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Your take on T-Mobile $30 Prepaid plan (100 min, unlimited text, 5GB of 4G data)

  • Something like this would be great for me

    Votes: 356 79.1%
  • Not for me

    Votes: 94 20.9%

  • Total voters
    450
Wait so pandora & Spotify don't count against your data usage?

They definitely eat my data with a spare phone I have in this plan. It takes a while to show, but when I keep checking, the data counter in the t-mobile app is definitely increasing, albiet slowly.

Can anyone confirm?
 
They definitely eat my data with a spare phone I have in this plan. It takes a while to show, but when I keep checking, the data counter in the t-mobile app is definitely increasing, albiet slowly.

Can anyone confirm?
I confirm this doesn't happen on my Moto X with this plan.
 
I streamed about ten hours of high quality Pandora and Spotify this week and my data usage on the My T-Mobile app hasn't budged.
 
I streamed about ten hours of high quality Pandora and Spotify this week and my data usage on the My T-Mobile app hasn't budged.

That is SO WEIRD. I wonder what the issue is with my account? Maybe because it's pretty old - I've had it for a year and a half. I suppose I could let this account expire and activate a new one, but I was reading about a $10/10gig data only LTE only plan last night, and since this is only a backup phone and I only do VOIP anyway, and usually in LTE areas I think I'll switch to that instead.

I'm glad we're finally seeing the day where this T-mobile plan can now be considered expensive!
 
That is SO WEIRD. I wonder what the issue is with my account? Maybe because it's pretty old - I've had it for a year and a half. I suppose I could let this account expire and activate a new one, but I was reading about a $10/10gig data only LTE only plan last night, and since this is only a backup phone and I only do VOIP anyway, and usually in LTE areas I think I'll switch to that instead.

I'm glad we're finally seeing the day where this T-mobile plan can now be considered expensive!

If you're using any other forms of data you aren't going to get a good test. If it's feasible, delete or turn off data on everything but music. Then let the music stream for a couple of hours. That should give you s couple hundred Meg's at least in increase if they are really counting music streaming against you.
 
That is SO WEIRD. I wonder what the issue is with my account? Maybe because it's pretty old - I've had it for a year and a half. I suppose I could let this account expire and activate a new one, but I was reading about a $10/10gig data only LTE only plan last night, and since this is only a backup phone and I only do VOIP anyway, and usually in LTE areas I think I'll switch to that instead.



I'm glad we're finally seeing the day where this T-mobile plan can now be considered expensive!


my account is about 2 and a half years old, so that's definitely not the reason for any differences you see
 
I guess there's something set wrong on my account then. But the thought of trying to get it straightened out via India? LMAO!!!!!!!!
 
That is SO WEIRD. I wonder what the issue is with my account? Maybe because it's pretty old - I've had it for a year and a half. I suppose I could let this account expire and activate a new one, but I was reading about a $10/10gig data only LTE only plan last night, and since this is only a backup phone and I only do VOIP anyway, and usually in LTE areas I think I'll switch to that instead.

I'm glad we're finally seeing the day where this T-mobile plan can now be considered expensive!
What music service do you use?
 
Why not jump to cricket. Better coverage than T-Mobile and you can get 10gb for $55 flat or 3gb for $45. I can't see how any working adult can get by on 100 min. Using VoIP is a poor solution when not on wifi and in areas of weak coverage.


I have been with them before. I would rather support T-Mobile. They are pro consumer. AT&T is definitely not.

Also, cricket was very very slow. Only up to 8Mbps, and horrible latency. I also was annoyed that I had to dial the area code first for every single number that I called. I was miserable with them.
 
T-Mobile $30 Prepaid plan (100 min, unlimited text, 5GB of 4G LTE data)

I have been with them before. I would rather support T-Mobile. They are pro consumer. AT&T is definitely not.

Also, cricket was very very slow. Only up to 8Mbps, and horrible latency. I also was annoyed that I had to dial the area code first for every single number that I called. I was miserable with them.


I like supporting TM as well.

Essentially, if TM has good coverage where a person is, better coverage arguments are moot.

Also, if 5GB is enough data (not to mention music streaming not counting against it) for someone, there's no need for any more.

With the minute overage price on TM, $45 gets you 250min a month. $55 gets you 350min. But the added benefit is you never pay for minutes you don't use.

I really find it hard to argue against the T-mobile $30 plan unless coverage where you live and work isn't adequate.
 
I have been with them before. I would rather support T-Mobile. They are pro consumer. AT&T is definitely not.

Also, cricket was very very slow. Only up to 8Mbps, and horrible latency. I also was annoyed that I had to dial the area code first for every single number that I called. I was miserable with them.


I doubt cricket is slow. 8mb was enough for me to stream live sports in HD. I currently have 30mb on my T-Mobile plan and it's the same when I stream.
 
T-Mobile $30 Prepaid plan (100 min, unlimited text, 5GB of 4G LTE data)

I doubt cricket is slow. 8mb was enough for me to stream live sports in HD. I currently have 30mb on my T-Mobile plan and it's the same when I stream.


Have you been with Cricket? I have, and it was very slow. My pings would be in the 300 to 400s and everything seemed to just stall out. Is it doable? Of course, but T-Mobile is infinitely better for me. I have decent T-Mobile coverage in my city.

I agree, on paper 8Mbps is an adequate speed. For me personally, I like much faster than 8. It was the latency that killed it though. They send their traffic through a proxy and that's how they throttle it. Though, this is what increases the ping times.
 
Have you been with Cricket? I have, and it was very slow. My pings would be in the 300 to 400s and everything seemed to just stall out. Is it doable? Of course, but T-Mobile is infinitely better for me. I have decent T-Mobile coverage in my city.

I agree, on paper 8Mbps is an adequate speed. For me personally, I like much faster than 8. It was the latency that killed it though. They send their traffic through a proxy and that's how they throttle it. Though, this is what increases the ping times.


I've got T-Mobile too. Tried Cricket since I figured they were part of AT&T now right? It wasn't worth it. The service was excruciating. This was using the exact same device I had used for T-Mobile too and it was the unlocked version bought directly from Apple.

It was just a big slow no on my part.
 
Have you been with Cricket? I have, and it was very slow. My pings would be in the 300 to 400s and everything seemed to just stall out. Is it doable? Of course, but T-Mobile is infinitely better for me. I have decent T-Mobile coverage in my city.

I agree, on paper 8Mbps is an adequate speed. For me personally, I like much faster than 8. It was the latency that killed it though. They send their traffic through a proxy and that's how they throttle it. Though, this is what increases the ping times.


Yes I went from cricket to T-Mobile and had no issues with my speeds. Everything I used it for worked fine. Like I said I would use the xfinity app to watch live tv and it worked just as it now does on T-Mobile. That's my experience in NY, Nj and Philadelphia.
 
Yes I went from cricket to T-Mobile and had no issues with my speeds. Everything I used it for worked fine. Like I said I would use the xfinity app to watch live tv and it worked just as it now does on T-Mobile. That's my experience in NY, Nj and Philadelphia.


You didn't have latency issues?
 
Mobile Hotspot has always been enabled on my iPhone with this plan but never had much reason to use it. I do not pay extra for it, just the $30.

I used it for the past couple of days when I was away from home. Today I was surprised to see in the T-Mobile app that I had used 84 MB /100 MB Mobile Hotspot Usage.

Didn't realize there was a maximum permitted for Hotspot.
 
Mobile Hotspot has always been enabled on my iPhone with this plan but never had much reason to use it. I do not pay extra for it, just the $30.

I used it for the past couple of days when I was away from home. Today I was surprised to see in the T-Mobile app that I had used 84 MB /100 MB Mobile Hotspot Usage.

Didn't realize there was a maximum permitted for Hotspot.

They have to impose a maximum, otherwise people would start to use it as a home internet service.
I also used the $30 plan for hotspot. As far as I can tell, you are just limited to the 5GB of your plan.
 
I also used the $30 plan for hotspot. As far as I can tell, you are just limited to the 5GB of your plan.
The T-Mobile App shows a 100 MB maximum for Hotspot. I just never noticed it until I now. My account period just renewed so back to zero usage...
 

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The T-Mobile App shows a 100 MB maximum for Hotspot. I just never noticed it until I now. My account period just renewed so back to zero usage...


I've seen that meter as well, but have just used hotspot occasionally so don't really know what happens if you exceed it. In the T-mobile app you can select Plans and Services and then Additional Services and you'll see this screen. The last option is Mobile Hotspot. I believe you can spend an extra $15 and get unlimited hotspot. I didn't click through to see. Like I said I don't know if they actually cut you off at 100MB. In any case it's nice that they allow it for casual use at no charge.

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One change I've noticed over the past month is that some of my data usage now counts against the cap when I run speed tests using the RootMetrics app. Whenever I travel, I like to run the speed tests continuously to see the trends in T-Mobile's network coverage. In the past, all of that data was whitelisted. But, on a recent trip, I noticed a few hundred MBs counted against my cap, but not the full data usage from the speed tests.

Apparently, the Ookla speed test app still has all data whitelisted.

No idea if this affects postpaid customers as well.

Mobile Hotspot has always been enabled on my iPhone with this plan but never had much reason to use it. I do not pay extra for it, just the $30.

I used it for the past couple of days when I was away from home. Today I was surprised to see in the T-Mobile app that I had used 84 MB /100 MB Mobile Hotspot Usage.

Didn't realize there was a maximum permitted for Hotspot.

T-Mobile quietly enabled free tethering sometime last summer. Before that time, I would just enable it whenever I needed it and T-Mobile would charge $15 (prorated based on the time left to the next billing cycle). Doesn't surprise me that they cap the data for free usage.

Whenever I paid the prorated $15 charge for tethering, T-Mobile allowed usage up to the data cap, and I assume you could do the same thing now if you pay for the hotspot service.
 
Unsure yet if this will also be happening to the $30 plan in this thread, but doesn't look good...

http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/simply-prepaid.htm

Eeek. Slower speeds, no tethering, and no free streaming music. Not good; if this applies to the $30 plan, Cricket becomes somewhat more appealing as AT&T still has better coverage. I'm really not sure what they're thinking here, since it basically makes all their prepaid plans worse instead of better.
 
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