A few weeks ago, I bought an HTC One S unsubsidised from T-Mobile. The cost? $599. Friends thought I was crazy. You can get it for $199 on monthly contract! But do you know how much I pay per month? $30. For unlimited texts, web and 100 minutes of calls. I'll make up the difference within months.
If Google can make this kind of thing easier, I'm all for it.
I got this plan last November. As of last November, it required a SIM from either, get this, Walmart, or 1-800-TMobile. You can't use a SIM from a T-Mo retail store. You can't buy a SIM from Walmart, but you can buy a $20 T-Mo phone and use the SIM from that. But don't activate it, until it's in your smartphone. Or you can get the SIM for $5 from 1-800-TMobile.
Also, check out the plans details closely. They don't mention it, and the 1-800-T-Mobile CSRs won't tell you, or don't know, but you can't tether on this plan, at least, not if you're using the Samsung Galaxy SII and probably not with any/most Tmo phones (unless you decide to root the phone and disable/uninstall/freeze the TetheringManager app.)
Actually what I like is that my bills are even less than $30 per month. Because I am often, many weeks, almost entirely in a heavy wifi environment, I just don't prepay the next 30 days until I really know I need a GSM phone service. Most days I use either GrooveIP, or CSIP to make calls over wifi. If I am not in a wifi area for a few hours, calls go to google voice. AND if I know where I am driving to, I can even use Google Maps when I am not in a wifi zone by precaching the map data in Google Maps. (And even if I don't have prepaid GSM minutes, 911 will still work.)
If you don't pay for the phone number at least once every 90 days, they recycle the number.
For the past seven months, my T-Mobile charges have been $60.00. Not each month. Total.
You know, I probably use less than 100 minutes of talk time a month... But I could easily go over that getting stuck on e.g. a customer service line for an hour or something.
Oh, you're right! Last year, HTC was including T-Mobile's band on their high-end devices (Sensation, Flyer, etc.), but this year they've moved towards AT&T bands (unsurprisingly, I suppose - especially since T-Mobile is refarming 1900MHz and dialing back the 1700 MHz network soon).
Comments
A few weeks ago, I bought an HTC One S unsubsidised from T-Mobile. The cost? $599. Friends thought I was crazy. You can get it for $199 on monthly contract! But do you know how much I pay per month? $30. For unlimited texts, web and 100 minutes of calls. I'll make up the difference within months.
If Google can make this kind of thing easier, I'm all for it.
Where did you get this $30 plan? Is this with T-Mobile?
I got this plan last November. As of last November, it required a SIM from either, get this, Walmart, or 1-800-TMobile. You can't use a SIM from a T-Mo retail store. You can't buy a SIM from Walmart, but you can buy a $20 T-Mo phone and use the SIM from that. But don't activate it, until it's in your smartphone. Or you can get the SIM for $5 from 1-800-TMobile.
Also, check out the plans details closely. They don't mention it, and the 1-800-T-Mobile CSRs won't tell you, or don't know, but you can't tether on this plan, at least, not if you're using the Samsung Galaxy SII and probably not with any/most Tmo phones (unless you decide to root the phone and disable/uninstall/freeze the TetheringManager app.)
Actually what I like is that my bills are even less than $30 per month. Because I am often, many weeks, almost entirely in a heavy wifi environment, I just don't prepay the next 30 days until I really know I need a GSM phone service. Most days I use either GrooveIP, or CSIP to make calls over wifi. If I am not in a wifi area for a few hours, calls go to google voice. AND if I know where I am driving to, I can even use Google Maps when I am not in a wifi zone by precaching the map data in Google Maps. (And even if I don't have prepaid GSM minutes, 911 will still work.)
If you don't pay for the phone number at least once every 90 days, they recycle the number.
For the past seven months, my T-Mobile charges have been $60.00. Not each month. Total.
Yep:
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans
I've been hesitant to promote it in case it gets oversubscribed and T-Mo shuts it down...
Very complicated chart. All the data is unlimited but varies by full speed caps.
FWIW, If you ever need to conserve your high speed data plan, you can switch to 2G. That way you can still have your data on, but it is un-metered.
It is somewhat confusing. But 5GB at 4G is more than enough for me.
That's very tempting. Would cut my bill in half over Verizon and I could upgrade my wife to a smartphone.
You know, I probably use less than 100 minutes of talk time a month... But I could easily go over that getting stuck on e.g. a customer service line for an hour or something.
Did you think about about getting the international edition vs the T-Mobile variant? If so, I'd love to hear your view of the pros and cons of each.
Very simple- the international edition doesn't work with T-Mo's 3G bands, as far as I know.
Oh, you're right! Last year, HTC was including T-Mobile's band on their high-end devices (Sensation, Flyer, etc.), but this year they've moved towards AT&T bands (unsurprisingly, I suppose - especially since T-Mobile is refarming 1900MHz and dialing back the 1700 MHz network soon).
Thank you for this comment. I'm already making people offers for the HTC One S on Craigslist. Goodbye Verizon!