YAMVNOT: Lycamobile - T-Mo MVNO - Unlimited Talk/Txt/Data* for $29/mo or cheap paygo

[SunnyD]

Because we're all so enamored with cutting our cell phone bills at what cost... this one popped up on my radar today.

Lycamobile offers T-Mobile prepaid (MVNO) service plans that are cheaper than pretty much any other T-Mo MVNO to date.

They offer:
Pay As You Go: $0.02/minute, $0.04/txt and $0.06/MB

Unlimited Talk & Text (no data?): $19/month

Unlimited Talk/Text/Data (100MB 4g then throttled): $29/month

Unlimited Talk/Text/Data (250MB 4g then throttled) + 250 international texts: $39/month

I've highlighted the major difference makers compared to most other MVNO's current offerings. They are also offering a promo until April 30th giving unlimited international calling (see T&C's for details).

Caveats you should be aware of:
#1 - Lycamobile appears to be a European-based company. Their customer service emails come from .uk email addresses. This may be a turnoff to some people.

#2 - They are an MVNO, particularly a T-Mobile MVNO. You will more than likely NOT get any roaming ability (voice or data) and be limited to T-Mobile's NATIVE towers only. Keep that in mind.

#3 - You can get a free SIM card, but the process is a bit funky. You have to put in your zip code and then select your address to "verify" it. This works best if you put in the ZIP+4 format (no dash), but the problem is the zip code field only lets you put in 8 digits! If you use Chrome, you can right click the zip code box, select "Inspect Element", and then edit the field size from 8 to 9 in the editor. Once you do that, you can put in all 9 digits and life is good. Check your spam folder afterwards for the confirmation emails.

 

[shortylickens]

Tmobile themselves offers a 30 dollar plan and it throttles at 5gb.

Go with that instead.

 

[shortylickens]

Tmobile themselves offers a 30 dollar plan and it throttles at 5gb.

Go with that instead.

 

[SunnyD]

Tmobile themselves offers a 30 dollar plan and it throttles at 5gb.

Go with that instead.

There are two sides to that coin. Some people want the huge data bucket, which the T-Mo plan is better for. Some people want voice/text without sacrificing the ability to have "unlimited" (but slower) data, which this plan is better for.

Some people, like my wife, would prefer the latter, while I would prefer the former. But you'd still have to pay $50/month for a talk and text plan from T-Mo, and it wouldn't be prepaid (anymore).

 

[Red Storm]

I never understood the 100MB data plans. If you want/need data, 100MB is nothing at all.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I never understood the 100MB data plans. If you want/need data, 100MB is nothing at all.

It's doable on an iPhone

 

[Red Storm]

It's doable on an iPhone

... It's "doable" on any phone, if all you do is check email, twitter, and that's it. You can't watch YouTube, surf the web, stream sports or movies, download/update apps or any of that stuff on such a limited plan.

 

[SunnyD]

... It's "doable" on any phone, if all you do is check email, twitter, and that's it. You can't watch YouTube, surf the web, stream sports or movies, download/update apps or any of that stuff on such a limited plan.

ftfy. "such a limited plan"

I never understood why people are so tethered to the notion of "4g or nothing".

It's UNLIMITED data. Do you really need to be streaming porn on your phone 24x7? The throttled speeds are perfectly fast enough for casual use on a mobile device.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

... It's "doable" on any phone, if all you do is check email, twitter, and that's it. You can't watch YouTube, surf the web, stream sports or movies, download/update apps or any of that stuff on such a limited plan.

No matter how much wifi I use, my Nexus seems to gobble data. Twitter for example must sync on an Android, while you can get away with push notifications only for an iPhone. So yes, in that sense the iPhone uses less data.

I traveled with my friend who did Fouursquare checkins internationally and added photos on the 100mb plan on his iPhone. I don't think I could manage that same usage on a Nexus unless I made sure I disabled background sync.

 

[Red Storm]

ftfy. "such a limited plan"

I never understood why people are so tethered to the notion of "4g or nothing".

It's UNLIMITED data. Do you really need to be streaming porn on your phone 24x7? The throttled speeds are perfectly fast enough for casual use on a mobile device.

I'm sorry but it's not. Throttling to 2G speeds is not unlimited. Show me some YouTube, streaming, app updates/downloads, Google web/maps searches, or web surfing on 2G.

No matter how much wifi I use, my Nexus seems to gobble data. Twitter for example must sync on an Android, while you can get away with push notifications only for an iPhone. So yes, in that sense the iPhone uses less data.

I traveled with my friend who did Fouursquare checkins internationally and added photos on the 100mb plan on his iPhone. I don't think I could manage that same usage on a Nexus unless I made sure I disabled background sync.

Here's your data gobbler Twitter, this is one month usage (total of ~2GB on mobile for this past month), updates every hour or two (don't remember which):

Please stop spreading FUD.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'm sorry but it's not. Throttling to 2G speeds is not unlimited. Show me some YouTube, streaming, app updates/downloads, Google web/maps searches, or web surfing on 2G.



Here's your data gobbler Twitter, this is one month usage (total of ~2GB on mobile for this past month), updates every hour or two (don't remember which):

Please stop spreading FUD.

And here's my gobbler Twitter from April 1 to today

The point is pulling data uses more than only push

 

[NikolaeVarius]

And here's my gobbler Twitter from April 1 to today

The point is pulling data uses more than only push

Holy deleted. 5.5 mb in 3 days. If you aren't careful, you might end up using up the ENTIRE INTERNET.








No profanity in the tech forums, at all.




esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[bonkers325]

And here's my gobbler Twitter from April 1 to today

The point is pulling data uses more than only push

your qualm is with the app and the lack of push notifications - this is completely unrelated to data caps and whatnot. also, you're using 2mb per day or 61 mb per month. lets say you get tweet happy and it triples, that's 183mb per month. i understand your concern, but fail to see the problem here..

 

[Red Storm]

I checked my total data usage also including Wifi. Of the ~17GB I've used this month, a whopping 11MB is Twitter related!

Anyway, back on topic, with a GV number T-Mobile's other $30 plan (100 minutes + 5GB data before throttle) is a much better deal for the same money.

 

[SunnyD]

I checked my total data usage also including Wifi. Of the ~17GB I've used this month, a whopping 11MB is Twitter related!

Anyway, back on topic, with a GV number T-Mobile's other $30 plan (100 minutes + 5GB data before throttle) is a much better deal for the same money.

And how much of that 17GB was doing things smartphones were realistically meant to be doing? (and no, tethering/hotspotting is not included)

Again, people's expectations out of technology is ridiculous these days. If you want to be watching multiple feature-length movies every week on a screen the size of your palm, fine. But I'm going to call you a moron for it.

And back on topic from the other end. Google Voice + T-Mo's other $30 plan is still useless for the person who talks for 3000 minutes and uses on average 300MB of data a month. Yes, those people exist - case in point: my wife.

So tell me, which one is the "better" deal? I guess it all depends on how you plan on abusing it, doesn't it? Thank you for your valued opinion. Now go away if you have nothing meaningful to contribute.

 

[Red Storm]

And how much of that 17GB was doing things smartphones were realistically meant to be doing? (and no, tethering/hotspotting is not included)

Again, people's expectations out of technology is ridiculous these days. If you want to be watching multiple feature-length movies every week on a screen the size of your palm, fine. But I'm going to call you a moron for it.

And back on topic from the other end. Google Voice + T-Mo's other $30 plan is still useless for the person who talks for 3000 minutes and uses on average 300MB of data a month. Yes, those people exist - case in point: my wife.

So tell me, which one is the "better" deal? I guess it all depends on how you plan on abusing it, doesn't it? Thank you for your valued opinion. Now go away if you have nothing meaningful to contribute.

First off, smartphones aka hand held computers are meant to realistically do a whole lot of stuff, tethering/streaming/downloading/uploading/surfing included. Having said that, none of it is tethering/hotspot. 10GB is Dropbox (aka my wireless file transfer system and picture uploader/downloader), 2GB is the Play Store, and the rest is a mix of streaming video/music, with other stuff.

With a GV number, you could use say Groove IP and then all your calls would be over data, not voice. The obvious benefit of this is that you have plenty of "minutes" for voice (free when on Wifi), or you could use that same resource for data related things. I'll take 5GB of data/voice over unlimited voice but only 100MB of fast data every time.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

And how much of that 17GB was doing things smartphones were realistically meant to be doing? (and no, tethering/hotspotting is not included)

Again, people's expectations out of technology is ridiculous these days. If you want to be watching multiple feature-length movies every week on a screen the size of your palm, fine. But I'm going to call you a moron for it.

And back on topic from the other end. Google Voice + T-Mo's other $30 plan is still useless for the person who talks for 3000 minutes and uses on average 300MB of data a month. Yes, those people exist - case in point: my wife.

So tell me, which one is the "better" deal? I guess it all depends on how you plan on abusing it, doesn't it? Thank you for your valued opinion. Now go away if you have nothing meaningful to contribute.

I used 15 gb of data last month. 11 gigs of it was music. I stream music all the damn time.

 

[s44]

And how much of that 17GB was doing things smartphones were realistically meant to be doing? (and no, tethering/hotspotting is not included)

I've used about 17gb in the last *week* without hotspotting.

Google sells HD seasons of Downton Abbey, and my GNex has a HDMI out to play 'em, so streaming a bunch of episodes over LTE certainly seems a thing it's realistically meant to be doing.

 

[SunnyD]

LycaMobile has extended their promo until June 30th.