
T-Mobile to give every user unlimited data - weston
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/t-mobile-shifting-entirely-unlimited-data-new-bid-shake-wireless-industry/
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slg
All video will be downgraded to 480p unless you pay extra. That is as blatant
as a net neutrality violation as they get. It was pretty clear that this was
T-Mobile's ultimate end goal when they introduced the Binge On feature that
allowed data to circumvent data caps. I'm just sad that we allowed them to get
away with this obvious bait and switch tactic to get public approval for anti-
net neutrality behavior.

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whack
As a very satisfied T-Mobile customer, these changes sound awful to me.

\- $70/month, not $50/month. That's a 40% price increase

\- Wifi hotspot now costs an additional $15/month, or runs only at 2G speeds

\- The existing $50/month plan will no longer be available to new users who
are joining T-Mobile.

I don't use a whole bunch of data. ~2GB/month is perfectly sufficient for me.
What I really love about my current plan is the cheap price ($50 per month),
and the fact that it includes extremely fast wifi hotspot. These are the exact
2 things they have taken away from the plan. Maybe this is a positive
development for many customers, but I personally hate it.

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tw04
If you only use 2GB/month, why not switch to google fi? You'll have better
coverage and a lower monthly cost.

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petemill
does not support iPhone

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subway
If you have a limited number of devices, or use a lot of data, Verizon beats
out Project Fi -- Fi shines when you have multiple devices (in my case, phone,
tablet, laptop) with modems, and don't want to pay a $10/device/mo access fee.

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AdmiralAsshat
Are you kidding? I have a single smartphone under Verizon for 2 lousy gigs a
month, and I'm paying $80/mth. That's after my employer discount.

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subway
Maybe you should switch to one of the new plans? Currently it looks like what
you describe is $35/mo: [http://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/verizon-
plan/](http://www.verizonwireless.com/landingpages/verizon-plan/)

~~~
phonon
+$20 per device (plus tax and fees).

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subway
So, $15/mo extra for packets to originate from a device other than your phone.
Another $25/mo for "HD Video" (That is, if you pay $25, Uncle Legere won't
take your TCP connection out back and bust it's knee-caps)

How the hell did we end up in the situation where Verizon is the most sensible
carrier with regard to net neutrality (A bit is a bit is a bit, be it from
laptop, phone, tablet, netflix, google, or HN).

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petemill
Too right, this unlimited is a facade for something that is completely limited
in arbitrary ways. Mobile data has to come from a specific device doing
specific things, i.e not HD video or using a device with a bigger screen and
keyboard.

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dublinben
$70/mo for the first line is very expensive. You really have to be using more
than 5-6 GB of data every month for this to make sense.

~~~
fgandiya
But you still get other things. Video and music streaming is unmetered and you
get free roaming in many countries with text and data.

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aphextron
I use MetroPCS. If it's available where you live, you can't beat it. $60/month
for truly unlimited, non throttled 4G with unlimited tethering. Speeds are
usually 10-15 Mbps. I use hundreds of gigs/month tethered to my laptop.

~~~
raybb
Since you still have them, do you know why they haven't been fully merged with
T-Mobile since they were bought years ago?

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msh
Sounds like bullshit where you have to pay extra to stream video at more than
480p. Where are the unlimited data in that.

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lukeqsee
Would you prefer paying the $30 or $50 / month for 2GB like a few years ago?
T-Mobile has consistently demonstrated an appetite for pushing the boundaries
of their network and their offerings for customers. I wouldn't be surprised if
this (like many other previous up-charges) is phased out after a period of
time.

Caveat: I'm a happy T-Mobile customer.

~~~
roywiggins
The plan that was $35 for 5gb was pretty good though... twice that for
"unlimited" doesn't seem like such a good deal unless you are hitting the
limit.

~~~
cbeley
The $30 plan with 5GB data (unlimited, but throttled afterward) and 100
minutes still exists (and I use it) -> [https://prepaid-
phones.t-mobile.com/other-prepaid-plans](https://prepaid-
phones.t-mobile.com/other-prepaid-plans)

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jrnichols
I'm one of those people that has an old old old AT&T plan with the original
unlimited data package. Even if it's limited to 23GB if the area has some
congestion, at $80/mo it's still a way better deal for me than most of these
plans.

I average 5-7gb/data a month, and almost none of it is music or video. It's
all just average use, email, Facebook, iMessage, stuff like that. It's amazing
how much data Reddit can soak up.

But none of the newer plans make any sense to me. Just no compelling reason to
switch.

~~~
nabaraz
How do you use so much data? I am on reddit all the time (about 4 hours a day
according to app usage) and only used about 300MB of data per month? Even with
Pokemon, Messenger (Viber, WhatsApp and Messenger), Facebook, Email etc, I
average around 1-2GB a month.

~~~
jrnichols
I have an iPhone 6s. I did notice that my data usage almost doubled from my 5s
with no changes in my behavior. I do send & receive more photos now. I use
Instagram more.

Looking through data usage per app, stuff adds up.

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fgandiya
Urg... I wish TMobile had better coverage where I love. I'm stuck with AT&T
which just halved my data plan, but they removed overages do it kinda makes up
for it...

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atesti
What happens if youtube switches even the content servers to HTTPS? How will
they be able to cap that? Also in general: If a mp4-file is directly hosted on
a webpage which is served over HTTPS: How will they detect this?

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mi100hael
They can probably just throttle the bandwidth for connections to certain
services like YouTube which will result in the player automatically selecting
a lower quality stream.

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mixedCase
How do they enforce the tethering 2G cap? A proxy that you could easily
configure on the computer? And would evading the video res lock be as easy as
using a proxy/VPN of your own?

