T-Mobile One Unlimited 55+

[audreyh1]

I may sign up for this plan soon. Any Gotchas that I should know about before I sign up.

Also, the guy at the T-Mobile store told me that the antennas in the phones sold by T-Mobile worked better with the new TM system than ordinary unlocked phones sold by a non TM source. Sounds funny to me.

Not true with iPhone IMO. DH bought the SIM-free iPhone X because he thought it was the best one, and so far it’s picking up cell signal better than his old T-mobile iPhone 6 which he still bought directly from Apple.*

But I could see how people could buy or have poor compatibility with unlocked phones because they don’t have the right one. I bet this mistake gets made often.

*DH went with the SIM-free phone which receives all bands while the iPhone X model sold by T-mobile does not support the CDMA networks used by Verizon and Sprint in the US.

 

[audreyh1]

Autopatyment as in a credit card?

That’s what we do.

 

[flintnational]

I think I posted these links on the other T Mobile thread.

List of phones compatible with T Mobile Ext range LTE

T Mobile explanation of Ext range LTE

 

[Kristinia]

I switched to TMobile 55 when I left megacorp. Absolutely no problems. Plus they will help you with transferring all your photos etc from your current phone to the new phone (if you are purchasing a new one). Plus I cut my bill down from $130 to $50. When DH retires later this year I can add him to the plan for an additional $10. Unlimited everything. Right now you cannot beat that plan with other carriers. Or at least none I am aware of.

 

[njhowie]

When DH retires later this year I can add him to the plan for an additional $10.

You can add him right now if you want - only the primary account owner needs to be 55+.

 

[audreyh1]

You can add him right now if you want - only the primary account owner needs to be 55+.

Maybe DH’s phone is paid for by work.

 

[audreyh1]

I think I posted these links on the other T Mobile thread.

List of phones compatible with T Mobile Ext range LTE

T Mobile explanation of Ext range LTE

Thanks much for this!

So my iPhone SE (which I purchased through T-mobile anyway) is compatible as well as DHs new iPhone X.

 

[Chuckanut]

That’s what we do.

Thanks. I don't let anybody take money directly from my checking account except for me, myself and I.

 

[Dtail]

Thanks. I don't let anybody take money directly from my checking account except for me, myself and I.

+1 especially ACA/Phone type charges where they would be "slow" to stop the charges if necessary.

 

[Chuckanut]

But I could see how people could buy or have poor compatibility with unlocked phones because they don’t have the right one. I bet this mistake gets made often.

.

+1

I was reading a review for a phone a relative recently bought to use on T-Mobile. The reviewer was complaining that the service was slow, no LTE, and very spotty. Another person pointed out to him that the phone he purchased in SE Asia was not made for the American market and does not have the proper radio bands to work with AT&T and TM. OOPS! The ones sold in America have the proper radios and work well.

 

[audreyh1]

+1

I was reading a review for a phone a relative recently bought to use on T-Mobile. The reviewer was complaining that the service was slow, no LTE, and very spotty. Another person pointed out to him that the phone he purchased in SE Asia was not made for the American market and does not have the proper radio bands to work with AT&T and TM. OOPS! The ones sold in America have the proper radios and work well.

Still - if you had an older, say Verizon iPhone 5 for example, that was unlocked for GSM frequencies, you can’t expect decent T-mobile US reception because it is missing too many LTE bands.

 

[jonat]

I switched from AT&T to the T-Mobile 55+ plan back in August and it's been great. I especially love the free international data. I paid for the "One Plus" feature on my line to get faster international data plus caller name ID. (DW almost never uses her phone, so it made no sense to pay extra for her.)

You definitely want band 12. Band 71 is the 600MHz spectrum and only a couple of phones have that right now. It's also not yet widely deployed. I wouldn't worry about it for a few years.

 

[flintnational]

The app below may help some. It is a T Mobile app that will let you enter the IMEI number (bar code number) for a phone and the app will tell if the phone will handle T Moible's Ext Range LTE bands. Yes, it is sort of a single use app that they could have handled with the a web page.

BYOD Check App

 

[Chuckanut]

I joined the T-Mobile 55+ crowd today. I really liked Ting's service and their pricing was good. But, I did not like having to watch my data usage. T-Mobile will be about $4 a month more but with unlimited data (well above 50 gigs it might be throttled, I have never come close to using 50 gigs). I'll chalk up the extra $4 a month to the "Blough that dough" philosophy. Last of the big spenders, I am.

One question for the international travelers: Is there anything I need to do before hand to make sure than when I step of the plane in Rome, Paris, London, Sophia, etc. my phone will be working?

 

[mh]

I joined the T-Mobile 55+ crowd today. I really liked Ting's service and their pricing was good. But, I did not like having to watch my data usage. T-Mobile will be about $4 a month more but with unlimited data (well above 50 gigs it might be throttled, I have never come close to using 50 gigs). I'll chalk up the extra $4 a month to the "Blough that dough" philosophy. Last of the big spenders, I am.

One question for the international travelers: Is there anything I need to do before hand to make sure than when I step of the plane in Rome, Paris, London, Sophia, etc. my phone will be working?

FWIW, When I was in England , I didn’t have to do anything for my 55+ plan , just flew in and used it.

 

[audreyh1]

I joined the T-Mobile 55+ crowd today. I really liked Ting's service and their pricing was good. But, I did not like having to watch my data usage. T-Mobile will be about $4 a month more but with unlimited data (well above 50 gigs it might be throttled, I have never come close to using 50 gigs). I'll chalk up the extra $4 a month to the "Blough that dough" philosophy. Last of the big spenders, I am.

One question for the international travelers: Is there anything I need to do before hand to make sure than when I step of the plane in Rome, Paris, London, Sophia, etc. my phone will be working?

No. Once the plane has landed, and you take your phone off of airplane mode, T-Mobile will send you a friendly text message saying something like “Welcome to Italy, you are now blah, blah, free data, texting and 20c* a minute calls.” After that your phone will work completely before even stepping off the plane.

*you can avoid this charge for calls to/from US if you use WiFi calling via WiFi internet access from hotel, cafe or wherever.

 

[nwsteve]

I joined the T-Mobile 55+ crowd today. I really liked Ting's service and their pricing was good. But, I did not like having to watch my data usage. T-Mobile will be about $4 a month more but with unlimited data (well above 50 gigs it might be throttled, I have never come close to using 50 gigs). I'll chalk up the extra $4 a month to the "Blough that dough" philosophy. Last of the big spenders, I am.

One question for the international travelers: Is there anything I need to do before hand to make sure than when I step of the plane in Rome, Paris, London, Sophia, etc. my phone will be working?

We have used TMobile intl services in china last year--got great reception from the Great Wall to even 2 bars on the Yangtze in the Gorge except in the narrowest portions
Also did well on a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest .
Only effort required to keep charged and turn on ;-)

 

[audreyh1]

It’s fun crossing international borders by train and having the phone ping me with the friendly “Welcome to XXX” message from T-Mobile.

Ha ha - I even get that around here if I get too close to the border.

 

[explanade]

You should not.

And if you do have problems, you can also try the T-Mobile support twitter account.

I actually used it once from abroad.

You have to make sure data roaming is ON.

 

[audreyh1]

Oh yeah and you want to make sure your phone can pick up all carriers, not just limited to one.

That should be the default setting.

 

[audreyh1]

We called T-mobile support from Barcelona once because our phones weren’t registering as data devices with the local network Movistar. A very nice technical support person walked us through a few steps that reconfigured something. And our phones were back full online.

This was the only time we ever had trouble, and we’d just traveled through the Netherlands and all of southern France with no problems. Had no problems previous years either.

 

[explanade]

Yeah I don't know if they'd charge you for 611 calls while roaming.

There have been times when I had to reboot my iPhone.

Sometimes, I have it scan for carriers manually. The default setting is automatic and it will connect and roam on a carrier which may or may not have the best coverage.

So I would take it off automatic and see what other carriers show up. Sometime you know a given carrier is suppose to have the best network in a given country so you try to force it to use that one, if automatic setting doesn't choose that one.

 

[Chuckanut]

With the age 55 plan, is the International speed acceptable? I notice it is 128kps. Is that fast enough?

 

[explanade]

For light surfing and using Google maps, some email, it's okay.

I couldn't use only that speed for the whole trip though, so you'd want good wifi at the place you're staying.

 

[audreyh1]

With the age 55 plan, is the International speed acceptable? I notice it is 128kps. Is that fast enough?

It should be fine for small stuff out and about like updating maps, goggle searches, email etc. You’ll probably get higher than that in the city as it defaults to higher speeds if the lowest isn’t available.

Save the intense web surfing for back at the hotel or somewhere with decent WiFi. Even some trains have WiFi. Most airports, etc.

In all our Europe travels we never ended up buying the high speed package that is available.