T-Mobile has spent the years since its failed acquisition by AT&T building its LTE network and launching new phases of its “UnCarrier” initiative. Today, the provider that started the industry trend away from contracts and handset subsidies is also getting rid of mobile data plans. From here out, it will offer one postpaid option: unlimited voice, data, and text. [More]
data plans
Report: T-Mobile May Let Customers Stream Video Without Eating Into Their Data Plans
By 10.29.15
Maybe you’ve had that moment, the one where you’re 47 minutes deep in a Star Trek: The Next Generation binge session on your phone (because you can’t be bothered to find a larger screen) and you suddenly realize you haven’t switched over to WiFi. Visions of your swiftly dwindling data plan may no longer dance in front of your eyes at such times if you’re a T-Mobile customer, if a new rumor proves to be true. [More]
AT&T Revises Data Plans: Lower Prices But Fewer Options
By 8.14.15
Why is the wireless industry so antsy? Not so long ago, it was all about giving customers a vast array of options so they could very precisely buy just the amount of data they want. Now, following Verizon’s recent simplification of its plans, AT&T is culling a number of its data tiers, which could result in savings — if you make sure to do some math before switching. [More]
T-Mobile Announces Family Plan Promo With More Data Than You Probably Need
By 7.14.15
How much LTE mobile data does your family (or just the unrelated people on your mobile phone plan) really need? 10 GB? 20? 40? It depends on what you do with your mobile device and where you use it, but most people don’t use that much. Today, T-Mobile announced new plans designed to compete with similar offerings from Verizon, but that include more data than most people could need. [More]
Sprint Doubles AT&T’s Data-Doubling Promotion
By 10.1.14
Over the weekend, AT&T announced a promotion on its biggest and priciest family plans for data: during October, they will double the amount of data that users on most expensive plans, starting at the 15 GB tier, get with their monthly plan. “Oh, yeah?” said competitor Sprint. “We’ll DOUBLE their double data!” [More]
AT&T Took Away My Unlimited Data, Says ‘Tough’
By 7.2.13
Brad stuck with AT&T Wireless through thick and thin, through the terrible dark days when iPhones could barely connect to the network in some metropolitan areas. He stayed partly because he signed up as a customer back when unlimited data plans were still a thing. Then he got an iPhone upgrade and AT&T took away his unlimited data even though he didn’t ask them to. He is sad. [More]
Straight Talk Cuts Off My Data, Will Only Explain Why In Confusing Doublespeak
By 3.20.13
Mike’s phone spent two weeks in the repair depot at Samsung. When it came back, shortly afterward his data stopped working. Oh, no! Would it have to go back for more repairs already? Well… no, that wasn’t the problem. The problem is that his mobile carrier, Straight Talk, has throttled his data access down to nothing. [More]
I Can’t Make My Son Use Less Data On HIs iPhone Without Giving AT&T More Money
By 3.15.13
Mark has a teenage son. His son has an iPhone. Like many teens (and quite a few adults, come to think of it) his son has trouble managing his usage on his 200-megabyte data plan. Most of the time he’s near wi-fi…but that’s only most of the time. Mark called up AT&T to see whether there was any way that he could lock down the phone from his account so it just can’t access the data network at all after reaching its limit. That would be a nice feature, wouldn’t it? Too bad that AT&T doesn’t offer a way to do that without somehow giving them more money. [More]
Here’s How People Have Successfully Used An iPhone On AT&T With No Data Plan
By 1.16.13
Earlier today, we shared the story of a grave consumer injustice: an AT&T customer who brought his own unlocked iPhone from three generations ago, but wasn’t interested in using mobile data. AT&T still mandates that such a smart phone have a data plan, though, and they caught him after nine months of wifi-only frugal bliss. Our readers, however, are always looking out for each other. Jon wrote in with one method that some rogue smartphone lovers have used to avoid having a data plan when they don’t want one. [More]
Verizon’s iPhone 5 Math: Using The Same Amount Of Data Faster Counts As More Data
By 10.17.12
We keep hearing about a wi-fi bug that leads to iPhone 5 owners racking up huge data bills when they thought they weren’t on the mobile data network. When Matt contacted Verizon about it, the ever-helpful customer service representative told him that it was just because the iPhone 5 is a 4G LTE device. This is probably the cause of many data complaints that new smartphone users have, but isn’t the case for Matt. He says that he hasn’t changed his browsing habits: using the same amount of data in a shorter amount of time doesn’t mean that he uses more data. At least, not according to the math that everyone except Verizon uses. [More]
Should Sprint Tell Me That I Could Switch To A Cheaper Data Plan?
By 9.11.12
Amy may be the first reader in Consumerist history to complain about being left on an unlimited mobile data plan. She has tethering on her smartphone, which lets her use her phone as a mobile Internet hotspot. Yes, apps exist that can help you get around this limitation. Officially, if you want to tether, you generally have to pay for a data plan that includes it. Amy was paying for a $30/month plan, but learned that she was grandfathered in, and a cheaper plan existed. Sure, the cheaper plan only includes two gigabytes of data, but she never uses that much anyway. It costs $10 less. She wanted to alert her fellow Sprint customers to this change, and complain that the company didn’t let her know she had an opportunity to give them less money in exchange for capped data. [More]
If ‘Share Everything’ Is The Future Of Mobile Plans, Then Count Me Out
By 6.29.12
Terry currently has a Nexus 4G from Verizon which is less than a year old. But he’s already looking to the future of mobile plans, and for longtime Verizon customers like him, that means a choice. He can pay full retail price for his next phone, or surrender his beloved unlimited data plan and switch to one of Verizon’s new “share everything” plans. He doesn’t like either option, and will have to leave Verizon. [More]
Wireless Companies Hope To Cash In By Pushing Everyone Into Unlimited Voice Plans
By 6.6.12
Since the iPhone ushered in the smartphone era in 2007, the average wireless subscriber is making fewer and shorter voice calls — resulting in a nearly 20% drop in average monthly minutes. But rather than give consumers the option to dial-down to smaller-tier voice plans, the titans of wireless are looking to give everyone an unlimited amount of talk. [More]
Is It Time For Wireless Companies To Offer Data-Only Plans?
By 6.4.12
When was the last time you saw someone under the age of 21 willingly make a phone call when texting or e-mailing was an option? And reports show that free messaging apps are growing in popularity. So at what point will society just give up on voice and text services and go data-only? [More]
T-Mobile Customer Demands Refund For Two Years Of Too-Slow Data… And Gets It
By 3.21.12
When Sam was having problems with his T-Mobile smartphone, he did what he thought he was supposed to do: call up support. The agent on the phone couldn’t restore his phone’s Internet connectivity, but they did try to upsell him on some new services. He’d rather have the services he was already paying for working, thanks. When he took the phone to a retail store for help, he learned the real cause of his problems: he’d been wandering around for two years with an old 2G SIM in his 4G phone. He thought that he should have the extra cost of a 4G data plan refunded to him, and T-Mobile acquiesced… but only after he launched an executive e-mail carpet bomb. [More]
Have You Gotten A Text From AT&T Warning You About Your Data Usage?
By 2.6.12
Back in July, we first wrote about AT&T’s plan to start throttling data for wireless customers with unlimited plans who crossed over into the top 5% of data users. And starting in October, those customers began getting warning texts from the Death Star. But in recent months, we’re seeing more and more complaints from people who are receiving these texts but whose data usage isn’t terribly high. [More]
AT&T Hikes Data Plans' Caps & Costs
By 1.19.12
If you plan to switch to AT&T for a new smart phone or wireless tablet contract, do it now. After January 22, AT&T’s monthly wireless data plans get more expensive by $5. If it’s any consolation, you do get up to one additional gigabyte of data. [More]
I Want A Smartphone That Doesn't Sneak Off To Slorp Data In The Wee Hours
By 11.3.11
The point of having a smartphone that can use wi-fi networks is so the device uses less data, right? Especially at night, when you’re at home snoozing, enveloped in the comforting waves of your home Internet connection. Yet Anthony’s phone and his father’s phone sneak off, accessing the mobile data network in the wee hours of the morning and pushing them over the limits of their T-Mobile data plan. They could just turn the phones off at night, but this is far from their only problem with these phones. Far. But T-Mobile won’t let them have different, functional phones or cut them loose. [More]
