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T-Mobile temporarily drops its prepaid unlimited data plan to $50
T-Mobile is the latest carrier to discount its prepaid unlimited data plan. For a limited time, the company is offering unlimited talk, text and data for $50 per month, which is $10 less than its T-Mobile Essentials Prepaid plan. The move comes after rivals Verizon and AT&T both recently knocked a few bucks off of their prepaid unlimited plans.
Verizon will give rural customers more time to find new providers
Recently, Verizon sent letters to around 8,500 customers living in rural areas that informed them their service would be cut off as of October 17th. Verizon claimed that those customers were using enough data while roaming outside of the Verizon network that the company's costs exceeded the fees being paid by the users. Well, there was, understandably, quite a bit of backlash over the letters and Verizon has now walked back both its deadline and its hard cutoff.
Verizon's always-on throttling is an affront to customers and net neutrality
Well, it was nice while it lasted. Today Verizon (the biggest carrier in the US) announced it was doing away with its simple and fair unlimited wireless-data plan and complicating things by instead offering three plans. Two of those cost more, and all three come with compromise. Customers who pick the cheapest plan can have their data speeds throttled at any time. Video won't stream above 480p, and tethering data is limited to the ludicrously slow speed of 600Kbps. Meanwhile, opting for the more expensive plan limits you to 720p video on phones and 1080p video on tablets, and you'll only be throttled if the network is congested and you've used more than 22GB of data in one billing cycle. (The third plan is aimed at business customers.) This is a big change from what Verizon announced in February, when it surprised just about everyone by bringing back unlimited data. As a reminder, the big US wireless carriers killed unlimited data back in 2011 and started moving customers to tiered plans, wherein you paid for what you used. But Verizon's new unlimited plan that came out earlier this year was blessedly simple: There was one plan, your data speeds were only throttled if you both went over 22GB and Verizon's network was congested at the time, and you got a full 10GB of LTE tethering data every month. It wasn't a cheap plan, but it probably was the most straightforward wireless option with the fewest compromises out there.
T-Mobile's unlimited data plan loses edge after $5 price hike
The cost of T-Mobile's One Plus unlimited data plan just went up $5. The add-on to the company's basic unlimited plan is now $10 per month bringing the total monthly cost for a single line to $80.
AT&T's $70 bundle pairs unlimited data with 60 TV channels
First, it gave Unlimited Choice customers unrestricted mobile data, then it tried to lure people in with free HBO. Now, AT&T is attempting to win over more customers by sweetening its mobile deals even further. Today the company announced a brand new package for its Unlimited Choice customers, offering over 60 DirectTV channels for only $10 more a month than the regular Unlimited Choice bundle.
T-Mobile quietly retires its 'Free Data for Life' iPad promotion
With all the carrier pricing battles going on these days, T-Mobile has quietly scuttled its "Free Data For Life" promotion, which offered a decent (by 2013 standards) 200MB of cellular data per month for new iPad owners who activated their devices on its network. A T-Mobile support page says the promotion is no longer available as of May 7th, 2017, but anyone who signed up prior to that date will still be getting a 200MB monthly allowance from T-Mobile for as long as they keep the device.
Sprint kills its 'half your bill' promo in favor of $50 unlimited plan
Sprint is going to axe its "Cut Your Bill in Half" promo. Until further notice, the carrier is offering something different: $50 for "unlimited" talk, text and data for a single line, $80 for two, $100 for three and $120 for four. The company's chief marketing officer Roger Solé described this as a response to customers' apparently overwhelming decision to use its existing unlimited plans. By his count, some 90 percent of subscribers were signed up for the unlimited plans. The aim, Solé says, is to declutter Sprint's service offerings. But honestly, this is Sprint trying to sugarcoat the removal of its deeply discounted plan.
AT&T is giving free HBO to some unlimited wireless customers
AT&T has another offer in its pocket to get customers signing up for its new unlimited data plans: free HBO. If you sign up for one of AT&T's "unlimited plus" plans, the carrier will give you HBO access, either through the HBO Go app or adding it on to your existing cable plan. If you're currently paying for HBO through either AT&T Uverse, DirecTV or the DirecTV Now streaming TV service, you'll now get access to the channel at no charge.
FCC chairman Ajit Pai calls net neutrality a 'mistake'
New FCC chairman Ajit Pai has made his views on net neutrality clear in the past: He's against it. But today at Mobile World Congress, Pai gave a wide-ranging speech in which he made his most pointed comments against net neutrality since taking over as chairman. When discussing the rules put into place in early 2015, Pai said they were "a mistake" and praised "light touch" internet regulation -- something that's sure to be on the FCC's agenda going forward.
T-Mobile upgrades its unlimited plan again to one-up AT&T
T-Mobile added HD video streaming and 10GB of LTE hotspot tethering to its unlimited One plan earlier this month, possibly as a response to Verizon's new unlimited data plan. Yes, the mobile carrier wars have been intense lately, and they're getting even hotter. Just hours after AT&T announced it was also adding 10GB of tethering data to its unlimited plan, T-Mobile fired back with another tweak to its One plan. Now, new and existing customers with two lines can get a third for free.
AT&T tweaks its unlimited data plans to offer tethering
Remember when AT&T announced that it would once again offer unlimited data packages, and they were a little underwhelming? Sensing its error, the company has taken the opportunity to roll out a tweaked plan to ease the pain of your wallet. AT&T Unlimited Plus offers unlimited calls, texts and 22GB of high speed data before you hit the throttling wall for $90 a month. Even better, the plan now offers 10GB tethering data per line -- something that was omitted from the prior set of plans.
The Engadget Podcast Ep 28: Disconnection Notice
On this episode, managing editor Dana Wollman and senior editor Devindra Hardawar join host Terrence O'Brien on to debate the value of reviving dead products and really dig deep on the value of unplugging. First they'll look at three things primed to come back from the dead: Verizon's unlimited data plans, nudity in Playboy and the Nokia 3310. Then, fresh from a weekend reading by a fireplace and drinking whiskey in the woods, Terrence talks about the importance of unplugging -- even if only for a few hours -- every week. We're more connected than ever and that's a good thing. But even too much of a good thing can be bad for you.
AT&T will offer unlimited data for all customers tomorrow
Well that didn't take long. Just a few days after Verizon announced it would start offering an unlimited data plan after years of selling capped data packages, AT&T will be doing the same. As of tomorrow, AT&T will let any current or potential customer buy an unlimited data plan; until now, only DirecTV customers were able to purchased unlimited data from the carrier. Just like Verizon, AT&T offered unlimited data back in the early days of the smartphone boom but moved to limited tiered data packages way back in 2010.
Why is Verizon offering unlimited data again?
As soon as Verizon dropped the unexpected news that it was bringing back unlimited data plans, I immediately started searching for the catch. The company has a rightfully earned reputation for nickel-and-diming its customers to death, even though some would argue its excellent network is worth the premium. But aside from being more expensive than T-Mobile's offering, Verizon's unlimited plan seems to be a good option. In fact, the new Verizon plan forced T-Mobile to do away with the incredibly annoying way it dealt with streaming HD video on its network. It's been awhile since T-Mobile was forced to follow another carrier's lead, but Verizon appears to have learned from T-Mobile's misstep.
Verizon revives its unlimited data plan (updated)
Here's a nice Sunday surprise: Verizon is bringing back the unlimited data plan. As of February 13th, the carrier is launching a Verizon Unlimited tier that gives you unlimited US data, calls and texting for $80 per month ($45 per line for a family of four). You do face the risk of throttling after 22GB of use in a given month, but Big Red is promising that you won't see the catches that come with T-Mobile's standard One plan: HD video streaming and hotspot support (up to 10GB at LTE speeds) are included, for example. And if you travel to Canada or Mexico, you'll get calling and texting to those countries as well as 500MB per day of full-speed data.
Sprint offers five unlimited lines for $90, but only for a year
Sprint's latest subscription deal makes a great headline: Get five lines of unlimited data, talk and text for just $90 a month! But, as usual in the mobile world, there's a catch. That great pricing will only last until the end of March 2018, according to the company's press release. After that, you'll be pushed back to Sprint's current pricing: $190 a month for five unlimited lines.
T-Mobile agrees to pay FCC $48m over misleading data plans
T-Mobile has championed itself as a provider of "unlimited" wireless data -- but its plans have historically also come with a wide variety of caveats, be they throttling video data or slowing you down when you hit a data cap. The FCC has decided that T-Mobile isn't playing straight with customers, and today the agency announced a settlement: The Wireless provider will pay $48 million to address "inadequate disclosures" of its unlimited data plans.
T-Mobile One is the carrier's new unlimited data plan
T-Mobile has offered an unlimited data option for a while now, using it as a big differentiator between it and AT&T and Verizon. But now, it sounds like the carrier is going to do away with data buckets entirely and offer one plan that includes unlimited talk, text and data. It's called T-Mobile One, and it'll be available to current and new customers as of September 6th.
Australian carrier lets customers win prizes with unused data
Unless you roll it over, the unused mobile data you paid so dearly for is lost in time, like tears in ... rain. For a limited time, however, Virgin Mobile customers in Australia can transform those dead digits into phones, drones and other swag. To be sure, the "data auction" is a publicity stunt that mostly benefits Virgin, since there's but a single prize each day over the month-long promo. In addition, you have to bid all your remaining data, so you can only win once.
Karma restores unlimited speeds, but throttles after 15GB
There's good news and bad news for Karma hotspot users. The good: Karma is restoring 5 Mbps download and upload speeds on its $50 unlimited data plan, after slowing things down a few weeks ago to deal with data hogs. The bad: You'll only get those speeds for 15 GB worth of data -- afterwards you'll be throttled down to between 64 Kbps and 128 Kbps.
