T-Mobile - Free unlimited GPRS T-Zones

[yoyo25]

So is this just free internet using the browser in the phone, or can you use infrared/bluetooth to connect to your laptop / pda and also get internet access on there?

 

[UTmtnbiker]

Had T-zones about 2 months ago. Cancelled it. Whenever I hit the 'i' button, all I got was the "Please sign up to T-zones" garbarge and then the "YES/NO" prompt at the end of the page.

As of yesterday, whenever I connect, I now get internet (WAP). I've also configured it today to work with my PDA (HP 2210) via Irda (my phone doesn't have BT) and I'm getting true web pages with my PDA. I haven't called to get the free T-zones and it's not showing up on My Plan and Services, but if they charge me for it :frown:

 

[gsaldivar]

Originally posted by: yoyo25
So is this just free internet using the browser in the phone, or can you use infrared/bluetooth to connect to your laptop / pda and also get internet access on there?

The free T-Zones will work both ways.

 

[Chau]

i checked my tmobile account and it says i dont have free tzones.. it says:

My current optional services
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are no current optional services on your account

i have a samsung s105 and when i push the internet button, its not connecting via gprs, but its dialing up to connect to t-zones...so i think it's using actual minutes when it dails up, because the phone icon is active instead of gprs icon.. but right now its weekend so its free...

 

[richd111]

I checked my account, and it looks like I got this too.

I set up my laptop to use my phone as an infrared modem and connected to T-zones.

I did a speed check, and I got just under the 115k rated speed......

97k under that is. That's right, a whopping 18k.

Oh well, free and 2x the speed of dialing over the regular network is good.

 

[Busithoth]

This sucks!

CSR says my phone (pocket pc phone edition) isn't valid for this service.

I'm supposed to pay the $20/month for the same service.

kept using the term "for a more full experience..."

ass.

 

[salfter]

Originally posted by: UTmtnbiker
Had T-zones about 2 months ago. Cancelled it. Whenever I hit the 'i' button, all I got was the "Please sign up to T-zones" garbarge and then the "YES/NO" prompt at the end of the page.

As of yesterday, whenever I connect, I now get internet (WAP). I've also configured it today to work with my PDA (HP 2210) via Irda (my phone doesn't have BT) and I'm getting true web pages with my PDA. I haven't called to get the free T-zones and it's not showing up on My Plan and Services, but if they charge me for it :frown:

What username/password/phone number do you use to connect? I just bought a T610 and am trying to connect through a Bluetooth dongle on my notebook. The only thing I've seen from T-Mobile so far is a message with my phone number...do you have to call in and set anything up, or should it Just Work? Dial-Up Networking is asking for this info.

(I've had my notebook set up to connect to Sprint PCS through a USB-to-phone cable before...there was a three-digit (?) phone number you had to enter, but the username and password were left blank. Do you need to do something similar here?)

Edit: I found that by dialing *99***1# and leaving the username and password blank, I can connect. However, it seems that only HTTP (but not HTTPS), SMTP, IMAP and POP are getting through. SSH (how I usually check mail) is blocked. For sh*ts and grins, I tested my videoconferencing program...it didn't work either, but since T-Mobile is handing out IP addresses in the 10.x.x.x private subnet, this isn't surprising. Looks like it's

 

[ccchuck]

"I found an ISP in the U.S. that offered a dial-up internet connection for free, that did not require you to use gateway software. I then set up a dial-up connection on my laptop to this number and used my cellphone as the modem. Worked like a charm.

Now I am hoping that I can use the GPRS on the cellphone instead of the dial-up, and thus have mobile internet at any time...but we will see..."
===============================================================================================================

Were you able to do this? And thanks for your earlier help!

 

[lo5750ul]

Well now T-Mobile have changed the service from Included Web Browsing Free to Included WAP Browsing Free.

 

[MJGunn]

Anyone who was on the 2.99 1mb/300sms plan should NOT DROP IT in favor of this. We're getting the best deal of the bunch. That plan (which is no longer available) is also unlimited (t-mobile has just stopped counting data usage, not worth it since the 2.99 would have been the only one left with a limit), and we keep our 300sms, and we get 30mms (picture) messsages.

 

[Silex]

Got mine activated! Worked right when I got off the phone with the CSR (great guy btw, Albert was his name I believe). In any case, this thing is blistering fast when compared to CSD! Plus with CSD you can't d.l midlets whereas on GPRS you can. Anywho, trying to find my infrared dongle so I can try to get my laptop online through it....damn where is it...

 

[Growltiger]

Originally posted by: 5ayle
Here are some websites you can visit now that you have the internet on your phone.


In Phone URLs:
http://acegames.gsmhosting.net/wappage.wml#index
http://tagtag.com/113355
http://tagtag.com/mobilehub
http://www.jhonny.org/wap/index.php#main

Web URLs:
http://www.howardforums.com
http://www.jhonny.org

The jhonny.org site has some nice backgrounds, but I can't download them through the WAP site. I type in the pic #, but there is no "OK" button to submit the picture id as it says in the help area of the website. Anyone else have some luck?

 

[azrael69]

what number would one call to see if this can be activated for free?

 

[nativesunshine]

woohoo! i just called..and they've added it onto our plan..mine and my brother's.

he said it'll take about 2 hours to activate..so we'll see!!

 

[blahsome]

This is what my T-mobile web page currently says:


My current optional services
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Included WAP Access Free

and I've confirmed that I can get to T-Zones on my Sony Ericsson T610 phone.

Can somebody explain to me in detail what I can use it for? Browsing the net? Send e-mail messages? Are all these free? I'm kind of confused here. T-zone use doesn't count against my minutes, right?

Thanks!

 

[nativesunshine]

uh..ok..this is crap.

I just called again. It's free and unlimited only for if you want to dl ringtones or games or pictures..which cost money. And another thing..you can't PREVIEW your ringtones before you dl it.

so ia sked the guy..what's the point then, if i can just do all that from a computer? and he's like..well...this service lets you dl it directly onto your phone..w/o all the hassle of going on a computer.

If you want to access websites or emails..you still have to pay the 4.99 a month.

Bah..i knew it was too good to be true. There's always a catch somewhere.

 

[MJGunn]

Everything I've heard says thats not right. Check the howardforums, the t-mobile forum.

 

[badluck]

nativesunshine:

You can call T-Mobile 10 times and get 10 different answers. That CSR was wrong.

 

[passivex]

I *jumped* on this deal as soon as I heard about it and sure enough, the Tzone service has been added to my account. Like many of you I called multiple times and got different answers every time but here's what I learned:

The T-zone service that is being offered for free is basically the service that they had been offering for $4.99 per month (that is Unlimited Tzone). If you want more, they also offer the Unlimited TZone Pro service for and additional $9.99 per month. Here's a description of the two plans:

T-zones gives you unlimited access to the Mobile Web and your e-mail! Get the latest news, sports, and weather from leading providers like CNN and ESPN, and play the latest on-line games. We've got two add-on monthly rate plans. Sign up for t-zones through your T-Mobile handset or My T-Mobile!

Note: t-zones is an add-on phone service which requires a T-Mobile 'voice' plan. Learn about t-zones, then view all of our t-zones phones to find the right phone, rate plan and t-zones add-on feature.

Unlimited t-zones
(includes internet POP3 e-mail)
$4.99

Unlimited t-zones Pro
(includes access to corporate e-mail, contacts and calendar)
$9.99

I've setup this new Tzone service to check my email using POP3 and it works! Wow! Basically i pointed it to one of my POP3 accounts. TMobile will automatically download a copy of each new email you have and send it to your email-capabile mobile phone. The email looks like a simple SMS message with the FROM and SUBJECT field and, of course, the message. Sending a message with attachment will not work in that the attachment will be stripped from the email. Most people do not have enough space on their phone for attachments anyway.

There is about 5-10 minutes delay between the moment the email arrived in my email box and the time my phone actually receives it. My T610 has a *check interval* setting so I set it to 30 minutes (don't want to waste battery and bandwidth for crap I don't really use. That might change though as I continue testing this service). Alternatively you can set it to never check and initiate the email check manually from your phone.
Also, it looks like you can setup Tzone to *check* multiple POP3 accounts but I have not tested this option yet.

Regarding the Tzone service itself, I cannot connect to the Tzone service by pressing the TZone button (or the menu icon) on my T610. It tries to connect but always failed with the message:

A communication error has occured. Check your WAP settings.

I checked and checked, but the settings were whatever the defaults are. I can't even change the settings. I called TMobile about this and they said there is some problem with their data network in my area and gave me 50 additional minutes for the month. Bleh....if any of you have a fix, please let me know.

For now, just being able to receive new emails on my phone is good enough. I can't believe this is free! BlackBerry devices have been designed specifically for this task and they cost a lot of money (and are bulky). Yes, I know....the RIMs are more robust and takes attachments but who cares when you can get just emails on your phones for free! After reading the content of an email on my phone, I can determine if it is important enough for me to get my as to a connected PC to view its attachment and/or send the reply (haven't tried sending emails on my phone. It is possible but it might eat cost me in outgoing SMS).

 

[salfter]

Originally posted by: nativesunshine
uh..ok..this is crap.
I just called again. It's free and unlimited only for if you want to dl ringtones or games or pictures..which cost money. And another thing..you can't PREVIEW your ringtones before you dl it.

That would be lame. Fortunately, it's not true.

so ia sked the guy..what's the point then, if i can just do all that from a computer? and he's like..well...this service lets you dl it directly onto your phone..w/o all the hassle of going on a computer.

If you want to access websites or emails..you still have to pay the 4.99 a month.

I've browsed websites (non-SSL...port 443 (?) is blocked) just fine from both my notebook and my Palm with the connection through my phone. It's not the fastest connection in the world, but being able to call up nearly any website while you're out and about (product information when you're in a store, directions when you're on the road, etc.) is a Good Thing.

The SMTP, POP, and IMAP ports are also open, so you can send/receive email though those. (Still need to set up an IMAP server at home so I can check email that way...I currently have only an SMTP server set up and ssh in to read my mail with mutt.)

(As for the "hassle" of transferring stuff into your phone...the software that comes with the T610 blows chunks (it won't detect the phone through either Bluetooth or infrared), but the software that came with the USB Bluetooth dongle I'm using can transfer images and sounds onto and off of the phone with no problems.)

 

[Fermunky]

OK, here's the break down of it... 5 bucks a month for unlimited access to everything (excluding t-mobiles downloads) when you access it directly from the device itself (phone or pda that has gprs capabilities). Now if you're gonna use it as a modem, that cost extra. I pay 20 bucks a month for unlimited mb's. this gives me all the access directly from my phone if i want, or I can use it on my laptop and get unlimited gprs dial access, which is right now only a tad faster than your average 56k provider (40-60kb/sec on average)...

 

[straubs]

Originally posted by: Fermunky
OK, here's the break down of it... 5 bucks a month for unlimited access to everything (excluding t-mobiles downloads) when you access it directly from the device itself (phone or pda that has gprs capabilities). Now if you're gonna use it as a modem, that cost extra. I pay 20 bucks a month for unlimited mb's. this gives me all the access directly from my phone if i want, or I can use it on my laptop and get unlimited gprs dial access, which is right now only a tad faster than your average 56k provider (40-60kb/sec on average)...

I believe the point of this thread is that it's *NOT* $5/mo, it's FREE! If you were told $5/mo by a CSR, then you got a CSR that doesn't know about the free unlimited access being added to all t-mobile accounts. So "the break down of it" is already stated in the title. free, Free, FREE, *FREE*. Oh, and did I mention it's free? LOL

howardforums has info on this

 

[dezigner1]

Called last night and the first CS said, "Oh that's already been added to all Tmobile customer accounts." I even asked her if I could use it to place an eBay bid if I'm out and about... she said of course, as long as you don't download pictures or docs. Okay fine, I get my cell and press browser and it tells me to call CS. I call again and this CS tells me that phone works fine with this, but the free service is only to access the Tmobile site to dowload rings and games and they do charge you for each download. Sounds to me like this isn't ready for prime-time and the CS reps are confused!

 

[MJGunn]

Ok, you can access any wap site EXCEPT the t-mobile one (which is called t-zones). Yeah, I know, this doesn't make any sense to me either. You would figure they would ONLY let you access their site, in the hope that you would buy some ringtones or something. Anyway, when you hit the internet button on your phone, its pre-programmed to take you directly to t-zones, which is why you're getting the message telling you to call CS. Instead of hitting the internet button, go into the browser menu, and type in a specific address (I dunno, wap.yahoo.com, anything) that will work.

CS is all confused right now, which is surprising, since t-mobile's CS is usually fairly well informed and helpful.

 

[azrael69]

people who've called up to get it added, what number do you dial, and what do you say? (specifically...i don't want to be told that it's $4.99)