I changed my mobile carrier from Sprint to T-Mobile late last year. I was looking for a good value unlimited data plan and free international roaming, and T-Mobile fits the bill. Since I had T-Mobile before, I was not worried about making the switch as I knew what I was getting myself into. There are some things that T-Mobile does really well (unexpected perks for their customers!) and areas it could do better.
Let’s Start with Areas for improvements:
Some dead zones
I haven’t run into dead zones or dropped calls yet, but a family member did when he apparently traveled outside of T-Mobile’s coverage area. I got this message when I called, “The subscriber you have called is unavailable or has traveled outside of the coverage area.” Fortunately, it’s not a common issue, though I can see why some might be hesitant to switch over to T-Mobile if they don’t live in a great coverage area.
T-Mobile’s Coverage Map
T-Mobile One Mobile Hotspot
The T-Mobile One plan comes with unlimited mobile hotspot at 3G speed, though I had a rather disappointing experience with it so far. I was able to connect my laptop to the network just fine, but the page load was so slow that it’s not really workable. To be clear, I had no expectation that it would be fast but I expected a slightly better performance. It’s certainly a feature I will try again, though I wouldn’t rely on it.
Some Unexpected Perks!
For the new year, I wanted to cut down on the wireless bill, and it’s great to have a family plan where the average cost per line is in the $30+ range for a plan with unlimited data. Aside from the obvious cost savings, there are some unexpected perks as well, in particular:
1. Gogo Partnership
T-Mobile has a Gogo partnership, which gives T-Mobile customers an hour of Gogo In-Flight Internet. A family member jumped on trying out the free hour on a recent flight, and I was able to get a few texts just fine. This is a handy perk to have at no added cost!
2. T-Mobile Tuesday
What a fun concept! As a new customer, T-Mobile sent me a text to join T-Mobile Tuesday. I thought it’s another one of T-Mobile’s publicity gimmicks, since they want to reward their customers every Tuesday with T-Mobile exclusives. There had been a few good T-Mobile Tuesdays deals that include:
- Promotional code for Free FandangoGO movie rental
- $2 Fandango movie ticket on a Tuesday
- $25 promo code on Zappos – what a fun promotion!
- A free year of Shape magazine. It’s all about keeping motivated to stay healthy, right? 😉
Past Promotions on Tmobile Tuesdays
If you are an existing customer but haven’t taken advantage of it, it’s worth taking a look (and it’s free!) I actually look forward to seeing what’s new on Tuesdays!
More Un-Carrier Promotions
T-Mobile runs a lot of promotions and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of all of them, but what I love most about T-Mobile is that a lot of their “Un-Carrier” deals apply to existing customers as well. Just a few days ago, T-Mobile came out with yet another “All Unlimited, All In” promotion. T-Mobile wants to include taxes and other fees into the cost of the plan.
Another Un-Carrier Promotion
Personally, I am a huge fan of having a bill that is “as stated” and not have all these “extra” taxes and fees tacked on. The best part? Those who participated in the black friday promotion are eligible for this promotion as well!
Am I happy that I switched to T-Mobile? You bet. At the moment, it seems that the hardest part of being a T-Mobile customer is keeping track of the promotions and making sure that the promotional credits post. You want to make sure you end up with the best savings, and that certainly is a good problem to have with T-Mobile.
Correction author: The T-Mobile ONE plan includes unlimited hotspot at “3G,” speeds. It’s not 5GB’s. Technically speeds are capped to 512 Kbps download speeds. These speeds are fine for browsing but not much else.
If you are a global traveler I’d recommend the One Plus International plan for $25 more. That gives you Unlimited Domestic LTE HotSpot.
Thanks for the correction. I’ve updated the post to accurately reflect that the mobile hotspot that comes with T-Mobile One is “unlimited” data at 3G speed.
https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-9847
Nice ad for T-Mobile. Hope you got paid.
No need to be cynical. As a full disclosure, I have no affiliation with T-Mobile whatsoever, other than as a new customer. I simply want to share my experience with my switch from Sprint to T-Mobile and the little perks I’m finding with T-Mobile. I hope the article helps others who may be in the same boat or who could benefit from this info.
Thanks for reading!
Hello I am a T-Mobile employee. Here is some info that’s important to know: T-Mobile One does NOT include any hotspot service at high speed. It is unlimited hot spot service at 3G speed. For full LTE 4G data hotspot you need to get T-Mobile One Plus for $25 more per Month. Pretty amazing value considering it’s unlimited! That will fix the slow connection your experiencing on your laptop. Also One plus gets you wifi all flight long from your mobile phone included in the $25! You also get Name ID, Free International dialing from the states and unlimited HD… Read more »
The free international dialing from the USA to what countries ?
There is a huge list of 140+ countries on T-Mobile.com that are free to call if you add the $25 T-Mobile one plus intl add on
Not true! The list is actually about half. It says to 70+ countries for landlines and 30+ for mobile. And I find these perks are never to countries that I would call. I remember having something similar with Vonage years ago.
Oh true, there is a difference between the Stateside dialing versus roaming. My apologies
With full respect it just seems despite verizon being more pricey they actually were nicer at one point allowing grand fathered plans to use 200 gigabytes and 500 gigabytes was what intial plan allowed.
Computers can use much. So if limited to 200 gigabytes wouldn’t get a whole month. Let’s say takes 700 gigabytes__I am sure tmobile would throttle the so called unlimited 25 buck addon
There’s no throttling on an plan. The speed reductions are only during times of extreme network overcrowding.
Yes, maybe so but there is usually always a punch line. Whether that’s unlimted at 3g speeds or 4G LTE only up to a certain amount of usage. The true definition of unlimited verses a companies representation of what their version is of that. Unlimited 4G lte would use a substantial amount of usage. Also that doesn’t imply with luxury enjoyment of up to today’s current much improvements of HDTV high depth. Could be poor quality and slow for a computer quality not quality speeds
Also, people get stoked and sorta scammed into a service thinking great but ends up being to good to be true. Fine prints, hidden limits or restrictions.
Would a company really allow the highest hd quality could possibly get video streaming & downloading at the highest quality 4g lte phone speeds and than allow a person at both at the highest possible quality to go unlimited say they used 1000 gigabytes without throttling you and or slowing your speeds. I believe in honest advertising and not a bait and switch real you in to be disappointed
BS. I get you are supporting your employer but keep that crap to the sales floor.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/10/t-mobile-punished-by-fcc-for-hidden-limits-on-unlimited-data/
Simple choice unlimited plan for me.. I get all of those perks @ $120 for three lines. Not to mention the ability to actually watch something in HD lol. T-Mobile basically started limiting their “unlimited” plans to nickel and dime customers. I guess those who jumped on when they had their simple choice true unlimited plans will be the only ones not paying out the ass for actual unlimited
Me to. I’m on the simple choice unlimited plan with 2 lines, 7gb of lte Hotspot and couldn’t be happier. I get HD streaming for free without restrictions. Would never give up this plan…..
Me too, until they forcefully phase us out. Well probably get a few more years until that happens
In the last Uncarrier move It was promised that we will never phase you out. You keep what you have at the price you have it or less!
Ryan, thanks. I am on an old$100/month for two lines unlimited plan. Now, I added the black Friday promo, two free lines. Did that change my plan to t mobile one, including the slow hot spot service and 28gb slowing down cap? No one told us it would, or we wouldn’t have signed up for the two free lines. Please advice?
The slow down only happens when your in a spot where the network is over crowded. You still get unlimited data at LTE speeds. Also you can go to http://www.t-mobile.com/ucnext and sign up for the new plan! No taxes or fees! IF you had the two free lines the new plan is $130 per month including taxes and fees ! Should make for a lower bill !
Oh no, thanks, it’s currently $105 for four unlimited everything lines including taxes
Unlimited you say. I wonder if it is federal communications belief of unlimited.
Like 200 or 500 plus gigabytes unlimited or restricted???
25 bucks. There has to be a catch like verizon
Down to “ONE PLAN!” Except that it’s not. Calling it one+ doesn’t make it the same. It’s still two tiers of service so I’m not understanding why try to hype it as a singular plan.
Hi Ryan, I was expecting 3G speed, but I’ll give the mobile hotspot another shot. 🙂 I don’t currently have a need for One Plus, especially since I have a standalone 4G hotspot that I could use in a crunch. It’s interesting to see T-Mobile’s push towards getting everyone on T-Mobile One. I will say that personally, it works for me and what I need, but I can see why existing customers on Simple Choice plans do not see it as an improvement (in terms of fewer customized choice, costs, and possible data throttling over 28GB per line). In any… Read more »
Data throttling vs the 28GB possible slow downs are different.
– Throttling means you are permanently slowed until next bill cycle
– Those over 28GB are not permanently slowed, but de prioritized in heavy areas during heavy traffic. In those cases SOMEONE would have to slow down… that’s on any network regardless of plan. ATT also offers unlimited internet for DirectTV users and starts the possibility of slow down at 22GB.
Got it. It’s easy to miss that distinction. So it’s conceivable that a user would not experience slowdown even if a user is over 28gb if said user user is not in a congested area during heavy traffic.
EDIT: In practice, I don’t know how significant of an impact the deprioritization is to the user experience. That soft cap doesn’t matter to me since I’d never hit it based on my historical data usage but this is very helpful info to know. Thanks!
I have reached in the 70GB range without realizing any slowdowns. Im at 31GB this month and just did a speed test and it showed 68MBPS. I think the intentions are better than we perceive At times of major network traffic if someone somewhere is going to be receiving slower speeds due to the high traffic , they slow down the person who has already used a heavy amount of data. Sharing is caring lol. Again, its possible to never experience this and when you do it could be very brief or just a minor slow down.
I have tmobile one plan and the hotspot allows me to watch netflix with no buffering…if u have slow speed issues it’s because u are around a lot of tmobile customers who are using data as well and the network is slow due to overcrowding…happens with alot of cellular companies not just tmobile