T-Mobile Announces Truly Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data | Hacker News Reader

T-Mobile Announces Truly Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data

newsroom.t-mobile.com

25 pointsSuraj-Sun44 comments

I'm currently on a very limited "unlimited" data plan with T-Mobile. I find it rather insulting that they would announce a new plan that makes the same claim. "For reals this time". That's all well and good, but they need to honor the deal they made with previous customers as well. Why would I pay an extra $20 when you lied last time?

Sorry, T-Mobile, Is it still truly unlimited if you have to pay extra to tether?

Worse, is it truly good to your 2+ year customers if you suddenly cut them off from tethering while they're traveling?

I still feel that $89 is way too high. With taxes and BS you're looking at ~$100/mo for a fricking phone.

I'm seriously considering Cricket at $55/mo (no contract) or the similar Metro PCS. But these are capped at ~2gigs. Of course, since I don't use much bandwidth and 2 gigs sounds good to me, that's probably why $100/mo sounds high.

I'm waiting until someone can bundle my life and provide TV, music, phone, home internet, mobile internet, etc for $300/mo.

I think that if you are bringing your own phone, the price is pretty solid. I'm paying $60 a month for my old plan with is 500 min, Unlimited Text and 5GB cap. If prices stay the same for plans I can switch to a comparable Value plan that has unlimited data instead of a 5GB cap.

Sounds like a solid deal to me.

You could also get a T-Mobile Monthly 4G for $30

I was hoping that this would be a data-only plan and that you could get it without a voice line. Unfortunately, this "unlimited" plan is just an add-on to a voice plan. I really want someone to offer $30-50 : 10GB / month service so that I can completely avoid the issues of minutes and SMS counts. :/

This just about covers you (search for "Great for video chat, streaming music/movies/TV, playing online games, and more"):

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

You still get 100 minutes of talk, but you get unlimited texts and "unlimited" 4G data (first 5GB at 4G speeds, then you get throttled). All this for $30/month pre-paid.

I use this when I'm in the U.S. for more than a couple of weeks at a time, T-mobile has the most flexible pre-paid plans for data that I've found. You need to call them or go to a store to buy more data though, their website doesn't accept foreign credit cards even though they allow you to choose your country.

Can you use that with the iPhone?

Yes, but when you first activate you have to go to the store and convince them to activate a SIM card (or just buy the cheapest phone if they won't budge). Since T-Mo hasn't spun up their 800MHz spectrum yet you won't get 3G on your iPhone, but you'll get some data at least until they roll that out.

I share doubts about whether their "unlimited" truly means unlimited, but I am also dubious of the "nationwide" claim. Don't zoom in too close on their coverage map or those vast swaths of comforting green (strong signal, yeah!) dissolve into pale yellows and whites (hm, maybe 2G, maybe nothing?).

T-Mobile already has an unlimited plan that they reneged on, why should anyone trust them this time?

It's the same in the UK. Although this time apparently it is truly "unlimited" according to No data caps, speed limits, or bill shock

I was on an "unlimited" plan here with a 3GB monthly limit... I could go over it but it was a 3 strike rule and then they would charge extra. I wish they'd do what Australia do and not let them false advertise. In Oz if it if 10GB then they must advertise as such.

I was on T-Mobile for a few months this year. There are large swaths of metro Boston and Cambridge where they have no coverage -- most of the Esplanade, Harvard Square, every MIT building I've been in, Route 2 from Alewife through most of Arlington. All of these places are fully green on their coverage map. So I don't even want to know what they mean by yellow and white.

Yes... T-Mobile coverage at MIT is almost non-existant. Once I walk outside of the main campus, I magically get reception again.

Hopefully this announcement is in preparation of the iPhone coming to T-Mobile next month.

Unlimited? There are limits all over the place:

- Signal quality.

- Phone performance.

- Network throughput.

A "truly unlimited" connection would have you downloading at ∞bps so I suggest both words in "truly unlimited" are slightly incorrect.

I think they mean unmetered.

---

I'm getting hammered for "snark" but I'm being serious. If you let impossible phrases like "unlimited" stand in marketing, people get the wrong idea, products are wrongfully sold.

I'm only this angry with T-Mobile because they've had the audacity to stick "truly" in front of it.

There's no need for snark, I'm pretty sure everyone knows what they mean by this.

Unlimited as in, yes, unmetered. Not "unlimited", with a 2.5pt footnote somewhere that says "Actually 5 gigs/mo"

There is a need for snark. Claiming unlimited when it's not is ridiculous doublespeak. It's lying.

They need to stop doing this, it confuses non-technical people. Advertise the limit clearly. Make it a big number if they need to grab attention.

..but in this case, there isn't one. FTA:

No data caps, speed limits, or bill shock

It's pretty explicit to there being no artificially imposed limits of any kind.

It's often this way. Once they have the customers, they introduce the limit, as the GP pointed out: the infrastructure has limits. Once they hit them, unlimited will disappear just as always.

Which they are free to do, as long as they let the people who bought unlimited keep it. Even freaking Verizon understands this (though they are making it slightly more painful).

If you buy the unlimited plan, you have every expectation to continue using it. It's still a net positive.

As is claiming that HSPA+ is "4G". T-Mobile is not rolling out LTE until next year.

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/119703-t-mobile-annou...

The GSM governing body sided wi T-Mobile on that dispute. "4G" has been and continues to be nothing more than marketing speak.

Could I replace my Comcast internet with this? Is there a way to buy a "modem" that will plug into my existing router via ethernet? Does anyone know?

Most cellular modems are USB devices, intended to be plugged into (laptop) computers.

You should be able to use something like the awesome ASUS WL-330N3G credit-card sized 3G router (http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/WL330N3G/), once 4G-capable versions become available. Which I really hope they will.

Of course, you could also replace your router with a 4G USB-capable one.

Could you point me to an example of a 4G USB-capable router with ethernet ports?

For some reason my searches are failing.

Look at the "Cradlepoint" brand, such as:

http://www.cradlepoint.com/products/mbr1000

I'm sure you can then find some similar offerings.

I use this one: http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?categoryid=218&#...

It has to be restarted every couple of days and the wireless signal is not very strong, but I found is acceptable for my usage.

You could use Windows Internet Connection Sharing.

Right-click the connection on your computer, share it, and then plug the ethernet cable from your computer into your router.

I did this once on Verizon Wireless when our DSL went out. I got a bill for $700 in data overages.

T-Mobile won't allow you to tether a phone that uses this package, so they presumably wouldn't allow another device to share the package.

Src: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/08/t-mobiles-service-to-...

They use SIM cards, right? Just pop the card in a 4G USB stick and you are done.

Sure, but that's against the rules.

Huh? How could there be rules against that? That seems weird. I'm not aware of any such rules in Germany. If you have a SIM card you can do with it whatever you want.

Well, I guess T-Mobile USA ain't the same. One of the rules you agree to when you sign up for this plan is that you won't use the SIM card in a modem.

How do they know? IMEI?

I've heard that they do deep packet inspection so if they see e.g. a desktop Chrome user agent, they know you're not on a phone. Sounds excessive, but it could be true. (And yes, you could probably find ways around that, but I'm not sure what the goal is here.)

If you want a portable data service for your laptop, this is not the plan for you. I was using Clear (Sprint WiMAX) for a while and it was relatively cheap and fast. Only downside is the limited coverage area -- check the map before you buy.

I have heard rumors that they use the TCP TTL field to detect tethering, regardless of device type. If you open a connection from a tethered device, the TTL field will be one count smaller than if the connection originated on the device itself. (This assumes that all devices being used have the same default TTL).

Ref: http://netmgt.blogspot.com/2011/03/detecting-obscuring-tethe...

There's Clear Internet http://www.clear.com/ but I've heard mixed reviews.

4G for home/office is at http://www.clear.com/devices/hubs

Clear internet is absolute crap. Simply not going to replace wired broadband.

Stop with the unlimited please. Give us a high limit.

They offer plans with 10gb limit too. Which seems like a pretty large amount of data to be using without tethering.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com