T-Mobile Unlimited Data Plan Discussion

[Tom and Maje]

It doesn't work in the Bahamas, but it works great in the Caribbean.

Maje

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

But AT&T and other carriers are dropping their 2G support entirely and using the space in their tower racks for 4G-LTE equipment, and the 5G equipment that is supposed to deploy next year. With some islands following US standards and others not...the coming year may bring a number of transitions and changes, fwiw.

Just to make it even more exciting (*sigh*) unlike the old days (last year) where an unlocked quad-band handset solved pretty much all problems 4G/LTE is on 22 bands. Some phones give you a good chunk of those. I don't know any that cover them all. As you say, good luck figuring out what you will find in the next country as we go through another round of upheaval that will make the US transition from IS-136 to GSM some years ago look like a tea party.

[hellosailor]

Some of the phone makers (HTC, perhaps LG, and Google's Pixel phones, and the new "Essential" phone if it is shipping) are all building carrier-agnostic phones capable of working with pretty much everything. The catch being, some of the carriers refuse to allow them to be used, because then you just might be able to walk away and not be a captive. Verizon is infamous for this, but hardly alone. TMob may be the most liberal, because they just want your business and don't care who you came from.

So, looking in the Wiki, where you can find out exactly which bands are used by each carrier in each country, and then looking directly online to see which makers are selling "developers" models and similar unlocked phones, can help with that. I think eventually the carriers are just going to screw themselves, as more people find out they can just buy "one phone to rule them all" directly from a phone maker, and not have all the bloatware installed as well.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by Wainui

Have TM but after 6 months cruising in Mexico got a text from TM stating that they were going to cancel the account for "roaming of the network" which is in Terms and Conditions.

We found the same fine print in the AT&T international contract. The salesmen didn't know about it and until they checked with the home office, were ready to sell us that plan for a 3-month stay in Canada.

Buyer beware.

My current dilemma is tethering. Most plans forbid it. I don't want to pay $30 or more per month for the privilege of occasionally using my laptop via my cell phone. I don't stream video and never come even close to my plan's max data. Sometimes it's just easier to do something on the laptop than on the phone (spreadsheets, typing a long e-mail, etc.)

We used to be able to get away with this on our AT&T and StraighTalk plans, but the new phones and/or SIM cards are now able to detect that it's not allowed and block it.

Anyone know of a plan that allows tethering?

[Pitchondesign]

Project Fi allows tethering.

[zboss]

I encourage everyone to download and install OpenSignal to their phones so we can track the signal quality. We have found it invaluable in finding a good signal. It can also differentiate between 2g,3G,4g... so at least you can find a good location with a good signal, even if your speed is slow.

You can also use the site Textise to browse using text only. It removes all the JavaScript and graphics before sending the page to you. Most pages are only 1 or 2 kilobytes.

So, even though T-Mobile is slow, it can keep you from having to buy a large BTC package.

https://www.textise.net/

[hellosailor]

Some of the AT&T plans allow tethering. I think you will find that the large carriers "all" allow it on some plans, but not on others. The older unlimited plans generally did not allow tethering because that would really blow "unlimited" out of scale.

Similarly the international rate/roaming plans are all based on your only "going abroad" for a limited time each year. Except for TracFone, who say "a minute is a minute" and apparently don't care where you are. (They charge "one minute" per text and per data as well, so perhaps not a good data plan even with their "free triple minutes" deals.)

There are also Bluetooth tethering apps, which allow your phone to tether via its BT connection. In theory a carrier could detect that by packet sniffing, but I haven't heard of that happening, FWIW.

[Kenomac]

Update on my T-Molbile International Unlimited roaming plan:

I'm being cancelled by this devious company after four months here in the Med and repeatedly being reasured by many T-Molbile reps that this wouldn't happen. What did I get for my additional $25 per month in international service charges.... absolutely NOTHING but extremely slow data service 278kbps. Being cancelled for excessive roaming even though I've only been roaming on the T-Mobile (Telekom) network. Lying thieves.... don't fall for it.

The plan has worked out well for my wife and daughter who spend less time over here in Europe, their phones are unaffected; but my wife never received the buyout money for her Verizon account she was promised ($275) even though all payments were made on time via an automatic credit card payment.

Just thought you all should know since I promoted this plan on the CF forum earlier this year acting as a crash test dummy.

Cheers

Ken

[Alita49DS]

$25 a month in addition? That seems to me to be crazy money.

A 12Gb valid for 12 months pay as you go SIM on Three UK is under £30. Alternatively, I get 20GB a month on Three for £13 a month. Contract . Data only. Who needs calls and text when there is Skype and WhatsApp?

The Three SIM not only works across Europe but in loads of other places as far apart as NZ and the USA. Obviously subject to periods abroad limitations. So if you are in a country for a long time get a local SIM.

It seems to come as a shock to Americans that one can also buy toothpaste when abroad. A data SIM is no different.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Alita49DS

$25 a month in addition? That seems to me to be crazy money.

A 12Gb valid for 12 months pay as you go SIM on Three UK is under £30. Alternatively, I get 20GB a month on Three for £13 a month. Contract . Data only. Who needs calls and text when there is Skype and WhatsApp?

The Three SIM not only works across Europe but in loads of other places as far apart as NZ and the USA. Obviously subject to periods abroad limitations. So if you are in a country for a long time get a local SIM.

It seems to come as a shock to Americans that one can also buy toothpaste when abroad. A data SIM is no different.

Alita, it seems to depend on where you are and what you have for an address. We have been denied purchase of a SIM card for lack of a residential address in the country. New Caledonia. I don't know what it is like in France. The UK may well allow it, AND it may also depend on which country is involved.

It was pointed out in Ken's other thread that one can use Skype to avoid some of the problems he's had.

Ann