News - T-Mobile drops unlimited tethering on its Full Monty plans

[HEXUS]

Existing customers are safe but 'truly unlimited' is swept under the rug for new customers.

Read more.

[burble]

Existing customers are safe but 'truly unlimited' is swept under the rug for new customers.

There was a quote on The Register from an unnamed source at EE that said "Existing customers can continue to tether for the foreseeable future, but tethering is no longer included in the tariff for anyone signing up from today"

So I'm not sure existing customers are safe.

I'll see if my girlfriend (who works for EE) can clarify. She's not directly involved with the bods that decide on tarrifs but there might have been some sort of internal announcement.

[crossy]

This leaves mobile network operator, Three, as once again, the only firm to offer truly unlimited packages, inclusive of tethering, with unlimited internet plans available from £28pm.

and again, another UK carrier proves that it's only Three that really gets the idea of data usage - damn shame that their coverage isn't the best and customer support are atrocious. Bet Three's management are laughing their socks off that T-Mob's had to backtrack.

That said, T-Mobile tried to bump my new (tethering enabled) plan up by £4/month - and it's only very grudgingly that the manager I spoke to agreed to do me "a special discount" to bring it down to the price that I signed up for (which - as I pointed out to them - was also the price quoted on their website and in the in-store PR materials). Utterly clueless!

[burble]

and again, another UK carrier proves that it's only Three that really gets the idea of data usage - damn shame that their coverage isn't the best and customer support are atrocious. Bet Three's management are laughing their socks off that T-Mob's had to backtrack

The coverage should be pretty much identical for T-Mobile and Three as they're using the same masts in most cases with Ericsson doing the maintenance.

[kingpotnoodle]

I have no problem paying for what I use, the problem is a tiny minority use their 3G for everything and account for a disproportionate network load - stopping them is tough.

Personally I'd prefer to pay a small service charge (say £5 a month) and a tiny per MB charge (say 0.1p, so 1GB costs you around £1) so total is in line with the average for contracts. That way everyone pays fairly for what they use - they should ask each customer to set a monthly spending cap on sign-up and downrate their data to a inclusive 128Kbps standby service for the rest of the month or something.

But what do I know... I'm not most people and so I don't think I should get the moon on a stick for less than the cost of a Mars bar.

[Biscuit]

and again, another UK carrier proves that it's only Three that really gets the idea of data usage - damn shame that their coverage isn't the best and customer support are atrocious. Bet Three's management are laughing their socks off that T-Mob's had to backtrack.

That said, T-Mobile tried to bump my new (tethering enabled) plan up by £4/month - and it's only very grudgingly that the manager I spoke to agreed to do me "a special discount" to bring it down to the price that I signed up for (which - as I pointed out to them - was also the price quoted on their website and in the in-store PR materials). Utterly clueless!

You know what, after leaving three for t-mobile, i preferred the service offered by three. There isnt a lot in it and i think the phone customer service is better with t-mobile but the online services for 3 are miles better.

The coverage should be pretty much identical for T-Mobile and Three as they're using the same masts in most cases with Ericsson doing the maintenance.

Na, T-Mobile is better than 3, cant explain why exactly but my reception has been a lot better in more cases since changing.

Even if they are more expensive than the others, O2 have always been the best service and coverage for me. Few years since i left them though.

[Arthran]

Na, T-Mobile is better than 3, cant explain why exactly but my reception has been a lot better in more cases since changing.

My Three reception is awful after moving from a village to one of the biggest cities in the region!
Another thing most people dont realise is that three's speeds are heavily throttled and use a strange compression, this was explained to me by carphone warehouse of all places. He tried to explain that for every 200mb you download on a Three connection its roughly equivalent to 70mb on anybody else, Obviously I'm taking this with a massive grain of salt as I've heard nothing like this before.

But on my own tests I found that my Galaxy S2 connected to HDSPA+ which should theoretically be 24mb, Only gives basic 3G speeds. I did a speed test with full signal and got about 5mb if I remember rightly.

That's why Three offer unlimited Bandwidth, you simply dont get the speeds needed to actually use anything reasonably large over your connection.

[Clydonian]

see thats why I use giffgaff, It gives unlimited internet for just £10 a month with inclusive minutes and unlimited texts, I've always hated contracts always been prepay...

[Biscuit]

see thats why I use giffgaff, It gives unlimited internet for just £10 a month with inclusive minutes and unlimited texts, I've always hated contracts always been prepay...

Their policy doesn't allow tethering though does it?

[Brewster0101]

Their policy doesn't allow tethering though does it?

Simple fact is that the mobile network can not handle people using the mobile network for P2P sharing, streaming high volumes of video. I don't think 4G will change that either as in this country it won't be implimented correctly and the mobile companies will hold us to ransom to use it.

T-mobile last year tried to change all their unlimited data packages for new and existing customers, this is no surprise. T-mobile are not a company to trust. I will be going back to Three in 2 months, crap service but great service.

[Clydonian]

I don't think it does, I haven't had the need to do it though as of yet, but i can turn my s3 into a wireless access point rather than tethering the phone to another device, when I finally decide which tablet I am going to get I was just going to use another sim and use it as a second phone...

[Biscuit]

I will be going back to Three in 2 months, crap service but great service.

Come again?

[Brewster0101]

Come again?

Well we all know they have terrible customer service but they are the only ones that can provide a decent data service.

[Spud1]

Well we all know they have terrible customer service but they are the only ones that can provide a decent data service.

But even that is questionable

None of the UK networks can provide a really good 3G or 3G+ data service..we just don't have the coverage or the infrastructure to do it. I have had contracts with three, o2, voda, and currently orange, and the QOS varies wildly on all of them. It depends where you are, how busy the network is, what the weathers like..so many variables really.

TBH these days I just look at the best value for money and who can give me the phone I want - last time Orange won out (who's customer service has improved massively since they became EE) and have been really good to me this year - three are no where in the running as they are crazily expensive these days and refuse to stock any decent phones, voda are still just too expensive for what they offer, and o2 again didn't want to stock anything other then Android/iOS last year.

Price is one of the only things we can split the networks on at the moment imo, of which data tariffs form a part. I have unlimited on my current plan with a 1gb FUP, which is more than enough for me. I use my phone as a Wifi hotspot with my playbook too without problems..works a treat.

[matts-uk]

Basically I don't want to pay for the same thing twice. I hardly use texts at all and don't use mobile voice much, but when I do it's peaky to say the least.

What I do want to do is connect my many different mobile devices to mobile data and not die of boredom, waiting for mainly web pages and e-mail to download. Ideally I would have a contract which allowed me to trade texts and minutes for GB. None of the providers are willing to offer what I want and only Three seem to have any appreciation of what I want.

Customer service...Well you only really need it when you have something to complain about.

[Biscuit]

Well we all know they have terrible customer service but they are the only ones that can provide a decent data service.

Genuine question, have you had a particularly bad experience with them? I mean I had a few mediocre ones but nothing I would go as far as to say it was terrible