T-Mobile full monty questions

mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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I called T-Mobile to request a PAC today, and of course the customer service rep went through the usual motions of recommending deals to try to get me to stay. I mentioned that I was intending to move to the 3 One Plan (sim only) and that tethering is important.

She then quoted that she could offer me something that looked like the full monty but at 17.50/month, and including tethering (mentioned something about unlimited usage on phone and 5GB while tethering).

I'm not sure if she was telling the truth as I was under the impression that FM did not allow tethering as of a recent tariff change. Is there an addon that can be applied to make it work (and give me 5GB of data for that?)

I'm tempted to stay if what they are offering is correct because it means I'll get the seamless 2G backup and possibly a less congested network. But I don't want to agree to a new contract and find out it's not what I was sold (could probably get out of it on that basis but it's a hassle I don't want).

So can someone who knows about all of this clarify whether what she said was true?

Comments

  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    It is the super internet booster which gives you 5GB tethering.

    I'm pretty sure it caps your overall usage to 5GB though. So it's basically swapping unlimited for 5GB. Although i could be wrong. Also you get uncapped speeds.

    Are you sure it was £17.50pm and not £19pm.
  • mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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    She quoted 17.50 for 'unlimited' and 13 for "3gb", perhaps the discount is variable depending on who you are (in my case, a SIM only customer who is out of contract and doesn't spend that much with them). I asked if the 17.50 tariff is a discounted full monty and she said it was.

    It seems very confusing - the way she worded it, it sounded like browsing would be unlimited and "s tuff like youtube" would be part of the 5GB limit.

    I've been burned before by T-Mobile's ridiculously complicated data packages (stupid 384k limit on ancient internet boosters but not on others) so perhaps I should get this in writing or something before I commit.
  • Zee_BukhariZee_Bukhari Posts: 1,335
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    full monty speed is also capped at 4Mbps while 3's is unrestricted. You'll also get free 4G on 3 which is a bonus
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    That sounds like the Super Internet booster.

    Are you sure it was on the full monty plan though? I'd get it confirmed in writing though. I doubt you can go over the 5GB limit at all. If you can go over it'll be £1 a day.
  • mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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    full monty speed is also capped at 4Mbps while 3's is unrestricted. You'll also get free 4G on 3 which is a bonus

    To be honest I don't get excellent speeds on 3's network no matter where I am - getting anything over 5Mbps is a bonus, and in urban areas the performance is nothing great. I was in Reading earlier this week, getting anything over 1Mbit in the hotel I was in was an achievement and that's with a belting signal. This is with a 14Mbps HSPA device, I don't know if it would be better with a DCHSPA phone. My T-Mobile SIM in another phone did quite a bit better. Perhaps it's an excuse to get a Nexus 5.

    The prospect of 4G is enticing provided that 3 do an aggressive rollout. Otherwise it's pointless if I'm not going to be able to use it where I am. I am in Cornwall and so far even EE have yet to get to Plymouth...
  • mooxmoox Posts: 18,880
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    jabbamk1 wrote: »
    That sounds like the Super Internet booster.

    Are you sure it was on the full monty plan though? I'd get it confirmed in writing though. I doubt you can go over the 5GB limit at all. If you can go over it'll be £1 a day.

    I can't be sure, but I did ask "is this a discounted full monty" and she did say yes. I think she's meant to call back in a day or two, so I'll ask about it then and definitely try to get something in writing.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 13,367
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    moox wrote: »
    To be honest I don't get excellent speeds on 3's network no matter where I am - getting anything over 5Mbps is a bonus, and in urban areas the performance is nothing great. I was in Reading earlier this week, getting anything over 1Mbit in the hotel I was in was an achievement and that's with a belting signal. This is with a 14Mbps HSPA device, I don't know if it would be better with a DCHSPA phone. My T-Mobile SIM in another phone did quite a bit better. Perhaps it's an excuse to get a Nexus 5.

    The prospect of 4G is enticing provided that 3 do an aggressive rollout. Otherwise it's pointless if I'm not going to be able to use it where I am. I am in Cornwall and so far even EE have yet to get to Plymouth...

    This is pretty much what I've found when trying out a 3 SIM in an iPhone 5 for the last couple of weeks. I got 7Mbs in Barnsley today, and that's the highest I've seen. Other people seem to report incredible speeds quite often, but I'm mostly seeing speeds of between 2Mbs and 5Mbs in various areas of the north west and in London.

    Having said that, my experience with T-Mobile FM hasn't been good at all. Lots of dropped calls, frequent periods of no data throughput, and now there's zero chance of an HD call because I can't remember the last time my phone didn't drop the 3G signal during a call.
  • ozzozz Posts: 825
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    full monty speed is also capped at 4Mbps while 3's is unrestricted. You'll also get free 4G on 3 which is a bonus

    I'm on the T-Mobile Full Monty plan since October 2012, not seeing any speed cap on my account. Limited to max 7.2 Mbps on my handset but speed tests average ~ 6 Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload. Tethering seems to work too???
  • tycho-magtycho-mag Posts: 8,650
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    This is pretty much what I've found when trying out a 3 SIM in an iPhone 5 for the last couple of weeks. I got 7Mbs in Barnsley today, and that's the highest I've seen.
    The best speeds on 3 are on the mobile broadband SIMs rather than the voice SIMs as they seem to have network priority (e.g. tablet) - but you don't get unlimited on those :(
  • qasdfdsaqqasdfdsaq Posts: 3,350
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    full monty speed is also capped at 4Mbps while 3's is unrestricted.

    Which is such a great advantage if they deliver 25Mbps in the city centre where you are for a few minutes a day, but never more than 2Mbps where you actually live and want to use it.
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    jchamier wrote: »
    The best speeds on 3 are on the mobile broadband SIMs rather than the voice SIMs as they seem to have network priority (e.g. tablet) - but you don't get unlimited on those :(

    i've seen people saying that nonsense for some time. but i have both and never seen a difference in performance. infact i see faster on my phone in general probably because of MIMO
  • tycho-magtycho-mag Posts: 8,650
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    danielmeah wrote: »
    i've seen people saying that nonsense for some time. but i have both and never seen a difference in performance. infact i see faster on my phone in general probably because of MIMO

    Interesting - I've seen the difference in my area, with a MiFi unit and a HTC one - and assumed it was down to local load.
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    i've seen people saying that nonsense for some time. but i have both and never seen a difference in performance. infact i see faster on my phone in general probably because of MIMO

    In my personal experience of both, I would agree with that also. I tend to get 5 - 6 mbps from a '3' branded Mi-fi with a mobile broadband sim, but 10mbps pretty routinely from a tethered £100 Chinese Cubot GT-99 phone with the One Plan Sim.
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    danielmeah wrote: »
    i've seen people saying that nonsense for some time. but i have both and never seen a difference in performance. infact i see faster on my phone in general probably because of MIMO
    Chris1973 wrote: »
    In my personal experience of both, I would agree with that also. I tend to get 5 - 6 mbps from a '3' branded Mi-fi with a mobile broadband sim, but 10mbps pretty routinely from a tethered £100 Chinese Cubot GT-99 phone with the One Plan Sim.

    Well that would make sense if the phone supports DC-HSPA+ and the Mi-Fi doesn't.
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    jabbamk1 wrote: »
    Well that would make sense if the phone supports DC-HSPA+ and the Mi-Fi doesn't.

    Yes. however it was about network priority not the device itself :)
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    danielmeah wrote: »
    Yes. however it was about network priority not the device itself :)

    I know but you'd have to test two devices with the same hardware support to see network priority properly.
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    jabbamk1 wrote: »
    I know but you'd have to test two devices with the same hardware support to see network priority properly.

    to an extent yes. but you wouldnt for example expect a huge difference between hspa and dc-hspa or LTE.

    Meaning if DC-hsdpa was doing 10Mbps hspa and LTE should be able to do that too if not it would be obvious throttling or QoS.
  • qasdfdsaqqasdfdsaq Posts: 3,350
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    There's way too much variation between phones simply in terms of radio and firmware performance to draw any concrete conclusions without swapping the same SIM card(s) between the two under the same conditions. You don't just want to test two devices with the same hardware support - you really want to test one individual device with multiple SIMs. Case in point - Galaxy S2 vs. Galaxy S3, both rated as 21Mbps down, 5.76Mbps up, HSPA+ 3GPP release 7. 0.3Mbps on the S2, 7.4Mbps on the S3 on O2, same location, same SIM.

    Even then moving a device a few centimetres or changing its orientation can more than quadruple your speeds so it's still meaningless without an appropriate control (e.g. fixed location stand).
  • qasdfdsaqqasdfdsaq Posts: 3,350
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    danielmeah wrote: »
    to an extent yes. but you wouldnt for example expect a huge difference between hspa and dc-hspa or LTE.

    Meaning if DC-hsdpa was doing 10Mbps hspa and LTE should be able to do that too if not it would be obvious throttling or QoS.

    Uh yes you would.

    If DC-HSDPA was doing 10Mbps you'd expect HSPA to be doing 5Mbps. LTE could easily do 40Mbps under the same conditions.
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    qasdfdsaq wrote: »
    Uh yes you would.

    If DC-HSDPA was doing 10Mbps you'd expect HSPA to be doing 5Mbps. LTE could easily do 40Mbps under the same conditions.

    No. if you read what i said and my follow ups you would understand, dont just read 1 line. or part of it
  • qasdfdsaqqasdfdsaq Posts: 3,350
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    The only thing there is to understand is you've completely twisted the subject beyond recognition.
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    qasdfdsaq wrote: »
    The only thing there is to understand is you've completely twisted the subject beyond recognition.

    Nope, You SHOULD READ IT!
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