhone 4 (GSM A1332). Can I use this phone on T-Mobile? It was my brother's old phone that he gave to me when he upgraded a couple years back, in perfect working condition. I have no idea if I even need to do anything to unlock it from AT&T. I'm guessing I just don't get 4G speeds with it. Or is it only 2G Edge?

The only reason I've been able to go this long without a smart phone is because of my iPhone and a Freedompop 4G hotspot. I'm feeling ready to do this.

It's called the "nerd plan" because you don't talk to anybody. No free nights/weekends wifi calling counts against them

Yes, each line can have a different bucket of data. The 'slow' internet used to be just 2G (~128K, enogh to check email or gchat but that's about it)

In most areas you can now use ATT phones with 3G data if they're unlocked, but 1900mhz coverage is still not as good as 1700. Here are cities where it should work: http://support.t-mobile.com/community/coverage/blog/2013/12/17/network-modernization-update

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 05:19

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

surc posted:

I think I remember reading that they throttle you on the unlimited once you reach 10TB of data. So, uh, don't back up your hard drive to your phone over their network a bunch, and you should be fine.

that's 30 days straight at 31 megabit. Not impossible on the tmo network, but implausible.

# ¿ Feb 5, 2014 21:57

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Vavrek posted:

Thanks for the reply. Good info, and nothing looks too outlandish.

I was mildly offput by the claim that they'd unlock a phone only after I used it with them for 40-some days, and I've never bought a phone without some accompanying contract. Wasn't sure how they'd deal with "I'd just like to buy a phone, thank you." Good to hear it shouldn't be a problem.

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588

For prepaid plans, if you buy it outright, and have at least $100 of service credits on your account since purchase you should be able to get it unlocked immediately.

Since you're not a customer yet, looks like the easiest path would be to buy the sim with no credit, activate, then buy the phone and $100 worth of credit, use the phone once and that should do it.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2014 16:32

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

goninzo posted:

Just a heads up, it appears that tmo adjusted data usage for family plans a bit. http://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans/family.html

(good) $50 per month with 1 GB (was 0.5 GB) of data for first line, all other lines step to 1G.

(meh) $10 extra per line for 3 GB of data (was 2.5 GB)

(bad) $20 extra per line for 5 GB of data and no tethering (was unlimited with 2.5 gig tethering)

(bad) $30 extra per line for unlimited data with 5 gig tethering in fine print

So if you're on the family plans, might have to stick with them for a while to avoid the data cost increases.

More carriers are moving away from 'unlimited data' as well. Even though their costs continue to decrease.

$10 to go from 5G to unlimited isn't really that unfair. I stream radio to my phone, download apps, and watch short video clips and I've never gone over 2G in a month. If I got forced into a 5G bucket, I'd probably bitch and moan on principle but in the end it wouldn't really have any effect. If you want to stream Netflix every day and use your hotspot as your home internet connection with an app to sidestep the tether limit, I have no issue with them collecting an extra :10bux:

, especially with the recent obvious investment in the LTE network and the scarcity of spectrum. At least they're still offering it.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 00:56

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Ramadu posted:

So since I know you're in my neck of the woods, how is t-mobile in Tucson anyway? I remeber like 10 years ago it wasn't so great so I switched to verizon but I'm looking to see what else is out there now since my work isn't going to pay for my phone now.

There is one place I don't get service, it's on sunrise at hacienda del sol for about a 1/4 mile. Everywhere else it's great, 10+ megabit down.

Qwijib0 fucked around with this message at 01:59 on Mar 25, 2014

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 01:57

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

FAUXTON posted:

What is it about Omaha that makes T-Mobile not sell plans here.

They sell plans in Des Moines which is a city less than half the size.

No towers, you'd be roaming all the time. Tmobile's core network used to be voicestream wireless which was a (large) regional carrier, and through all the acquisitions they never picked up one who had coverage in Omaha.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 03:51

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Naffer posted:

Has anyone had any luck getting Tmobile to ship a phone upgrade anywhere besides the billing address for the plan? Their ordering system online won't let you change the shipping destination.

I had my upgrade shipped to my office-- I did it all over the phone though.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2014 14:58

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

FCKGW posted:

Sprint is throwing in the towel

T-Mobile also poised to become #3 in q3 or q4 the way they are gaining subs and Sprint is losing them.

John Legere? More like John Legit.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2014 05:50

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

FordPRefectLL posted:

Amusingly, T-Mobile is the only service that really works inside of any Costco, for some reason.

Costco sells tmo, so it's possible they have repeaters so that the booth phones work well.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2014 16:42

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Wifi Calling is part of the GSM spec (GAN) and google just needs to add it to the android kernel already. Now that iOS 8 has it built in, Android is the last mobile OS without it-- WinPho has it, Blackberry has it, Symbian had it, The final generation of Nokia dumbphones had it.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2014 23:19

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Dr Tran posted:

Does wifi calling work internationally? Do I get charged regularly if I go to another country and call my mom over wifi?

Yes. When I went to Europe last year, I just rented a mifi and used that to connect my phone to. Calls/texts to the US are local because the IP network doesn't care where you are.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2014 00:07

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Trip Daddy X posted:

Speed question

I'm currently using a Galaxy S5 on T-Mobile, so getting LTE. I'm selling this phone for financial reasons and am looking to get something cheaper. Looking at the new Moto G, how much of a speed difference do you think I would notice? The new Moto G doesn't do LTE, but it does HSPA+ which from my understanding can be quite fast on T-Mobile's network, yes? I'm in SE Michigan which generally has good coverage since I am right outside of Detroit.

Tmobile's HSPA+ is quite good, for 99% of what you do on a phone you won't notice the difference.

# ¿ Sep 15, 2014 16:06

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Astro7x posted:

Why would you want to do that? EIP is an interest free loan pretty much.

Pretty much? It is. Paying it down early makes no financial sense unless you are trying to sell it and get the lien removed. Due to inflation, the phone costs less the longer you drag it out (in practice, this is such a tiny amount it's meh, but w/e).

# ¿ Sep 18, 2014 04:04

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

ryangs posted:

What if you're doing a phone or online order? Gotta do that to get the 64GB iPhones.

so stores will only have 16G versions in stock?

# ¿ Sep 18, 2014 18:40

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

eddiewalker posted:

The rumor somewhere else was that they're still trying to figure out how to differentiate Google Music traffic from everything else coming out of Google.

No proof to back that up.

I always thought the music only was silly-- they should just up the throttled speed to 256k, enough to stream audio.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2014 22:52

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

eddiewalker posted:

You're suggesting rather than not metering music streams, they just make it so once your data limit is reached, then your throttle connection is still sufficient to stream?

What if I use up my data with Spotify in a week, then the rest of the month EVERYTHING is stuck at your hypothetical 256k? That sounds less than ideal.

But music would still be unlimited. :yayclod:

The essence of my argument is that they want to let you use unlimited data for 'normal' things like music, web, email, social and whatnot but prevent some jerk using it for his home connection. There's some throttled speed where once you've burned through your high speed it's still not painful for someone with no intent to use a mobile wireless service as a fixed service. Maybe it's 1 megabit? Picking winners and losers for streaming music seems like more work than it's worth.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2014 15:59

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Someone said earlier it takes 2 months.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2014 23:29

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

You can get software restore packages from htc now, I'd try that. It's the 1.5 gb manual installer at the bottom.

http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one-m8-t-mobile/news/

# ¿ Nov 1, 2014 18:27

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Burden posted:

Yes. Stores won't sell it to you unless you have a plan or are starting service.

well... If you don't mind paying for one month, since there aren't any contracts just get some cheap service then cancel after one month.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 03:16

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Neat Uncarrier 8 is rollover data*

*does not apply to data match on tablets
*does not apply to 1GB phone high speed plans
*does not apply to 5GB hotspot bits on plans with unlimited 4G phone data

Well, I guess all those people on 3GB/5GB plans shared with hotspot will be happy.

Qwijib0 fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Dec 16, 2014

# ¿ Dec 16, 2014 18:07

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

FlyingCheese posted:

Any chance all these people signing up for unlimited data going to drastically slow down the network? I mean, Sprint did that and look where it got them...

T-mobile has been lighting up enough LTE to keep pace thus far and they have unused 700Mhz or AWS spectrum in a lot of major markets that isn't built out yet. As long as they keep investing in infrastructure at the current pace they will keep up with adds for the foreseeable future. Despite its user growth T-Mobile's frequency holdings to subscriber ratio is still very good compared to VZW and ATT, because they're at half the users with almost 3/4 the spectrum.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2014 19:05

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

It's a really clever way of attaching people to a plan, especially with the 10G free. Giving something of value up is hard.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 01:18

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Vinlaen posted:

Does anybody know if it's possible buy a phone from T-Mobile without a service plan?

I'd like to buy a Note 4 (GSM) from T-Mobile because it has an unlocked bootloader, but I plan to use it with AT&T.

The only way to do this would be to pay full price for it and sign up for the cheapest simple choice plan (no contract, so no ETF when you cancel in month 2). T-Mobile will unlock a paid-off postpaid device after 40 days so you'd be paying for a month and a half of service in addition to the phone. Is ~$80 worth the unlocked bootloader? that's up to you.

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 22:53

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

After a week in Canada on free international data, I'm a fan. Email, maps, Twitter, sportacular and other things that I wouldn't expect to use a lot of data were only slightly laggy compared to what I am used to in the states and I was even able to stream from my slingbox at a data rate that made a sporting event on just this side of watchable (app reported ~140kbps). There was never a point when I felt like I was in the zone of "just fast enough to give you hope but so slow as to be frustrating". I guess it would depend on the infrastructure of the country you are visiting but if they have a decent 4g infrastructure I think you'd be fine. I was on LTE the whole time and ping speeds were very good which also probably contributed to the usability.

# ¿ Jan 4, 2015 02:57

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

butt dickus posted:

I wouldn't call 128Kbps "3G."

you'd be surprised how usable 128K is if it's low-latency and consistent.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2015 17:16

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

butt dickus posted:

Usable, maybe, but that's not the point. 128Kbps is GPRS/EDGE territory. 3G (HSPA+) on T-Mobile can go up to 42Mbps.

This is aimed at a prepaid customer who wants a smartphone but doesn't do a lot of smartphoney things and has heard horror stories of people going over their limit

Uthor posted:

That sounds perfect for my mom. I got her a smart phone, but she's using it with mobile data turned off. It'd be nice for her to check email on the go. Maybe use navigation instead of her stand alone GPS unit. And she's gone over her 1000 minute limit last month, which this would prevent.

Like this customer.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2015 21:43

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

butt dickus posted:

I know exactly what it's for, the only thing I'm saying is

is incorrect/misleading.

I was going to fishmech you with the ITU spec of speed range over UMTS....

...but it's lower bound is 384k :negative:

good day to you sir :tipshat:

# ¿ Jan 15, 2015 23:08

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Qu Appelle posted:

So, I'm on the 3.0 GB plan. I usually don't come close to hitting that, but I am this month due to a family emergency. I've used 2.6 GB out of 3.0, and my cycle doesn't renew until 3/2. I have my 10 GB Data Stash still, yet the phone is emailing me warnings about signal throttling and prompting me to upgrade.

Is it going to seamlessly start to take from my 10 GB Data Stash, or will I have to worry about having my internet cut off when trying to look up bus schedules in small town Wisconsin?

I ran over on a hotspot account and the device threw a warning and told me I was out of high speed but it just keep working. On the website the usage shows up as "On network datapass'

# ¿ Feb 26, 2015 19:42

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Brock Landers posted:

Yes it does.

With the caveat that mms is still hit or miss over wifi. Haven't has issues with sms in a while though.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2015 15:22

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:42

Qwijib0: Apr 10, 2007; Who needs on-field skills when you can dance like this?; Fun Shoe

Uncarrier 9.0 is out, tl;dr for non-business lines is that promotional pricing for any defined data bucket is permanent, so things like that 4/$100 never expires. Unlimited promotions are locked for "at least" two, so if you just got that free unlimited for 1 year it's now two.

Also they will now pay off phone leases up to $650/line in addition to ETFs, but I doubt the "cheap phone switcheroo" works for that one.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2015 18:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The T-Mobile/MetroPCS Megathread - Our CEO trolls your CEO.

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