

Why the AT&T deal can’t be good for T-Mobile consumers: Pay double and get half - jeremychone
http://www.bitsandbuzz.com/article/why-the-att-deal-cant-be-good-for-t-mobile-consumers-almost-doubled-monthly-bills-capped-internet-and-lock-in/

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geekam
I am a T-mobile customer and up until now I was very happy with their service.
The only reason I do not have an iPhone is because I did not want to go to
ATT. Now, I have no choice but to go with Verizon, and I will.

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pilom
It really isn't that much work to jailbreak your iPhone. Mine has been running
on T-mobile very happily (but sans 3G) for over a year.

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jeremychone
Yes, the problem is the different 3G band. Otherwise, you can just buy a
unlocked iPhone from France (without having the jailbreak it). Obviously, this
makes sense only if you go to France for other purposes.

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kin
My fingers are crossed that this doesn't go through. I've had T-Mobile for
years and have been grandfathered into such an amazing family plan. $20 for
unlimited web per person, lines 3-5 are free. $10 unlimited texting for the
entire family. Unlimited mobile-to-mobile, nights, weekends, and my faves.
Coverage used to be poor but it's only getting better.

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ryanhuff
It has to go through. T-Mobile is likely shedding business customers in record
numbers. AT&T is offering businesses special deals to migrate all of devices
from T-Mobile.

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atomical
T-mobile throttles internet after 5GB. The writer of this article doesn't have
"unlimited" everything.

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Dylan16807
What speed does it run at after throttling? It's still far superior to overage
charges an order of magnitude over the base price.

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atomical
I usually get around 5k/sec after throttling starts. Your speed will vary
depending on the quality of the network. But obviously at speeds like this you
can't do HD video streaming.

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jeremychone
Thanks for the info. I just updated the blog post with this.

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pilom
AT&T does not lock anyone into 2 year contracts any more that T-Mobile does.
Both of them offer month to month (on any phone) and both of them offer
discounts on new phones if you get a 2 year agreement.

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jeremychone
Do you have the link of the AT&T month to month? I found the pre-paid one
(which is not the same)

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bradleyland
If you bring your own (compatible) device, you can get a no-contract plan. The
prices are exactly the same. If you want a no-contract plan, but don't have a
device, you have to pay the un-subsidized price for the phone.

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jeremychone
Ok, I found it now. If you select Sim Card, but they still ask you the IMEI
number, and you can have only one phone per simcard. They tie it together.

With T-Mobile, just change phone, as long as it works for you, it works for
T-Mobile.

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bradleyland
I've never had a problem swapping SIM cards on ATT. Not sure if it's
"supported", but I've done it in the past. The only phone where I've run in to
restrictions was the iPhone. They ask you for the IMEI because they show "your
device" in the ATT portal. I don't think it's used to restrict your access.

Not trying to make an argument out of it or anything :) but I figured since
you're a T-Mobile customer, you're already in for a rough ride :( Thought I'd
try to offer some consolation as we welcome you to the support group... I
mean, network. Yeah, network.

~~~
jeremychone
First, thanks for the discussion. Always appreciated.

What type of restriction did you encounter with the iPhone. Let's say I buy an
unlocked iPhone (from France for example), and then, add the AT&T simcard,
would it work?

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bradleyland
My ATT iPhone would only work with an "iPhone" SIM, not another ATT SIM. This
was a first gen iPhone though. I don't know if this has changed with more
recent iPhones.

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barista
Whatever the reason is, you need to realize that the current owner of the TMO,
sold it because it was more lucrative to get the money ATT is offering rather
than run the service. Which means the current price pressure was getting to
them. Soon they would have escalated the prices anyways. With the ATT deal it
might just happen soon.

I am not happy with this deal either but I am not disillusioned that TMO would
have kept the lower prices around for long.

