News - T-Mobile slashes data allowance

[HEXUS]

Many mobile users to get half as much data as before.

Read more.

[cameronlite]

Well... it is a breach of contract isn't it? Unless there is some stupid clause...

[neonplanet40]

Vodafail done this last year and had to let a lot of people leave their contract early as they breached it.

Maybe the same here? Thing is I was actually considering tmobile for my next contract because of the higher data limits. Now I see no reason to use them :s

[nichomach]

+1 - I was thinking of shifting from O2, but not now.

Apparently T-Mobile do have a weasel clause in their contracts allowing changes to the contract with a certain amount of notice.

[bear jesus]

Don't you just love it when company's reduce the services you are paying for while keeping the price the same.

Well... it is a breach of contract isn't it? Unless there is some stupid clause...

I'm sure as with pretty much every other contract the company's lawyers will have built in airtight clauses for them to be able to do pretty much whatever they like.

[Iron Sights]

I'm on the 3gb plan, sucks to be me

[Arthran]

are all these mobile companies crazy, as tmobile/orange, vodaphone and o2 all mess with their data caps, Three are happily sitting at an unlimited usage situation, its mad! These companies seem happy to just push their customers over to three!

[cameronlite]

I'm on the 3gb plan, sucks to be me

No - it sucks to be the people that have recently signed up for contracts

[j.o.s.h.1408]

they can go to hell. going to see if i can get out of my contract. terrible,. they will lose LOTS of customers

[badass]

Well... it is a breach of contract isn't it? Unless there is some stupid clause...

The thing about clauses in contracts is they aren't always enforceable. Imagine they put in your contract that they could make any changes they like to it. They then change the contract to say that every price across the board is increasing 100 fold. That would almost certainly be considered unfair and everyone would be able to leave their contracts with no penalty.
If they have halved the data allowance whilst keeping the price the same, I think any reasonable person would consider that unfair. In all likelihood that means it's not enforcable and existing customers that are affected can leave their contracts without penalty.

[AlexKitch]

I've no intention to stay with O2 any longer than necessary.

I didn't buy a top end data-centric smart phone to be given a wrist slap for using a minor amount of data. I'm all for limits to prevent the small minority spoiling it for everybody else, but the limits need to be reasonable (~2Gb). The UK mobile industry seems to be going through some kind of backwards evolution in recent years, with plans becoming less and less generous for the same or more cost per month.

Three may have a sub-standard network to O2, but I'd still gladly switch right now.

[BobF64]

If they have halved the data allowance whilst keeping the price the same, I think any reasonable person would consider that unfair. In all likelihood that means it's not enforcable and existing customers that are affected can leave their contracts without penalty.

The requirements to terminate your contracts on such term changes require that you can demonstrate that you will be financially worse off as a result, eg its going to cost you more.

So, if your last 3 or 6 months worth of data usage was lower than the new cap, you arent worse off, and therefore cant just leave your contract.

Speculatively claiming you might want to use more data isnt sufficient, even Ofcom said this a while ago.

[miniyazz]

Well if it means you have to pay for a 3G dongle for your laptop because you can no longer watch videos on the move on your phone, you are financially worse off. I can't see it being enforceable for existing customers (i.e. they will surely be able to cancel the contract early). O2 avoided all this hassle when they adjusted their fair usage policy by keeping things the same for existing customers (lucky me )
Anyway I've now switched to 3 and the network is mostly worse coverage - it's odd, next to no 2G signal but 3G signal covers more area than O2. But it feels like latency is longer on 3 3G than O2 3G!

[mallett]

Well that's a massive kick in the balls.

I signed up to a 18 month contract before Christmas and the 1Gb data allowance was one of the main factors in my choice of network. I do hope they don't/can't enforce this on the existing customers like O2 didn't last year or I will not be best pleased!

Hello, 3...?

[Ben_LRS]

Well I've just had a fairly serious conversation with Lorna Rogan on T-Mob's cancellations line, asking to cancel the contract. I bought my phone through an e-tailer who only gave me 1GB usage, she has now upgraded this to the Web N' Walk Plus package, and given me unlimited texts for free, while confirming this package isn't being changed to 500MB. So at worst, all you Smartphone users, I would be looking to get a free contract upgrade, if not, talk about their Complaints Investigation Department. If anyone wants contact details, I have them all, just put a message on here

[chelseascum]

Like many others I chose T-Mobile when I got my new Android phone mostly for the 3Gb allowance. To see this now slashed to 500Mb is infuriating. I've submitted a complaint to OFCOM, on the basis that I was mis-sold the contract.