T-Mobile drops some overage charges in favor of bandwidth throttling
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 28th 2010 9:07PM
posted April 28th 2010 9:07PM
Well, it looks like T-Mobile has some good news and some bad news for customers using its 5GB webConnect data plan. The good news is that the carrier will no longer be charging its $0.20 per megabyte overage fee for any data used beyond the 5GB limit, thereby effectively making the 5GB plan an unlimited plan. The bad news is that in place of an overage charge, it will be implementing bandwidth throttling on any data used on top of the standard 5GB, although it's not saying exactly how much it will slow things down. Customers using T-Mobile's basic 200MB monthly plan aren't left out of the changes either -- while they won't see any bandwidth throttling, they will see their overage charges cut in half from $0.20 to $0.10 per megabyte. Both changes are apparently effective immediately.
Sounds a lot more fair than the overage charges. Another reason T-Mobile is becoming a worthwhile carrier and why I'm going to consider jumping to them, from AT&T, as soon as my contract is up.
@bangbang023 Been with them for 6 years and they just keep getting better...
True true, I always over 10gb a month and T-Mobile never slows the connection or adds any overage charges. All I get is a text saying that I was over my 10gb and my connection speed would slow down... :-D
@bangbang023 Agreed. It was a mistake for me to switch to AT&T in the first place; T-Mobile has better prices for their plans, and now, amazing phones to go along with that.
@bangbang023
I too was considering jumping to AT&T because more unlocked phones supported their 3G frequencies. As soon as I found that my phone of choice (Xperia X10i) operated on T-Mobile, I bought the phone and saved myself the hassle of opening a new line of service.
@needmoregigs
Watch out nokia N8, it has penta-3G (AWS supported).
@bangbang023 Yah if it wasn't for the fact that T Mobile's phone select sucks ass hardcore and the fact that the areas where their services suck are weird. (downtown Minneapolis and I found a nice deadzone. Another in Eagan, another in Burnsville, another in Bloomington, another in St Paul, etc.) T Mobile has a LONG way to go.
@John Doe See, I think they have a better selection of phones, now, than AT&T. This only happened in the past 6 months, though. That's why I went with AT&T - they had better hardware, at the time (5 years ago until 6 months ago).
@John Doe I will say I'm in the same areas as you and with my 2G BB I did notice some weak spots and I used UMA mostly in those areas. However, after making the transition to a 3G BB I have noticed consistently better signal with no drops in those areas. Might be worth to give a 3G handset a shot.
I honestly thinks that's pretty fair.
Think*
This has no effect for me....lets get the HP Palm Pre Plus on T-Mobile!!
@TheSunman89
actually its the HP Palm Pre dv3492vx now
That overage charge is still double Sprint's ($0.05/MB).
Besides w/Sprint if you're in a 4G city you get unlimited data for same price. No overages. No throttling...
But to each there own...
@skemme There's not that much 4G coverage, though....
@iheartgadgetz there's not much t-moble 3g
@ienjoysoup08
It's there if you happen to live in a covered city. The problem I have seen, at least with my nexus one, is that building penetration of the 3g signal seems to be poor. I can get it outside my house but not inside my house for example. Same with the average mall. Always seems to work in the car though.
I don't find it too bothersome though because if I find myslef inside theres a decent chance there's wifi somewhere.
@iheartgadgetz
Not yet. Sprint's 4G coverage will hit full swing soon. And as above poster mentioned, no data caps, at ridiculous faster speeds no less.
@Scape3d I love Sprint and I can't wait for their 4G, but T-Mobile plans on rolling out HSPA+ to most of its 3G coverage area by the end of the year (I think). HSPA+'s theoretical 21Mbps trumps WiMAX's current theoretical 12Mbps (or whatever it is).
@bombastinator I have T-Mobile on a Nexus One in the Bay Area and it is swiss cheese 3G coverage. 2G I am almost always fine but 3G I'm f-ed.
@ienjoysoup08 There's still more T-Mobile 3G than Sprint 4G
@skemme
Sprint's 4G is slower than AT&T's 3G, and I believe but can't remember for sure, T-Mobile's 3G as well (T-Mobile's is slower than AT$T's, though). So if you want to say you've got the "4G" just to say you've got the "4G", have fun with Sprint. But that's like buying a turbocharged Yugo that still can't keep up with a non-turbocharged Hyundai just so you can say your car has a turbo.
Er... "their"...
I still don't know how some can go over 5GB in a month.
For the past 3 months, I've only used up to 600 something mb download and about 200mb upload.
@MNX1024 You may not qualify as a "geek" then, ;-)
@MNX1024:
The only way I can see someone going over 5Gb is by tethering. In the last 18 months I've used 4.7gb down and 265mb up.
@MNX1024 I assume there's going to be media or some such involved. Pandora can eat up bandwidth surprisingly quickly. I've also got this neat little app called PhoneMyPC that allows me to access my windows box in real time with full screen control. That thing can REALLY chew up a connection. I frequently move to wifi to get a better frame rate on games like torchlight because it saturates the download connection.
@Eli Haj very very easy. considering 4G is capable of 10Mbps. So 166Mb of daily allotted use will be done in err 20seconds or less?
These caps make mobile 4G and 3G pointless.
They also neglected to mention the prices went down $20/month -- $39.99 is now unlimited!
@smartphish THANK YOU! The real story here is that a major US carrier is charging $40 for unlimited data (throttling notwithstanding). Can't believe that was not mentioned in the main article.
@smartphish
$40 applied to customers who have qualified calling plan, or you'll pay $50 (this reminds me the old Total Internet datacard plan).
I am pretty close to get it after datajack switched to CDMA and add 5GB (instant account ban).
Screw datajack!
@smartphish
take that, metropcs?
@smartphish
I just went to the T-Mobile site and it's $30 more for unlimited web (e.g. $49 unlimited talk, $79 unlimited talk+text+web), which is the same price as AT&T's unlimited web.
@zangetsu2
We're talking about stand-alone data lines.
Yeah, that's what Wind Mobile offers in Canada for $35 a month, unlimited data, but they reserve the right to throttle you after 5GB if the network is congested. They are also AWS like TMob. I've went over the past 2 months with my Nexus One, but no sign of slowdowns yet.
@pissshivers
I'm on unlimited with Bell for $30 on my Pre, gotta love corp plans.
@pissshivers
Wind customers should rejoice because most of T-Mobile 3G phones will work, or any band IV (AWS) UMTS devices.
Watch out N8 though.
I am with Sprint so i already have a cheap plan, but this web connect deal is very nice! I almost went to Tmobile, i am getting closer every day!
That's nice. Here in Spain Vodafone does the same, but with a small difference: After the 4GB limit they throttle down your connection only if there is network congestion. :D
@Endeavour1934 and thats fucking disgusting.
@Endeavour1934 Spain is such a crappy country in terms of cell phone expense (meaning it is high) it's up their with the US and Canada, and I don't really understand why.
I know it's kind of a stretch comparison -- but if verizon can bring fiber optic and give people 30mbps (both ways) and higher connections straight to their front door, then why can't these providers do the same thing wirelessly?
@DoctarPeppar Wireless is a shared connection, unlike FTTP. There is limited bandwidth that must be shared between all users connected.
@DoctarPeppar They can, and are, with WiMAX/LTE rollouts... you'll just have to wait a year or so for it (although I have 4G access via Sprint, which uses WiMAX near Washington D.C.).
@DBG
Didn't sprint say that there were going to be absolutely no unlimited 4g plans at first and rates were going to be more though?
@DoctarPeppar
Actually it's the exact opposite, Sprint 4G network is truly unlimited and costs the same as their 3G, at least for the Overdrive & their 4G usb dongle
still doesn't top sprints dual band 3G/4G. Dnt mean to sound like a hater. N if you just wnt internet. Nt regarding the covrage area. Relaibility... N speed then tmble wld be the way to go because of a cuple of bucks cheaper. Still mobile internet really needs to be mobile. Like nation wide mobile. I wana be able to travle frm my house in dallas. All the way to austin n sanantonio with no interuption.
@saddam3 Vowels are your friend, don't be afraid of them. But I agree about Sprint.
@saddam3
T-Mobiles call quality and network stability absolutely destroys sprint according to consumer reports. You should check them sometime. Also HSPA+ has been tested in Phili and was found to be faster then Sprint 4G
@Shakarak There was a comparison recently, I'm sure I saw it here, that pretty much concluded that Sprint's 4G was still slower across the board than AT&T's 3G, and most of T-Mob's 3G spots. I wish I could find the link.