
Your iPhone and iPad Are Limited. T-Mobile is the Exception - scholia
http://www.itweakios.com/apps/blog/entries/show/27518711-the-ugly-truth-your-iphone-and-ipad-are-limited-t-mobile-the-exception-
======
kgermino
Another win for T-Mobile. I have to say, for all the negative things I've
heard about them in past years, the more I hear about the company the harder I
think about switching from Verizon.

No contracts for service, they separated phone subsidies from phone service,
and reasonably priced data plans. Does anyone use T-Mobile? How is their
network?

~~~
nivla
I have had great experience being on T-mobile for about 5 years. Their
customer service is exceptional and they also allow you to unlock your phone
after 3 months.

However there are a couple of things that do irritate me:

[1] They sniff the header of every web-request looking for desktop browser
string. If found they sent you a warning text threatening to cut off your
service. It sucks especially when you move to a new home with no immediate
internet service and want to tether for a few days.

[2] Non-existent domains redirect to a page with ads (Similar to OpenDNS).
Sucks on a mobile since you have to wait for it to load to find out while
adding to your data usage.

~~~
paragonred
I've been using T-mobile for about 5 years as well and have been tethering for
about 3 years with no issue. I just have a regular data plan. No hotspot
option or anything.

I wonder why this isn't happening to everyone?

~~~
nivla
Interesting, din't know it was uncommon. Could they be targeting certain
areas, maybe the ones with high data usage? It happened to me when I moved to
NYC and found myself stuck in an apt with no internet for the first few days.

~~~
eropple
I had the same thing happen when I moved, after I racked up around 800MB of
data on my tethering (easier than you think). I didn't get a text, but I'd get
redirected to an "upgrade now!" page. I spoofed my user agent on my laptop for
the next couple days (because, shit, I'm paying for it, I'm going to use it),
and had to do the same when I tethered for about a month or it'd redirect me.
Since then, nothing.

~~~
xur17
I've noticed that it redirects when I use a largish amount of data (100mb?)
with a desktop useragent. It redirects me to the "upgrade now" page for the
rest of the month.

------
dylangs1030
It really sucks that carriers do this, but I think it's important to realize
that the issue is transparency, not that they do it.

Verizon and AT&T have a problem with scaling. They should be honest and
upfront about what speeds you're _realistically_ going to attain, but I don't
think they have an obligation _not_ to throttle people. It's honestly hard to
exist without it. I don't know if Verizon and AT&T could operate such
competitive networks without throttling.

Another thing to realize is that this also happens to internet download/upload
speeds. How often do you realistically hit the maximum speeds you're
advertised?

I think there should be accountability for lack of transparency, but I can't
say I blame them for throttling. I don't have enough expertise on cell tower
networking to know if they could stay profitable with competitively sized
networks otherwise.

~~~
Zak
It doesn't seem at all reasonable to throttle a particular device and not
other comparable devices. It seems more reasonable to have the tower/router
adjust the bandwidth made available to each device in real-time to ensure
there's enough bandwidth for all users in the face of capacity issues.

I think it's fine to advertise peak speeds if those are regularly attainable
even if sometimes they are not. It's not OK to advertise such speeds if the
device is sold in a configuration that can't take advantage of them without a
hack or update from the carrier or manufacturer.

~~~
sneak
The blame here lies squarely with Apple for allowing the carriers to pull this
sort of bullshit with their customers. They're the ones who implemented this
whole carrier profile mess on their platform.

They could take a lesson from Tron.

~~~
interpol_p
I'm sure if Apple didn't agree to those terms they wouldn't be selling the
iPhone at all. They probably had to fight pretty hard just to avoid carrier
branding on their phones.

Carriers are also allowed to do it to Android phones, but choose not to do so.
Why is that? Do they make more money from Android phones, and are incentivised
to make them appear better performing?

~~~
czhiddy
> Carriers are also allowed to do it to Android phones, but choose not to do
> so. Why is that? Do they make more money from Android phones, and are
> incentivised to make them appear better performing?

Studies have shown that iPhone user use far more data on average than Android
users. Carriers would naturally throttle iOS devices first.

------
bonchibuji
They deleted the page? I'm getting a 'Page not found' error.

Edit: Google Cache.

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.itweakios.com/apps/blog/show/27518711-the-
ugly-truth-your-iphone-and-ipad-are-limited-t-mobile-the-exception-)

------
runjake
You can apply the IPCC file without jailbreaking, although I believe it still
requires erasing all your settings and contents.

The IPCC file is a ZIP file with a bunch of images and XML files with
interesting settings within.

There's a lot of superfluous FUD ("iOS uses more data than other smartphones,
even when idle", which is not true) regarding iOS in the article.

~~~
alecdibble
He was quoting the carriers, though I could see how the statement could get
misconstrued:

    
    
        However, from previous statements released by AT&T and many tech orginizations, iPhones are very complex devices with a very complex OS. The OS eats much more data, even when in idle mode, than most phones on the market. So by carrier request, Apple limits devices to "even out" the network, even if it means Galaxy users out perform Apple devices by such large scales.

------
mtgx
This is why it's bad that virtually no net neutrality rules were implemented
for the wireless market when the net neutrality law passed.

~~~
ngoldbaum
I don't think this has anything to do with net neutrality. For example, it's
perfectly legal for Comcast to throttle your home cable connection.

------
bgar
Just a couple of days ago I managed to get my unlocked iPhone 5 on T-Mobile
with a great plan: 30/mo with unlimited web and text, 100 minutes. I don't
talk much on the phone so this is great for me.

It was kind of hard to set up at first, but now I would easily be able to do
it again.

------
enraged_camel
Funny, I have been thinking about this just today. I'm currently paying $200+
a month for my iPhone on AT&T. How does T-Mobile compare, and how good are
they in Southern California?

~~~
zachlatta
I have them and live in Los Angeles. Coverage is pretty fantastic, except for
in brick buildings. On a good day I get 25mbps down on their HSDPA+ network.

------
reillyse
I live in Los Angeles and I've just switched from T-Mobile to Verizon. An S2
to IPhone 5. My service has got so so so much better. The T-Mobile network is
so bad that I never used up my 100MB/month allowance at 3G speeds in spite of
the fact that I tried to use data on my phone all the time. Ridiculous in such
a large metropolitan area. So don't all go rushing to T-Mobile!

~~~
wj
Depending on where you live in LA you'll run into these problems with all
carriers due to the topography.

I also found it quite annoying with AT&T even though there was a tower six
blocks from my apartment.

------
rayiner
Newsflash: many of your cars are governor limited to 120 or 130 miles per
hour, even though the car could go faster. The vast conspiracy!

~~~
liquidise
Indeed. And much like high-speed highway driving, if my iphone 4s were to use
its full internet bandwidth, i would be a mortal danger to my fellow man. Oh
wait.

~~~
rayiner
No, but you might negatively impact the user experience of someone else in
your cell sector. It's about system design. Your phone is just a way to access
AT&T's wireless network. As the designer of that system, AT&T is entitled to
control how your devices access it to optimize overall performance.

~~~
kelnos
Then the designer did a shitty job. They should be throttling at the towers if
and when doing so is necessary. They shouldn't have devices (which by
definition they cannot trust to do the right thing) do the throttling for them
-- especially when they don't even have all devices (e.g. Android) set up to
do throttling.

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lucb1e
Sophos blocks access to this website:

> Access has been blocked as the threat Mal/HTMLGen-A has been found on this
> website.

Where the name links to: [http://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/threat-
analyses/vi...](http://www.sophos.com/en-us/threat-center/threat-
analyses/viruses-and-spyware/Mal~HTMLGen-A.aspx)

Any mirrors or something?

~~~
indeyets
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itweakios.com%2Fapps%2Fblog%2Fentries%2Fshow%2F27518711-the-
ugly-truth-your-iphone-and-ipad-are-limited-t-mobile-the-exception-)

~~~
lucb1e
Yeah I figured, but no css or images. Thanks anyway, saves me looking the
cache up!

------
technosmurf
This allegation has been debunked. Apple device are not being throttled. In
fact, the original author has deleted his article.

[http://www.anandtech.com/show/7037/apple-not-throttling-
ipho...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/7037/apple-not-throttling-iphones-
ipads-cellular-throughput-via-carrier-bundles-)

------
gz5
Nice article.

No transparency, as usual, from those carriers.

I wonder though if overall user performance would be worse if they didn't
throttle - carriers may think (correctly or incorrectly) it is their best
option for the capacity/throughput issues they have?

Can't wait to a future of non-monopoly/duopoly wireless last mile...

~~~
drivebyacct2
To be fair, the carriers aren't the only ones being misleading or opaque.
Apple quite happily chips in (with a good second-long shot of their logo, no
less) for the already blatantly false ads declaring "iPhone on the fastest
network [AT&T]".

------
ampsonic
Can you override (with or without a jail break?)

~~~
backwardm
T-Mobile includes the personal hotspot at no extra charge. I just switched
from AT&T too and have been really happy so far. My phone only gets Edge
speeds right now, only because they haven't "reframed" their cell towers yet.
(not exactly sure what that entails, but I understood it to mean that after
reframing my phone would be on 4G, have better reception, etc.)

~~~
fencepost
This TmoNews post should give you a bit more information on what the
"refarming" means: [http://www.tmonews.com/2013/05/why-now-is-a-great-time-to-
be...](http://www.tmonews.com/2013/05/why-now-is-a-great-time-to-be-a-t-
mobile-customer/)

Basically they currently have GSM on the 1900MHz band and HSPA+ on the AWS
bands (1700/2100). They're in the process of reducing the capacity allocated
to GSM, splitting HSPA+ onto all the frequency ranges, and adding limited LTE
on the AWS bands. Later on they're going to reduce the GSM capacity a bit
further while expanding the LTE capacity on the AWS bands. There's a nice
little chart that shows this much better than I described it, while continuing
to gloss over any technical details.

------
andrewmunsell
Sprint iPhone user here (4S, Jailbroken)-- is there a way to _change_ the
DATA_TRTL_ENABLED value and disable the throttle? I tried editing the carrier
settings file with iFile, but now I am having issues getting data (it very
well could be the building I'm in right now, though, so I'll have to test
again when I leave).

EDIT:

Yeah, it's the building-- the connection is actually fine, so it's not like
Sprint is blocking me after changing the setting. I'll have to test speeds
with and without the toggle enabled to see if it works (after I get out of
this dead zone of a building)

------
jackalope
I just added two iPhone 5s to my AT&T family plan, and I regret it. They use
up their data allotment in about 4 days, even if they never leave the home
wifi, so I insist that the cellular data is kept off and only enabled when
needed. Meanwhile, the WP8 and Android devices on our plan use only a fraction
of their data allotment each month. Is it possible that Apple is responsible
for this problem, and should do something about their devices being such data
hogs?

~~~
saidajigumi
Having two AT&T iPhone 5's on our plan, I can in no way corroborate your
experience. Looking at the history for one of these phones, it has entire plan
months that remain below the lowest data plan threshold. Seriously, there's a
problem that needs resolving. Search the web, hit up AT&T support and/or an
Apple store, etc.

------
ScottWhigham
I can say that this is not correct with my friend's AT&T iPhone 5. We are in
Dallas (in McKinney, a suburb) and just last week we turned off his wifi, ran
a speed test, and it reported 22mb d/l and 10mb u/l. There is nothing special
about his phone - not unlocked, nor has he done anything to it to remove the
limits. I was testing out the 4G LTE speed on his to see if it was worth it to
upgrade from my iPhone 4S. My 4S' speed was only 5.5mb d/l and 1.5mb u/l.

------
breck
I just unlocked my phone and switched from AT&T to T-Mobile and couldn't be
happier.

Decent service, and the $50/month prepaid plan including mobile hotspot is a
great deal.

------
coldtea
In Singapore, using LTE (Singtel), I could get 30Mbps up/down, and around
30-40 ms latency on my iPhone 5.

Beat that, US!

~~~
pavanky
In an Atlanta I get 15-25 Mbps regularly outdoors (very close to downtown).
The speeds are higher where there isn't too much concrete and people. I have
also seen 55Mbps in suburbs of Atlanta.

This is on At&t.

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aviraldg
Am I the only one annoyed by the implication of "iPhones are very complex
devices with a very complex OS."?

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thecosas
Anyone notice that this now says "Page Not Found" and the site doesn't have
the article up anymore?

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Pitarou
Correct me if I'm wrong, but their's a clear case for a class-action suit,
isn't their?

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josteink
I dont get the connection. The iPhone and iPad is limited, yes. But how does
that relate to T-mobile, a carrier? You buy your gadgets and cellular-services
separately.

This headline makes about as much sense as saying China is communist. Cars are
the exception.

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chadsch
Website down. Anyone have a mirror/cache to share?

~~~
swatkat
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.itweakios.com%2Fapps%2Fblog%2Fentries%2Fshow%2F27518711-the-
ugly-truth-your-iphone-and-ipad-are-limited-t-mobile-the-exception-)

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xenonite
this site is blocked here, using Firefox 21. It detects Mal/HTMLGen-A.

Someone else having the same problem?

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joshcrowder
Looks like the site is down?

