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MetroPCS Offers Up New $30 Unlimited Everything Plan
T-Mobile owned MetroPCS this week took the wraps off a new prepaid plan that offers users unlimited voice, text and data for $30 a month. According to the press release, the new plan started yesterday (Tuesday) and sets a "new standard in value" when compared to comparable offerings from Boost Mobile and Cricket. It's worth noting that only 1 GB of your "unlimited" allotment is at 4G speeds -- after that you're throttled back to an unspecified data rate for the remainder of your billing cycle. MetroPCS also notes that LTE phones won't quality for the new discounted rate, and the phone you use needs to be purchased from a MetroPCS store.
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gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

1 recommendation

gigahurtz

Premium Member

Not much of a deal.

I pay $35/mo (no taxes/fees) on Cricket Wireless for 2.5 GB of data (vs. 1 GB of data), unlimited talk/text and AT&Ts network. I'll take that over T-Mobile's network through MetroPCS any day.

I do love what T-Mobile is doing in the industry as a whole, but I just don't feel this is much of a deal.

Shangsta
@verizonbusiness.com

Shangsta

Anon

Re: Not much of a deal.

Do Cricket plans throttle after the 2.5GB? Or do they bill overages? I'm assuming they don't hard stop you when you hit that cap.

If it's just throttling speeds, then yea the extra $5 for the extra 1.5GB and AT&T's network might be worth it for certain people.

koolman2
Premium Member
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK

koolman2

Premium Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

128 k after the limit
tkdslr
join:2004-04-24
Pompano Beach, FL

tkdslr

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

I wish T-mobile would up the $30 Walmart prepaid plan to 128kb/sec, after you hit the 5GB 4G limit.

64kb/sec over LTE is just a bit too slow, no google voice, some websites won't load, etc.
fartness (banned)
Donald Trump 2016
join:2003-03-25
Look Outside

fartness (banned)

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

Isn't it 64KBps?

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

I had that Walmart 5GB $30 plan for a few months ( in between service transitions for a few months) and my throttle was 120kbps. I believe its dependent on your area and tower.
ConstantineM
join:2011-09-02
San Jose, CA

ConstantineM

Member

It's 50kbps, and up is throttled, too, whereas Cricket only throttles download.

Mine was 50kbps. Perhaps it depends on the sign-up date? I've stopped renewing perhaps a year or so ago (after having used it on my backup phone for a few years), since 50kbps is unusable for just about anything. Definitely not 64kbps, BTW; but disabling HSPA+ and getting to EDGE does make it unthrottled (alas EDGE itself rarely gives you much more than 128kbps anyways).

Also, T-Mobile throttles both upload and download, which breaks Twitter et al, since the upload takes too many minutes, and never succeeds prior to the timeout. AIO Wireless / Cricket only throttles the download, so, Twitter and all the other apps still work fully (alas, unless you're on the outskirts of a major metro and is subject to a 35% packet loss on LTE / HSPA+, which happens with AT&T much more often than with T-Mo).

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz to Shangsta

Premium Member

to Shangsta
It'll get throttled after 2.5 GB, no overages, taxes or fees in addition to the $35/mo you pay. Best deal in the industry, IMO.
fartness (banned)
Donald Trump 2016
join:2003-03-25
Look Outside

fartness (banned) to gigahurtz

Member

to gigahurtz
I have been looking to switch to that. How does it work out if you want to buy a new iPhone?

koolman2
Premium Member
join:2002-10-01
Anchorage, AK

koolman2

Premium Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

The prices aren't much lower if at all from retail price. Better off buying an unlocked iPhone so you don't have to worry about getting it unlocked.

hamburglar
join:2002-04-29
united state

hamburglar to fartness

Member

to fartness
»swappa.com/devices/att

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz to fartness

Premium Member

to fartness
said by fartness:

I have been looking to switch to that. How does it work out if you want to buy a new iPhone?

I bought a brand new Verizon iPhone 6 on Swappa a few months back. Verizon iPhones (from 5S on) are GSM unlocked. Essentially, you can purchase either a factory unlocked phone or AT&T branded phone but I would recommend factory unlocked. Then, purchase a SIM card from Cricket and pop it in and you're ready to go. If you're interested, shoot me an IM and I'll send you a referral so we both get $25 credit
fartness (banned)
Donald Trump 2016
join:2003-03-25
Look Outside

fartness (banned)

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

What about travel outside of the country?

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

Cricket doesn't offer international coverage at this time (they might not ever, that's partly why it's so cheap). In that case, if you bought a factory unlocked phone, you can simply purchase a prepaid SIM card in the country you're in and put the card in your phone and start using it. It would be a lot cheaper this way anyway.

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless to gigahurtz

Member

to gigahurtz
Ill give credit where is due ATT does have the makings of a good lower brand product with there cricket brand however they still cant shake the negative stigmata that was the previous cricket. T-mobile does deserve credit. If it was not for them purchasing Metropcs and keeping the brand going, ATT would have purchased cricket got rid of the brand name and switched those customers to GO phone.

With that said I still Love My T-mobile as Im a Frequent international traveler 2-3X a year to Canada and 1X A year to A Caribbean location. with TMOs data txt and voice plans I cant loose. Example: with Tmobile on my last 2 1/2 week trip while I visit canada I streamed pandora and slacker and surfed the web all around 600-700mb sent 40 picture messages and about 100 txt msg and talked over the cellular network for 30 mins @ .20c a Min, and 200 mins over wifi. My roaming bill was less than $10. With ATT international Passport plan cost $120.00 with 800 mb of data PLUS picture msg EXTRA $1.20 to send, EXTRA .50c to send a basic txt, and .35c PER VOICE min, My roaming bill would have been $275.00. So even if cricket offers international roaming Thats 7 and 1/2 months of cricket service at ATT prices.

Every company has there strengths and weakness Ill stick it out with TMobile and there limited US coverage to save myself on average $500-750 a year in roaming, and thats just Canada alone!
fartness (banned)
Donald Trump 2016
join:2003-03-25
Look Outside

fartness (banned)

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

Tmobile was my other thought too because of international travel. ATT changed their Passport plan to be a little better (albeit still expensive). $30 for 100 something MB and unlimited texts (including picture messages). They have a $60 plan with 300MB and I forget what their higher plan is.

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

That last plan is " passport pro" with 800 mb of data for $120 and I do understand where your coming from as yes recently ATT has changed there international passport plans they now include Sending txt and picture messaging. So that $275 roaming bill would only be $200 currently with sent txt and picture msg included.

However the devil with ATT is in the details.. in the Passport TOS.." Messages received are charged at domestic messaging rates." Some customers will get them free, some will not. With Tmobile all your incoming txt while out the country no matter your plan are free.
fartness (banned)
Donald Trump 2016
join:2003-03-25
Look Outside

fartness (banned)

Member

Re: Not much of a deal.

All their packages have unlimited text. AFAIK, if I'm in China and I receive a text from someone back home, it's still free for both of us, as long as I'm on a Passport plan. Either way, I plan on getting my phone unlocked and picking up cheap SIMs overseas.

hamburglar
join:2002-04-29
united state

1 recommendation

hamburglar

Member

Meh

Cricket FTW! 2.5GB high-speed (8Mbps LTE, 4Mbps HSPA+), and $20/line when you have 5 lines. Even one line @ $35 with taxes and fees included is a better deal IMO. Also on ATT vs Tmo network.

gigahurtz
Premium Member
join:2001-10-20
USA

gigahurtz

Premium Member

Re: Meh

said by hamburglar:

Cricket FTW! 2.5GB high-speed (8Mbps LTE, 4Mbps HSPA+), and $20/line when you have 5 lines. Even one line @ $35 with taxes and fees included is a better deal IMO. Also on ATT vs Tmo network.

There's no company out there that can compete with the $20 line on the 5 lines promo for $100.

hamburglar
join:2002-04-29
united state

hamburglar

Member

Re: Meh

Especially with each line having it's own allotment and throttle... it works great for our family.

ctaranto
join:2011-12-14
MA

ctaranto to gigahurtz

Member

to gigahurtz
Currently, T-Mo post paid does. I'm paying $110 for 5 lines of service. All lines have 2.5GB high speed data (per phone), wi-fi calling, no overages, and data-free music streaming.

This is a promo from the 1GB per line service, but I wouldn't be surprised that by the end of the year, T-Mo makes it permanent.

Also, T-Mo in my area has better coverage than AT&T.

hamburglar
join:2002-04-29
united state

hamburglar

Member

Re: Meh

Taxes and fees included in that $110?
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT

tired_runner to gigahurtz

Premium Member

to gigahurtz
Does that include unlimited talk/text?

I've used the Walmart $30 5G/100 min plan for sometime now purchasing PIN's online. Most of my talking happens via Google Voice/LTE leaving the 100 minutes for emergencies only. Works very well for me.

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

Re: Meh

I have one friend that tried Google voice over Crickets data plan ( using Grove IP) and all I have to say is it was so bad he didn't use it for more than a week. YMMV
tired_runner
Premium Member
join:2000-08-25
CT

tired_runner

Premium Member

Re: Meh

GrooveIP is garbage in my experience.

My best voice over LTE data experience with Google Voice IMO has been CSipSimple via home-hosted PBX.
talz13
join:2006-03-15
Avon, OH

talz13 to buddahbless

Member

to buddahbless
Also, unlimited calling on cricket, so I don't really have any call for VoIP on my phone anymore. I still use Google voice, just have it set up to forward over the voice network instead of calling through hangouts.
slow_move
join:2012-07-20
Coram, NY

slow_move

Member

harbormobile

»www.harbormobile.com/plans/
this looks good...

Starman
@verizon.net

Starman

Anon

Ripoff

No lte and only 1 gb. Hopefully metropcs goes out of business.
ArizonaSteve
join:2004-01-31
Apache Junction, AZ

ArizonaSteve

Member

Re: Ripoff

Not likely to go out of business unless T-Mobile does too. They are expanding it and just opened a new store up the street from me! They can't really offer LTE at this time because T-Mobile doesn't have it hardly anywhere yet.

bockbock
@hcs.net

bockbock

Anon

Re: Ripoff

T-Mobile doesn't offer LTE service? Are you serious?

Beans
@verizon.net

Beans

Anon

Forget metro

Tmo should just cork metro and overhaul the towers to their network and shut the redundent ones down. Makes no sence to keep around a company when you can create the same plans on the main network.

bobjohnson
Premium Member
join:2007-02-03
Spartanburg, SC

bobjohnson

Premium Member

Re: Forget metro

said by Beans :

Tmo should just cork metro and overhaul the towers to their network and shut the redundent ones down. Makes no sence to keep around a company when you can create the same plans on the main network.

These plans are only on the TMo network. Metro's legacy network was CDMA

buddahbless
join:2005-03-21
Premium

buddahbless

Member

Re: Forget metro

bobjohnson is correct also TMO plans to fully shut down the CDMA part of metropcs by end of 2016 and refarm that spectrum, they just have to get those last hold out CDMA customers over the the gsm/hspa/lte network.
mist668
join:2011-02-15
Middleburg, PA

mist668

Member

Still crappy

Dumped verizon which was paying $150 a month for 1400 minutes, unlimited data on mine and 2 gb on wife with a 19% discount for working at a place I have not worked in years. Got cricket now and its awesome. Yes the speed is throttled but with verizon skimping on capacity in 17842 area it is the same if not better. I only pay $65 a month for my line and the wifes. 2.5 gb on both with talk and text. Discount for another line and $5 discount for autopay, love it no issues what so ever.
Tmobile would be great if you live in the city, but if you do not then there may not be a reason to get it. I may pay an additional $10 a month for wifi calling if I could get it, but thats it. Not to mention rock solid hspa or lte at all times, no edge ever.
blacksurfer
join:2002-07-14
Sherman Oaks, CA

blacksurfer

Member

Re: Still crappy

Agreed...Cricket is awesome. 5 lines with unlimited talk, text and 2.5gb LTE data each, on our iphones for $100 total is a significant savings for us!
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

poop

with the draconian throttle the deal isn't even worth $10 a month. you'd have better luck getting your data on the 56k modems back in the dialup days than with a throttle on the small carriers. it's about time they fix the throttle limit to something more reasonable like 3-5 megabits per customer and 25 to 50 for regular 4g/lte.

on Verizon's tracfone bucket plan 3g with full bars, I've NEVER seen more than 1.2 megabits. downstream and about 800kbit upstream and not even that is worth $30 a month unlimited.

CosmicDebri
Still looking for intelligent life
join:2001-09-01
Lake City, FL

CosmicDebri

Member

Pretty Funny

I just saw a MetroPCS ad on the DirecTV advertising their Best Ever deal, and I thought it would be this one. But noooooo...... It was $50 Unlimited Everything.... and they encouraged consumers to hurry and get it before April something...... I wonder.... they aren't trying to rook people into getting locked into that before this one starts getting advertised??

•••
whiteyonenh
join:2004-08-09
Keene, NH

whiteyonenh

Member

Things that make you go "Hmmm..."

So, T-mobile is rolling out LTE on 1900mhz in "rural" areas, and anyone without an LTE device that runs on those bands in those particular areas, continues to get EDGE/GPRS coverage.

MetroPCS rolls out this new plan, says, "Nope, you gotta use a MetroPCS phone, and you can't have an LTE device"

Guess I'm staying on Cricket with the 2.5GB data @ $35/mo (probably would anyways just because the coverage is, oh, about 500% better).

Ball's in your court Cricket, make that $25/mo plan include 500MB High-Speed Data before throttle.

ERin78701
@rr.com

ERin78701

Anon

Yawn

Please wake me up when someone offers a better deal than TMO's $30 per month plan with 5GB of LTE data until they throttle and 100 minutes of calling. Seriously...phone at home, phone at work and phone that does WiFi calling and can make calls on data via Google Hangouts without using those 100 minutes.