Hidden about 2/3rds the way down the T-Mobile pre-paid plans list is a great little gem of a plan for any unlocked phone but it is particularly nice for the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones if you buy them off contract. For $30 month, T-Mobile will give you unlimited 4G/LTE Data (capped at 5Gb where you will then go on EDGE) plus 100 minutes of talk time. That’s far below any other plan including T-Mobile’s advertized plans above it.
T-Mobile doesn’t have the best service area but where it does have coverage its LTE is fast. The carrier also lets you make free SMSes/voicemails from planes, has extremely reasonable international rates including free texts and perhaps most importantly has Wifi calling so you can make calls over Wifi in your basement. With the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus you even get wifi to cell tower handoff capabilities.
T-Mobile will even give you a $200 ASUS Router for a refundable deposit of $25 that will improve voice quality over Wifi but you can use it for Wifi around your home.
The downsides are important to consider.
- Those 100 talk minutes can go quick and T-Mobile will charge you (a fair price) if you go over.
- You have to pay for the iPhone up front. The iPhone 6 is $650 and iPhone 6 Plus is $750 to start. That can be painful
- T-Mobile’s coverage range is limited especially compared to Verizon and AT&T. While it is sometimes fixed by the carrier’s willingness to let you make calls over Wifi, you will still find absolutely no coverage in many small towns in the US. You won’t get roaming data but you will still be able to make calls while roaming in US.
- This is a web/Walmart only plan so it won’t work in T-Mobile Stores and as such, support is very limited.
However, I’ve had this plan for about a year now and it is great.
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“(a fair price)”?
From the nearly indecipherable fine print, it could be either $0.04/min or $0.10/min (or neither?)…
It’s a safe bet that, while this is certainly a good deal, it won’t have the features of the Simple Choice plans which now include things like overseas Wifi calls and data allotments. Of course that may not be a dealbreaker for many, it could be a VERY expensive oversight in the instance you forgot your plan didn’t include that.
Thanks for mentioning the t-mobile cellspot router, but it is definitely not available to the prepaid customer. I have the $30 ‘Walmart’ plan (have had it over a year and i love it) and have called t-mobile 3 times today, and they all told me the router is not available for the $25 deposit on my plan. Same goes for the LTE signal booster. I have today enabled wifi calling on my iPhone 6 though. (Settings/phone/wifi calls)
During the announcement, John Legere said that the T-Mobile Personal CellSpot would be available to post paid customer for a $25 however both prepaid and postpaid had the option to buy it for $99. A pretty good deal if you consider that Amazon sells the exact same model (without the T-Mobile QOS feature) for about 200.
I really like this prepaid “plan” as I barely use any minutes myself and when I do, I use Google Voice / Hangouts over WiFi.
Anyways, I find it rather hard to find detailed information about this option on either T-Mobile or Walmart sites. What I am specifically looking to know:
1. Can I port my TN from T-Mobile Postpaid to this plan?
2. Can the 5GB data be used for tethering?
Tx
I notice it says “First 5 GB at up to 4G speeds” – while on the above unlimited plan, it is “4G LTE” – this sounds like a slower service to me.
I’ve been using this plan since January. They are indeed 4G LTE speeds, not just 4G. My Moto X and iPhone 5 both picked up around 25 Mbps (download) and around 10 Mbps (down). That’s about run of the mill for LTE speeds in my area
Cheapest is not always ‘best’!