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[Q] T-Mobile data plan price changes leave me wondering.

Hi, all.
I realised today that having a 5GB cap on my main internet connection is pretty low, since I either go over it or edge close to it every billing cycle. It really sucks when they throttle it; it's worse than EDGE in most cases, and totally impossible to use with work. Since I found out that they now have a plan with a 10GB data cap, I figured I'd jump on it.
Turns out that not only would doing this extend my contract two more years (don't want to do this), it would actually increase the amount I pay now since the rate plan on the 5GB data plan was increased to $49.99 from $39.99. That obviously sucks.
Worse, I head over to Verizon's page and they're offering the same plans at, practically, the same prices. On top of that, they have real 4G coverage (FiOS- or cable-ike speeds) whereas T-Mobile's HSPA+ signal is not great in my area (not much better than 3.0 Mbps DSL connection).
I'm extremely close to switching (don't mind paying cancellation fees; could probably get some of them back from selling the modem) , but want to hear other people's experiences first. Does anyone here have a data plan with them and, if so, are you satisfied?

Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A

well i just signed up with tmobile oct 17th and today i am already over 1gb. I wil be switching back to sprint simply because they have the unlimited data. I am really pissed though because i don't like any of sprints phones.

Cheapest data only setup?

So let's start this off by saying I tend to be a very frugal person. So frugal that about a year and a half ago I opted to get the Galaxy Tab (7 inch) from Verizon on a 2 year contract for only $100 on a $35 a month 3GB data plan. I slapped Skype on it, grabbed an online number and tied that into my Google Voice account and for a total of $41~ a month ($6 a month on average for an online number for Skype and unlimited minutes) I had a device with unlimited calling, unlimited texting, and 3GB of data which turned out to be plenty since I used the wifi when I was at home. This was awesome despite holding up a 7 inch tablet to my head to make phone calls, which I didn't care. I mean yeah people look at you funny but I was the one laughing since I was saving over $50 a month on my phone bill. And I could play Angry Birds on a big screen! I really really loved this setup.
I sold that tablet to my brother 9 months ago now and he just kinda carried over the plan. I did that since I moved to Chile for that amount of time and now I'm moving back to the States come next week and I want a similar setup. No carriers offer data only plans though that work well in my area. I switched from AT&T to Verizon since big red's coverage was 100x better where I mostly used my phone. However the data plan I had gotten with that tablet has gone away due to the "Share Everything" stuff although it still is only $40 a month for the share everything tablet data plan but none of the newer tablets they offer catch my eye since I really want that 7 inch sweet spot which is actually able to still fit in most of my pant's back pockets. This brings me to my best thought so far but there's one large caveat...
Mobile hotspots. I have narrowed down the choice between Verizon's Mifi 4510L and US Cellular's Samsung SCH-LC11 and then using that to connect to a Nexus 7 which looks like a better and more powerful Galaxy Tab that I had only used a year ago. I'm definitely leaning more towards US Cellular though since they offer a 2 GB plan for $25 a month and only an extra $10 per GB used above the 2GB limit while Verizon's crazy pricing for their Mifi 4510L starts at $50 a month for 4 GB of data which I'd probably never use all of it. I never even used 2 GB from what I remember from before. Although that's still a huge bargain compared to pretty much everyone else who has opted for those ridiculously overpriced plans for their rinky dinky smartphones. I kid of course. The base pricing for the devices is $188.99 out the door for a pre-owned certified Mifi 4510L without a contract and $200 (after $50 MiR) for the Samsung on a 2 year contract. After a year the Samsung would save me $300 but that's also stuck on a 2 year contract, although if I had to cancel it'd only be $150 to do so and I'd still be ahead $150 above big red. But the one large caveat to this is the battery life which on the Samsung is about 3 and half hours active usage and the Mifi 4510L says 5 hours but the Samsung has a removable battery. Now I drive fairly often and at my work and home I'll more than likely have wifi access, thus negating the need to plug in the mobile hotspot, the tablet however would also use up more battery due to the wifi being on all the time. It's definitely a trade off but one I'm willing to make I believe since on the US Cellular (Which has really great service where I live although I don't believe I can get 4G from either) side of things I'd be saving $900 a year.* So what does xda think about this? Any thoughts or insight? Other suggestions that I more than likely missed? Or mistakes in my plan? (I've been known to make plenty of those.)
Now I do know that it doesn't have to be a tablet. I'm tempted to get the Galaxy S III off-contract and just use it wirelessly the same way. However I'll still be lugging the mobile hotspot wherever I'll be. Other bonuses to the hotspot is... It's a hotspot. Super easy to share my connection. Although I was able to do that with my old Galaxy Tab very easily as well so not a huge deal. Thanks to those that stuck through my huge post and seemingly large amount of rambling. I didn't mean to post this much but it just turned out this way.
*This is accounting that I never have to pay an extra $10 for a GB over the 2GB use and accounting for a $100 for a normal plan. I could go ahead and say I'd be saving $1800 over a normal smartphone plan although I have around $400 to put down at first so saying an average smartphone goes for $200 with a 2 year plan I'm still saving $1600 once those 2 years are up.
TL;DR - I'm cheap and want to get a mobile hotspot and use a tablet (Nexus 7) connected to it via wifi as my phone to get the cheapest monthly data plan and run all my talk and texts through Google Voice / Skype.

[Q] Need Help with Service Provider Switch

I have been a loyal Sprint customer for ten years now (please don't judge). At one point, I was even on SERO and my wife convinced me to switch to a family plan (once again, please don't judge). Anyway, here I am today out of contract with 2 smartphones (Evo and Epic 4G), 1500 anytime minutes, an Airave (since Sprint doesn't work in my home), terrible 4G service (in Central Florida) and a $155/month bill all after a 22% discount. I'm ready to make a drastic change.
After looking at Sprint's website, combined my wife and I use a monthly average of 1200 minutes (about 1000 of them are mobile-2-mobile), 3000 text messages, and about 1.9GB data. We are pretty equal on data on texts, but I use about 300-400 minutes and she uses the rest (her phone doubles as a work phone).
I have been going back and forth with either renewing Sprint, signing my life away to Verizon, or going prepaid. The benefit of going with Verizon is that I also get a 17% discount (work) off their service. However, that only covers the data plan (stupid). So, I could fork over about $138+tax and move to unlimited everything with 4GB of shared data. My wife likes this idea because we don't have to worry about roaming and Verizon has decent service in Central Florida (as well as other places that we travel). Plus, she can get an iPhone 5 (but she may change her mind if navigation doesn't improve). Since we have a newborn though she is constantly taking pictures with her phone and sending them to family so I thought an iPhone 5 would be decent for that.
I like the idea of buying a couple of Galaxy Nexus's and going with two Straight Talk lines. We have been on Android devices for so long I hate to give them up especially after seeing Jelly Bean in action. Plus to me an iPhone is just like my iPad just pocket sized...why do I need two? However, if we travel to an area where there is no service the phone doesn't Roam, it just stops working. She is in sales and unfortunately has to work at times such as Christmas where we will be in an area where T-Mobile and/or AT&T don't work but Verizon does.
I thought about even putting her on Straight Talk and me on TMo $30 using the VOIP (since I work from home I don't see myself going over 100 cellular minutes a month if I'm careful).
Now, I've been reading about Solavei ($50/mnth) which allows roaming but I'm not to keen on MLMs. (I've seen MLMs break a few friends). However, since you don't have to participate in them this could be an option.
So, the question is, what would you do? Is the Galaxy Nexus worth the $350 on a prepaid vs. buying an iPhone 5 and getting locked for another 2 years? The money isn't really the issue (since we are already budgeted for the $155 per month but it would be nice to save some $$). How often do you find yourself Roaming on Straight Talk or TMo? How is the VOIP? What about Solavei (I read a forum about it and it sounds enticing, but once again MLMs bug the hell out of me).
I guess I'm not looking for some straight answers, but maybe someone to help me straighten out my thoughts. I really appreciate any feedback.
Thanks for reading.

what if....t-mobile new uncarrier question

Im currently on sprint, and plan on going to t-mobile. I was planing to get the galaxy s4 (no contract) and hop on t-mobiles 500 min unlimited text/data plan since the price was good and i only use like 100 min a month. I dont see this plan on their website anymore though (or i cant find it) i can only find the new uncarrier plans which wont let me adjust how many minutes i want a month, it only shows unlimited. and it is more expensive then the one i wanted.
so my question is, does the plan i originally wanted still exist? I will be really dissapointed if it doesnt

I think they're not having "plans"anymore. From what I've read, $50 will get you unlimited talk and text, plus 500mb of data. Then you either buy unlimited data for $20, or they charge $10 for each additional 2gb you use.
-Accidental Asshole aka Jeremy
[Guide] Headphone/Earphone Buying

This page is still up : http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
If I were you, I'd hurry up and buy a SIM card and even just a $20 pre-paid phone/one of CL/whatever and get it activated if it's still possible instead of waiting.
If they kick me off it I'll just go to buying minutes only and they'll lose quite a bit of money, so meh. Or maybe I'd go to data-only. Or another carrier.

Pennycake said:
This page is still up : http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
If I were you, I'd hurry up and buy a SIM card and even just a $20 pre-paid phone/one of CL/whatever and get it activated if it's still possible instead of waiting.
If they kick me off it I'll just go to buying minutes only and they'll lose quite a bit of money, so meh. Or maybe I'd go to data-only. Or another carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that wasnt the page i was looking at before. To get to the page i looked at before i would navigate to plans>individual plans>value plans
also, do these prepaid plans include unlimited text/data? i see no mention of it.

TheAtheistOtaku said:
that wasnt the page i was looking at before. To get to the page i looked at before i would navigate to plans>individual plans>value plans
also, do these prepaid plans include unlimited text/data? i see no mention of it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just a page with the old plans, that's all it is. I have no idea if or when they'll implement changes to their system when you activate a SIM card.
It's also still advertised on WAL*MART's web site along with the new plans. You could go to WAL*MART, buy a cheap phone/SIM and then switch it.

They've just been talking about this on CNBC squawk box, they seemed positive from the company's point of view, $100 a month for unlimited everything then after 2 years knock $20 pm off your bill because you've paid for the phone by then, still seems expensive to me, at the mo an S3 costs £32 all you can eat then after 2 years go sim only for £17 or less to suit.

Euthye said:
They've just been talking about this on CNBC squawk box, they seemed positive from the company's point of view, $100 a month for unlimited everything then after 2 years knock $20 pm off your bill because you've paid for the phone by then, still seems expensive to me, at the mo an S3 costs £32 all you can eat then after 2 years go sim only for £17 or less to suit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i wont be doing this "financing" they are talking about. i will be paying off the phone then and there. ITs certainly dissapointing that they dont have what i was looking for anymore, though i will still be switching

Euthye said:
They've just been talking about this on CNBC squawk box, they seemed positive from the company's point of view, $100 a month for unlimited everything then after 2 years knock $20 pm off your bill because you've paid for the phone by then, still seems expensive to me, at the mo an S3 costs £32 all you can eat then after 2 years go sim only for £17 or less to suit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For family/group plans its a rip or breaking even with current rates.

The plan seems worth it to me.
I'm a person that barely uses my minutes, so I was paying 40 for 500 minutes and then 10 bux for texting and then 30 for 5GB data.
I switched to the no contract plan already and I'm going to be saving 10 bux a month now and have unlimited data with no throttle. Only downfall is that the mobile hotspot now has a restriction of 500MB before they shut it down and require you to get a hotspot plan, but nothing that a usb tether or bluetooth tether can't fix.
For individuals, this makes sense, because with the lowest minutes plan, txt and data (seems like they have moved everyone to 5gb plans now on smartphones) you were paying 80, so there is instant savings on the plan now going contract-less.

When I was with Sprint I looked at my minutes usage and I averaged 100 minutes a month and was paying $46/mo for 500 minutes and unlimited texting, no data.
Now I pay $30/mo plus only state sales tax ($1- something) and I have all the minutes I need plus 5Gb of data I didn't have before.
With the $400 phone cost, it evens out to about $40/mo for the first two years. And I'm getting everything I had plus more for still slightly less per month.
I also have various VOIP apps that I can use to call and essentially get as many minutes as I could want.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

Looking for a new phone and plan.

So I'm in the process of buying a new phone. I personally don't have a lot of money to spend so the $200 price point is one I'm trying to hit, but I'm not opposed to spending $300 for a vastly superior phone. I would like the phone to be on the smaller side of things, don't approach the phablet territory (~6 or greater inches). I'm not a big phone spec guy, I don't care to have the fastest processor or huge amounts of ram seeing as the most taxing thing I do on my phone is play Clash of Clans. I don't care to have a high resolution screen at all, 720p would be fine. I would like it to have good wifi support and be able to get 4G LTE, now the last and most important part is it NEEDS to have a all day in to tomorrow type battery.
Priorities:
1. Cheap
2. Big battery
3. LTE support
4. Good wifi support
Here are a few phones I'm looking at
Moto X,G,E Nexus 5???, BlackBerry Z10.
I'm really just looking for suggestions here because all of those phones seem to be besides what I'm looking for, let me know if there are any phones that I'm missing.
Thanks,
Beefy

Xiaomi Mi3
http://m.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_3-5678.php
ZTE Grand Memo 2 LTE
http://m.gsmarena.com/zte_grand_memo_ii_lte-6154.php
iNew V3
http://www.devicespecifications.com/en/model/ab922b5e
Huawei Ascend P7
http://m.gsmarena.com/huawei_ascend_p7-6124.php
Just a few phones around that price range that have better specs.
Moto G is a great phone though I must say.
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Using XDA App

I could hook up with Boost through my account and you and I would get some saving from doing that but I am new to forums and dont want anyone complaining if its against some policy I not aware of. As a side note I been using them for 3 years and they been good to me and I gotten my bill with them by getting discounts every 6 month I paid on time some my monthy bill is $15- a month cheaper than when I started. You can PM if needed. I am now paying $40 a month using a Galaxy S3 and it getting LTE service where I live. I get 2.5 gb of data month before throttled. I never gone other the limit so dont know how fast it is when throttled.