T-Mobile brings Data Stash rollovers to Simple Choice prepaid subscribers
T-Mobile USA has announced plans to bring Data Stash -- a policy rolling over unused 4G data from each month -- to new and existing Simple Choice prepaid subscribers, having previously limited the perk to postpaid customers.
The prepaid benefit takes effect on March 22nd, and as with postpaid will come with a "Starter Stash" of up to 10 gigabytes. After that bandwidth disappears, prepaid users will begin rolling over any unconsumed data in their plan from month to month. Stashed data will remain available for up to a year.
Data Stash was first introduced in December, and has since been copied by AT&T, which launched Rollover Data in January. Unlike T-Mobile's offering, though, any unused AT&T data expires a month after it's accumulated.
Verizon has yet to announce a similar policy so far. Sprint's main plans offer unlimited data, but there is no rollover for prepaid.
The change may have an impact on the iPhone world. When the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus went on sale last year, US customers ordering from Apple could initially only choose a T-Mobile model if they wanted unlocked service. While they were not beholden to using T-Mobile, many customers may have gone that direction regardless. SIM-free devices arrived at the beginning of the year.
The prepaid benefit takes effect on March 22nd, and as with postpaid will come with a "Starter Stash" of up to 10 gigabytes. After that bandwidth disappears, prepaid users will begin rolling over any unconsumed data in their plan from month to month. Stashed data will remain available for up to a year.
Data Stash was first introduced in December, and has since been copied by AT&T, which launched Rollover Data in January. Unlike T-Mobile's offering, though, any unused AT&T data expires a month after it's accumulated.
Verizon has yet to announce a similar policy so far. Sprint's main plans offer unlimited data, but there is no rollover for prepaid.
The change may have an impact on the iPhone world. When the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus went on sale last year, US customers ordering from Apple could initially only choose a T-Mobile model if they wanted unlocked service. While they were not beholden to using T-Mobile, many customers may have gone that direction regardless. SIM-free devices arrived at the beginning of the year.
Comments
Hey Verizon! Get your head out of your _ _ _ and follow suit.
These things are cute n all...but it makes it difficult to enjoy these services without connectivity. That should be their #1 goal right now.
For the record (and this shocked the heck out of me...) my phone bill (2 lines) dropped $80 going back to verizon. Did not make financial sense to be paying a butt-load of money and having calls constantly dropped. Also, I was having serious AppleInsider withdrawals...
Verizon don't do race to the bottom.
Verizon don't do race to the bottom.
We are very happy with T-Mo. Of course, depends on where you live. I don't think T-Mo wants a race to the bottom, but they do offer great deals to bring customers over. Hopefully, it's enough revenue that they can continue to improve service and get more customers. Seems Verizon can have the upper hand in deploying better services simply because they do charge more and are not shy about it. So far, T-Mo's been doing some good strategizing. Great about the unlimited music streaming.
Of course it's not enough revenue. They're paying out more than they get from new customers.
I had T-Mo on my iPhone 5 for a while but finally had to give up because I'm in a dead spot. It's green all around and very fast, but I get zero-to-one bar on my iPhone at home. There was a plan to improve service here but so far that hasn't happened.
Pity.
Is anyone an expert on T-Mobile's plans? I am beyond confused and they aren't helping me understand. I recently signed up for a hotspot and did not want to sign any contracts and wanted to pay for the device up front in full. Their website lead me to believe that I should do the Simple Choice No Credit Check option, so that is what I went with.
When I got the device I had a horrible time getting it activated, since their system relies on the last 4 of your SSN, which they didn't have in my case. Once activated, my first bill was paid late because they notified me about my ebill by "texting" my hotspot and don't offer auto pay for Simple Choice No Credit Check customers.
When arguing with support about this, they informed me that their Simple Choice Prepaid (no credit check) and Simple Choice Postpaid (credit check) plans both offer auto pay, but mine doesn't. Why the f*#k do they have 3 plans, all called Simple Choice and two of which do not require credit checks?!?! All 3 charge $20/month for 1GB. Great name..."Simple Choice"...
They tell me I can switch to one of them, but I don't understand what the f*$@ing difference is between them. Does anyone else?
I think I may understand what you're talking about. I had a Retina iPad mini with T-Mobile specifically to test the waters before making a decision to get an iPhone. I did their credit check — BTW, it's soft check, not a hard check, so it doesn't hurt your credit rating — so I didn't have any of the problems you mentioned.
However, after realizing I didn't want to have any data plan on my iPad mini I decided to pay it off and then simply keep the "200 MiB for life" that was offered as part of the deal for buying a T-Mobile iPad. That was a bit of a clusterfuck. First off, people had no idea about this free month data so when they canceled that account I had nothing. Eventually I was able to get someone that was able to port my number to Simple Choice and give me the 200 MiB of data for free, but I had to buy a new SIM for it. I think they gave me a credit for the $10 (which is quite reasonable considering how much others charge to "activate" on their network, which we all know is a CSR clicking a damn button) to do so.
I still decided to come to T-Mobile with my iPhone 6. Despite the poor system for post-paid v pre-paid, I'm quite happy with their straightforward accounting. My monthly iPhone cost is clearly stated, as well as my cellular bill. It never changes per month. It's also impossible to go over because SMS and voice is free, and my then 3GB data plan will simply throttle me to EDGE speeds if I exceed it. On top of that, it's $10 for every 2 GiB of additional data. Last month I dropped down to 1 GiB of data because of that free 10 GiB they are offering.
Not once do I feel like I was being scammed by them which, too me, offers some piece of mind over all other carriers, so I'm willing to deal with some lack of training or complete **** up on their part much more graciously than from other carries. Note: I did file a complaint about that switch from post-paid to pre-paid. Note with an employee, but with their system.