What the hell is wrong with T-Mobile?

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KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
1,750
82
91
Sounds like a great deal. Who do they lease from for the tower? Like Sprint or something?

Wish I knew more about the specifics ...also wish they had a set price unlimited data ...but they only have a pay as you go which can make your bill increase a lot more.

ie: if you don't use your phone much - a couple calls under 100 min for a month
and can keep it to less than 100 text messages -
and only use WiFi for data
this is the best
 
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XavierMace

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2013
4,307
450
126
Wish I knew more about the specifics ...also wish they had a set price unlimited data ...but they only have a pay as you go which can make your bill increase a lot more.

ie: if you don't use your phone much - a couple calls under 100 min for a month
and can keep it to less than 100 text messages -
and only use WiFi for data
this is the best

So it's the best cell phone plan for people who don't use cell phones. Got it.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,866
31,364
146
I use Ting for my Galaxy S4 (former T-Mobile GSM)
Average monthly bill has been $14.44 - usually only use Wi-Fi for data

If you want to help me out - here's my referral which supposedly will reward me for suggesting this

https://z67eqg3rp2.ting.com/

I like that Paymodel with a more diverse tiering of minutes, texts, data (which goes below 1gb)

I switched from Cricket to Project Fi two weeks ago because it will save me about $8 per month compared to my basic Cricket plan. I use about 20-40mb cellular data, send maybe 50 texts, and use under 500 minutes of talk per month. I hadn't heard about Ting before...maybe I will switch next month or something--I signed onto Project Fi for the $100 off a Nexus 5x (first new phone since 2010-11 and my SGS2 :D)

How is the coverage/what towers do they use? Cricket didn't work as well for me now on the east coast, as ATT towers have no access to my building at work. T-Mobile/Sprint/and of course Wi-Fi are fine using Google Fi.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,866
31,364
146
So it's the best cell phone plan for people who don't use cell phones. Got it.

with open Wi-Fi becoming more and more available and these services primarily defaulting to VOIP when they can, well, your comment doesn't make any sense.
 

cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
So it's the best cell phone plan for people who don't use cell phones. Got it.

Well it depends. Some ultra low users like me use my phone *a lot*, but it's 98% not using minutes/txt (even some voice calls are through WhatsApp, for instance) and I'm covered with wifi almost everywhere I go. So my phone gets heavy use every single day, for a lot of different things, I just don't need minutes or text and at most 250 MB of data.

The kicker is, Ting doesn't even work for me because of the $6 entry fee. When I was with H2O wireless I easily averaged about $6.50/month, although I have to be conscious of my data use and protect my data connection with a firewall so they don't accidentally go through when I don't have wifi, if I don't want them to. Now with Tracfone it averages around $10/month or so, but I don't use firewall anymore and my data is always on. I can't do this with Ting.
 

Staples

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2001
4,953
119
106
Ting uses Sprint towers. Having been a sprint customer since 2004, data works, it is just way slower than the bigger three carriers.
 

cronos

Diamond Member
Nov 7, 2001
9,380
26
101
Ting uses Sprint towers. Having been a sprint customer since 2004, data works, it is just way slower than the bigger three carriers.

The reason why Ting is mentioned in this thread is because it has a GSM version that uses T-Mobile network. I think Ting added GSM to their service since about last year.
 

BUTCH1

Lifer
Jul 15, 2000
20,433
1,769
126
My wife sent me a text, it took it 3.5 hrs to arrive, AND we both use T-mobile. Yea, T-mobile has slid WAY downhill.
 

KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
1,750
82
91
The reason why Ting is mentioned in this thread is because it has a GSM version that uses T-Mobile network. I think Ting added GSM to their service since about last year.

That's true about GSM - Ting originally used Sprint then added T-Mobile towers. If you have a newer dual-SIM phone you can use both CDMA and GSM and get it all under one bill - though believe you will have to pay an extra $6.00 to get both.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,866
31,364
146
That's true about GSM - Ting originally used Sprint then added T-Mobile towers. If you have a newer dual-SIM phone you can use both CDMA and GSM and get it all under one bill - though believe you will have to pay an extra $6.00 to get both.

oh that sucks. Guess I stick with Fi service. It's the same networks + wifi calling w/o need to pay for both networks and my plan will have me paying about $28 total per month with my typical usage ($37 if I use my full 1gb data)
 

KillerBee

Golden Member
Jul 2, 2010
1,750
82
91
oh that sucks. Guess I stick with Fi service. It's the same networks + wifi calling w/o need to pay for both networks and my plan will have me paying about $28 total per month with my typical usage ($37 if I use my full 1gb data)

I was just looking at that Project-Fi - they cover my area (Washington DC) with LTE pretty good apparently - nationwide though looks pretty sparse. It does seem pretty good for data prices and has the refund for unused data.

Weird - if they use the same towers as Ting I wonder why their coverage map doesn't look as good
 
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