T-Mobile have published a statement to their website about changes to data
allowances of Mobile Internet users which will dissuade people from using their
mobile Internet connection as a replacement for home broadband.
Currently, T-Mobile offer a fair-usage policy that allows customers to use
up to 1GB of data per month on their mobile phone for a fixed-price add on, but
they will be adjusting the policy to have a maximum of 500MB included per
month. This follows a recent trend within the mobile industry of moving away
from unlimited offerings, although Three have noticed this gap in the market
and last month introduced a product to specifically address this with
all-you-can-eat data.
“So Whats Changing? – From 1st February 2011 we will be aligning our fair
use policies so our mobile internet service will have fair use of 500MB.What Does This Mean? – We’ll always let you email and browse the internet
and you’ll never pay more than you agree to. We do have a fair use policy but
ours is there to make sure we deliver the best service possible to all our
customers. This means that you’ll always be able to browse the internet..If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for
your home broadband.T-Mobile Statement
The
full statement can be found
here.
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Will this affect mobile broadband dongle?
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“save that stuff for your home broadband”
Bit presumptuous. What about those people that have to use 3G data services as their home broadband, who don’t have any other option.
@unobroadband: Perhaps they would be better off on Three’s ‘unlimited’ offering
I dont think I do that amount a month given that my phone use’s my router when at home, but…. does this give me the right to terminate my contract if I wanted too.
When I signed up I didnt have this limit, and if I wanted too I could use more, where as now I am imposed by this so, well I would rather be out of contract and with no limit than face super high bills if I break it.
T-Mobile are still saying that they won’t charge you any more if you go over the amount at least 🙂
@unobroadband
If you are within 3G coverage I’d expect 99.9% of the time you can get broadband.
Sad but not surprising. Telcos have been overselling mobile BB for years and customers lapped it up.
Mobile BB is contended at every step of the way and a lot of masts are in remote locations. I don’t think telcos will be building many more masts even if local councils allowed them.
They are telling me they are slashing my 3gb internet plus allowance I got with my desire to 500mb to. That to me is a significant contract change as it totally changes the service for me I would never have gone to tmobile if they only had 500mb.
@john, true but even though Three have been improving their 3G coverage areas, there is still a lot of improvement required
@otester, very much doubt it is that high – there a number of users on TBB forums who do just that.
I remember when orange changed the Terms of their contract, it meant I was able to terminate my contract penalty free. Which was nice when I had been with them a month and had a handset worth £350.
I would definitely check if I was a T-Mobile customer.
It’s an FUP not a hard cap with with billing for overage.
Still anyone on T-Mobile should ring CS, complain and see if they can leave with no penalty or have their T&C’s kept as they were when they signed up.
I hope T-Mobile’s statement comes back to bite them royally though.
@unobroadband
I suppose living in the middle of nowhere could give you line of sight to a mast providing a viable 3G connection.
timmay, they are advising me that everything will be fine upto 500mb then after that web pages will work but any downloading will not, so no android market place, no youtube streaming, no google maps via sat nav etc, no application updates, or apps that pull data off anything other than port 80 etc. However for £14.99 a month more I can have what I already have, if thats not a cap its as close as it possibly can be.