T-Mobile backs Ubuntu smartphone | Hacker News Reader

T-Mobile backs Ubuntu smartphone

zdnet.com

69 pointstanglesome57 comments

I have a $30/mo unlimited (5GB at 4G) data/messaging (100 min talk time) no-contract plan with T-Mobile and I use Skype for lots of calling. Works great for me in LA. Almost always have LTE access. No problems whatsoever.

http://consumerist.com/2013/06/07/t-mobile-has-a-30-unlimite...

This just makes me like them even more. Competition is forcing them to actually think about ways of making mobile phone/data service not suck.

Wow! How much are you paying each month after fees, taxes, etc? I have the same service with AT&T, except I get 700 minutes a month. But I'm paying about $90/mo.

Your service includes tethering, right?

I have the same plan. Tethering is an additional $15/month, for a total of $45. Still a far cry from $90. I use it in Portland and the service is great. (Total after taxes is $48.50)

May I ask, how much do you pay each month after taxes and fees? (Assuming you opted for tethering.) Something like $45 + $10 taxes/fees?

Normal sales tax only. No other taxes/fees - they're all included in the basic rate. This is generally true of prepaid plans across all US carriers.

T-Mobile prepaid plans are great in that regard. I only pay the New York sales tax on top of the quoted price (8.875% or something). My parents were on AT&T and they were paying close to $15 in mysterious fees + taxes per line, for dumbphone lines without data plans. I convinced them to move to T-Mobile prepaid, seems to work well so far.

I don't pay T-Mobile for tethering on my Nexus 4 on the $30 plan. It works fine.

How much do you tether? And to what sort of devices?

The problem I have with T-Mobile is their customer service reps are so poorly trained.

So depending on who I speak with, I am told I either need to pay the $15 for tethering or not. I pay it as I am a bit afraid to drop it never to have it return.

So can you tell me more about how you much you tether, and how often? Or if T-Mobile has ever given you anything official about your tethering being okay?

I too tether without paying (Nexus 4, to my laptop). I don't usually do it too heavily and until recently hadn't had any trouble from T-Mobile.

When I moved into my new apartment I used it more than usual (maybe 2-3 GB over a few days) and they started redirecting my traffic to a "Pay for Tethering" site. It's just user-agent based though so very easy to circumvent. Other than than I have had no issues.

Never anything official, and I do it rarely, so it doesn't really change my access pattern. I only tether when I'm in a coffee shop and the wifi there is bad. I'm not the sort of user that streams Netflix via tethering or something, although I know those people exist.

Tethering plans are such robbery in broad daylight. I don't care what their excuse it. You paid for a certain amount of data, you should use it however you want.

If you get a unlocked Nexus 4 from the Play store, then you don't have to pay extra for tethering. 30$ means 30$, there is no additional fees, taxes etc. Thats the benefit of prepaid plans, you know exactly how much you are paying.

that's not really true, T-Mobile blocks tethering by sniffing HTTP user agent strings too. So if you are tethering to a tablet, then it will work fine. It won't if you are tethering to a laptop (you can spoof the UA string but you will end up receiving all mobile websites on your laptop - which kind of sucks and kills productivity).

I'm using my nexus 4 to tether my laptop almost daily with no issues in Seattle.

Hmm, Mine is a nexus 4 too. May be it happens because i'm on a plan with contract (even though the device wasn't bought on contract).

Thank goodness for VPNs.

I don't doubt you're wrong but I've been tethering my galaxy nexus with the exact same plan he mentions with no issues what so ever. I sometimes have 2-3 devices connected to my phone.

re all the other 'not me's here:

I had no problem for about two months of almost daily use (train commute), then I started getting my HTTP browser pages redirected to a tethering upsell page. HTTPS still worked, as did e.g. imap, dropbox, skype, etc, but I haven't personally played with it enough to find out if it seems to just be the user agent. The HTTPS-everywhere extension will probably help significantly with this, if you're looking to evade, if that's all they're doing.

makes me wonder, is there even anything else that they can do to block tethering apart from UA sniffing? given that the phone is unlocked and doesn't have any carrier's crapware in it.

Definitely. Since it's part of the contract that tethering isn't allowed, and (I assume, don't remember) that they can 'terminate service' for anyone at any time for any reason, they could: watch the pattern of traffic to identify well-known desktop apps, completely disconnect the worst 0.1% of offenders on the (very likely) assumption that they're guilty, and demand they pay up. Even a VPN won't hide you there, unless you have something that defeats traffic analysis (a definite possibility, but not a normal tool either, afaik).

On my pre-paid plan they assured me that tethering is absolutely fine. They give you 5GB and you use it how you like. I had a long discussion with a well-versed rep at a store on this issue and they were very forthcoming with it. You can go through 5GB pretty quickly on tethering and you end up on 2G speeds the rest of the month either way it doesn't matter to them.

$30. Pay online and there aren't any taxes (yet), and there aren't additional fees because it's prepaid. Additional minutes are 10c and last for 3 months+ depending on how many you buy.

It does not include tethering. I'm trying to find a way around it simply on principle, but you can add it for $15/month. (edit: others mention it seems to be based on user-agent sniffing, this backs up what I've seen so far)

I'm very happy with it so far. Much cheaper, and a bit better customer service overall than I had with Verizon.

I also use this plan. So far its been great.... However VoIP calling on a Nexus 4 is horrible. I believe this a codec issue? I just end up buying extra credits when I go over. Even with that it's been significant savings.

I got the same plan when I bought my Nexus 4. It's been pretty great so far, my only problem being that the entire plan will shut down if you go over your 100 minute allotment (so be careful).

It won't shut down, it will just bill you at a rate of 10 cents for each additional minute used. I usually keep some extra money in my T-Mobile balance so this has never been an issue on the rare occasions I go over 100 minutes.

I've looked for the terms of the plan, but have never been able to find them. I read $0.10/min overage, but what are the details on that? I almost never use 100 minutes, but I'd like not to be crippled when I do.

I think the solution is to keep a bit of extra money in your account, so that they can bill you $0.10/min after you go over. I haven't gone over 100 minutes yet (Skype) so I don't know what happens, but I keep $30 floating in my account.

I like T-Mobile because they are strive to put the consumer first. They may not have the widest coverage, or the fastest speeds, but they usually do a good enough job at coverage/speed. Along with this, their customer support is the only cell phone company I've ever had a pleasant experience with. They are also trying to actually advance the cell phone market for the better, unlike most other companies trying to squeeze it for all it's worth and to hell with the future.

Is there now a realistic scenario for them funding Ubuntu Edge?

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge

I don't get it; there seems little upside to that venture, when they could fund a designer and manufacturer that has a record (Re: Google and Asus, LG, etc). You should be able to slap the OS in anything.

They will do that if they fail:

> If we don’t reach our target then we will focus only on commercially available handsets and there will not be an Ubuntu Edge.

Is Ubuntu going to accept blackbox baseband stacks and microsd card blobs? Would be nice if they actually made an open phone but I highly doubt that will happen. If this was a completely open project I'd give them all my money but looking pretty feeble. I can just customize android and boot tiny debian whenever I want what's the difference? yet another box full of firmware we can't touch unless it's to reverse engineer and analyze it's frightening insecure writable memory.

Ubuntu is going to use the same driver blobs that Android does.

I haven't seen an SoC with a binary driver for the SD card since the Zaurus's 2.4 kernel. What are you referring to here? I'm not even sure that SDMI is supported by all MMC/SD host controllers anymore.

I like T-Mobile as a company, and their prices are great. But their network is ridiculous.

Here in NYC I don't have any service inside many buildings. Many areas are EDGE only. In Williamsburg, where I live, there are lots of holes in their coverage where I have no service; and that is outside on the street. They also have serious service outages occurring surprisingly often. I shudder to think what the coverage is outside metropolitan areas like NYC.

While complaining about data rates is one thing, a side effect of the bad coverage is that my phone spends a huge amount of power just adjusting itself to the signal. In Europe I am used to charging my iPhone a couple of times a week; here, my phone is dead by the end of the day.

Really? I have great service with T-Mobile in NYC, including Manhattan and Williamsburg. In many places with crowds of people, my friends who have AT&T aren't able to get service while I still get great HSDPA reception.

Just curious, what hardware are you using?

iPhone 4.

Has anyone else installed Ubuntu for phones? Am I the only person that finds the interface beautiful but useless? Absolutely nothing about it seemed intuitive.

I haven’t tried it, but there is generally no need for interfaces to be intuitive, as long as we use these interfaces in the long term. On the contrary, it is often preferable to have a less intuitive but more powerful interface which lets you get your stuff done quickly rather than an intuitive interface that forces you to spend longer on trivial tasks; especially if the ‘interface’ in question is the phone you use daily for 2+ years.

Of course, this implies that Ubuntu for phones actually lets you get stuff done quickly (after a while of getting used to it), rather than being unintuitive and useless.

I can use it, my wife hasn't a clue. For the first time in my married life I have text message and email privacy.

Could she use it if she spent an hour reading the manual? (Is there a manual?)

Probably, but she's an iPhone user and as such has no understanding that there might be a manual for a mobile phone. It either 'just works' or it doesn't.

Ubuntu Touch on my Nexus 4 is the only mobile OS I use. The interface takes getting used to and is beautiful. I also like the fact that it over heats so much that, when rested in my jacket pocket, it keeps my left nipple nice and warm.

Seriously though, each week it seems to get better, and there's nothing like having apt-get on your phone. Hopefully Touch will be a success and help introduce more people to Linux. (I know Android is Linux but it doesn't feel like Linux)

Jailbroken iPhone users and N900 users would definitely agree that apt-get is a must have if you're a dev/geek.

Ubuntu Touch on my Nexus 4 here. As a previous user said, takes a bit of getting used to, but it is the only thing I use now. I still have an old Galaxy Nexus with Android lying around, but it hasn't been turned on in weeks. I'll probably flash that to Ubuntu Touch as well and give that to the wife.

The phone you want, on the network you don't.

AT&T's getting an Ubuntu phone too?

(In all seriousness, T-Mo US's network is fantastic around the OKC area. Only complaint is that LTE can occasionally be a tad slower than HSPA+, but both are still quite fast.)

The network has been great for me in Nashville, TN; North County, CA; and most anywhere in CA. I haven't used other networks, but I've never been disappointed. I only had issues in Kauai, HI years ago, but their coverage map would suggest that they've developed their network there now.

I've been with T-Mobile since it existed and it is awful outside of cities. And often even awful in cities if you're surrounding by a lot of buildings.

I don't doubt there are coverage issues, but I don't think any carrier is immune. Verizon may get close, but I'd have to pay 4x the cost. I was challenging "network you don't," while T-Mobile receives a lot of praise for its value.

Eh, I'm on T-Mobile in NYC. It's not like they are mind blowingly great, but I get unlimited data, unlimited texts and 100mins of calls for $30 a month.

At that price, it's definitely the network I want.

I was under the impression that the Edge wasn't going to have an AWS-capable GSM chip, which makes this announcement really confusing for me.

The ubuntu edge phone that's being crowd funded and 3rd party phones running ubuntu mobile os aren't the same thing. Tmobile is joining the CAG for ubuntu mobile OS, not backing a particular hardware phone.

This isn't talking about the same phone.

Although it would be funnier if it were. The Ubuntu Edge for the network with more EDGE (2G-only areas) than anyone else!

I like T-Mobile, but their network is sadly behind in many areas. It's also suffering from capacity problems in my area now.

Oh, they're just joining the advisory group. Clearly didn't read the article closely enough.

Hmm, so I guess (assuming Ubuntu ever gains traction in the mobile space -- ha, ha) T-mo just wants the option to find a hardware partner one day and put Ubuntu on some new phone in partnership with them.

I love T-mobile and the plans they offer. Their coverage and HSPA & LTE has been excellent in the DFW area.

T-Mobile's network coverage isn't exactly stunning, but if you have a phone that supports wifi dialing (which I think currently means android and winphone?), then you're on the t-mobile network whenever you have wifi access. That helps to make up for their lack of coverage, especially when travelling abroad.

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