Latest news with #Uncarrier
The Verge
a day ago
- Business
- The Verge
Ultra Mobile raised its data caps without a price increase
T-Mobile is bringing some of its Uncarrier energy to Ultra Mobile, the carrier's international-focused MVNO that operates on its network. It announced that its plans now have slightly higher data caps and more international perks, but with the same prices as before for new and existing subscribers — a rare thing to see these days. The plan with the most notable increase in data cap is its $39 per month tier, which jumps from 15GB to 24GB per month. It also includes 5GB of data you can use in Mexico before international data roaming charges kick in. If you're accustomed to churning through a ton of data every month, its $59 per month unlimited (talk, text, and data) plan is stuffed with more goodies. It includes a combined $20 in international calling and data roaming credits, plus 25GB to use as a mobile hotspot (it previously included 20GB). You'll also get 100 minutes to call 'nearly anywhere,' and either 500 texts or 500MB of roaming data to use while traveling abroad before you have to pay extra. Whichever plan is best for your budget, Ultra Mobile stands out from Mint Mobile and Metro (other T-Mobile-owned MVNOs), as well as other major carriers, by offering more perks for people who call and text folks in countries outside the US. In addition to unlimited talk and text to Mexico, Canada, and the UK, Ultra allows free calls to landlines and mobile phones in China, India, Australia, and many other countries. Plus, all of its plans support Wi-Fi calling, which makes it easy to take calls even if local coverage is spotty.
Phone Arena
25-06-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
T-Mobile has 'the best network in America', and America couldn't care less
Monday, June 23, 2025 was supposed to be a big day for T-Mobile. Five years after the official completion of a merger that transformed the US wireless industry as it was known in 2020, Magenta earned the nation's "best mobile network" prize from Ookla, celebrating its latest momentous achievement by adding even more value to its "most popular" plans and confirming the highly anticipated T-Satellite nationwide launch date. But what would have been a noisy and attention-grabbing "Un-carrier" event just a few years ago ended up looking like little more than another typical Monday at the office for CEO Mike Sievert, COO Srini Gopalan, and President of Marketing, Strategy, and Products Mike Katz (seen below trying their best to hype up an ultimately largely meaningless marketing label). Before I let you all answer that for yourselves, I'd like to try to guess some of the reasons why T-Mobile customers no longer seem as interested (and as impressed) as they used to be by such titles as the one bestowed by Ookla. By the way, I'm not just saying that, instead basing my assessment on the relatively poor views figures generated by our article detailing T-Mo's latest win over Verizon and AT&T and the general indifference with which the otherwise super-vocal Redditors on the "Un-official subreddit of the Re-carrier" received the big news at the beginning of the week. This almost looks like a parody of an Un-carrier event from back in the good old days. | Image Credit -- T-Mobile Let's not beat it around the bush, you're far more open to debating and commenting on things like new plans, revised plan features and conditions, as well as every little detail concerning the universally reviled T-Life app, than the results of hundreds of millions of network speed and reliability tests performed across the nation. And I feel like the simplest explanation could also be the most valid - no one cares about the other guy (or girl), let alone a theoretical user. That's obviously the problem with all these studies conducted by Ookla, Opensignal, RootMetrics, and any other such independent analytics firm. As vast and as scientific as their experiments may be, they're still theoretical and thus not representative of your individual user experience. And unfortunately for T-Mobile , all the network performance trophies collected in the last half a decade don't seem to have done much to silence the criticism from individual customers with specific coverage issues that simply won't go away and underwhelming speeds that look unable to get better. Several_Resolution92 on Reddit, June 23, 2025 While the number of T-Mo subscribers complaining of various problems every... single... time the "Un-carrier" wins a new gold ribbon is by no means large in the grand scheme of things, I can totally understand if your distrust in the real-world relevance of speed and network availability tests is fueled by these negative comments... or your own sub-par experience. After all, who cares if some people can (theoretically) squeeze 200+ Mbps download speed averages out of their T-Mobile phones when you barely hit 20 or 30 Mbps most of the time? As odd as it may sound, I feel like the completely opposite explanation can also work, as T-Mobile , Verizon , and AT&T have all improved both their speeds and coverage over the last few years to such a remarkable degree that the competition for first place in Ookla reports no longer matters to most people. After all, not everybody needs 200 Mbps downloads to be happy, and as long as you can typically hit 50 or 60 Mbps, you might not care if the weather is (slightly) warmer on the other side. No matter the reason for your indifference, it's pretty clear that Magenta has to give (most of) its customers something else than empty titles, generic achievements, and big numbers that may or may not coincide with a user's real network experience. Something better, something more palpable, and something with a clearer and bigger value for one's day-to-day life. What must worry T-Mo's powers that be the most is the positive attention Verizon has been generating for a little while now, culminating with a "Project 624" announcement that felt pretty underwhelming to me personally, but that was surprisingly well-received on Reddit and other places around the web. Of course, those gift cards helped, and so did a new T-Mobile-style promotion. That's right, Verizon is so very clearly taking pages, nay, entire chapters from the old "Un-carrier" playbook that T-Mobile absolutely needs to rethink its ways and go back to its roots before it becomes an underdog again. And that needs to happen yesterday! Switch to Total 5G+ Unlimited 3-Month plan or Total 5G Unlimited and get a free iPhone. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase Check Out The Offer
Phone Arena
18-06-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
T-Mobile is giving away more money and your area might be the winner
Every now and then, the big carriers try to score some goodwill points – and right now, it is T-Mobile's turn to step up. After rolling out 25 Hometown Grant winners earlier this year, the Un-carrier is back at it again with another round. Each of the new recipients is getting up to $50,000 to put toward community-driven projects – things like renovating local landmarks, reviving public spaces or just giving parts of town a much-needed refresh. In total, T-Mobile says it has now invested nearly $18 million into this initiative, spreading the help across 48 states and Puerto Rico. The latest batch brings the total number of small towns getting a boost to 400 since the program kicked off in 2021. According to the company, the program has already helped over 2.4 million people, inspired more than 160,000 volunteer hours and led to the creation of over 1,200 jobs. It is a pretty solid impact and naturally, T-Mobile is happy to let everyone know. – Jon Freier, President, T-Mobile Consumer Group, June 17, 2025 Want to know if your town made the cut this time? T-Mobile dropped a video with the full list and if you spot your city in there, well, congrats. Video credit – T-Mobile One example from this round: Reedley, California is using its grant to give the 120-year-old Reedley Opera House stage a makeover. The goal is to support youth programs, make the arts more accessible, and give downtown Reedley a bit of a spark. Sure, $50K won't turn the place into Broadway, but for small towns, every bit helps. These grants aren't handed out randomly, either. T-Mobile works with Main Street America, a nonprofit focused on local economies, to vet applications based on impact, feasibility and what each project can realistically actually, the Hometown Grants program isn't just about parks and murals. T-Mobile says it has already funneled nearly $5.3 million into projects that support small businesses specifically – trying to grow those local economies from the ground up. And outside of the grants, T-Mobile 's still pushing programs like Project 10Million, which provides free internet access and hotspots to eligible student households to help close the digital divide – another way the company says it's trying to support underserved communities. Of course, T-Mobile is not the only one doing this type of outreach. Every major carrier pulls a move like this once in a while. Verizon, for example, recently announced a $5 billion commitment to investing in America and helping small businesses. And yeah, these gestures don't exactly erase customer frustrations, but they do help companies earn back some public favor. Secure your connection now at a bargain price! We may earn a commission if you make a purchase This offer is not available in your area.
Phone Arena
10-06-2025
- Phone Arena
T-Mobile is starting to fix the T-Life scourge, but there's still a LONG way to go
If there's one thing T-Mobile customers like to complain about, that's definitely the "Un-carrrier's" far too frequent price hikes and multiple broken "Price Lock" promises of the last few years. If there are two things constantly drawing criticism from long-time Magenta subscribers across Reddit and other social media channels, the second is undoubtedly the T-Life "super app" the operator replaced several separate services with in 2024. Technically designed to "simplify your T-Mobile experience", the Android and iOS app that handles monthly payments, weekly loyalty offers, account security, and everything in between has received hate for... practically every aspect of its functionality, as well as many missing features, some of which are shockingly basic and some of which have been inexplicably removed over time. To the Un-carrier "Re-carrier's" credit, T-Life has also scored a number of updates packed with welcomed new tools, the latest of which seems to fix the two biggest problems highlighted by many exasperated users over the last few months. Unfortunately, the newly (re) added self-service SIM Swap function is not yet available for all T-Life users, which continues to generate nightmare scenarios like the one detailed in this Reddit threat from yesterday and summed up below. Ok-Sir-4992 on Reddit, June 9, 2025 This is simply an unacceptable experience no one should have to go through in the year of our lord 2025, and hopefully, nobody will endure after the latest "server-side" T-Life changes widely roll out to the T-Mobile -subscribing masses. The other big update some of you might be able to enjoy already and some not just yet is full support for business accounts, which was a pretty much equally shocking omission for Magenta's so-called "all-in-one app." To its credit, at least T-Mobile seems to have listened to your most frequent (and aggressive) complaints, which is clearly not what you can say very often about Verizon or AT&T . Puzzleheaded_Gear622 on Reddit, April 2025 aliendude5300 on Reddit, May 2025 Look, we all realize no app can ever be completely immune to little glitches and imperfections, but the sheer number of T-Life users deeming this product unusable due to major bugs is, to quote Elon Musk, concerning. Because the "super app" integrates everything from the T-Mobile Tuesdays program to the carrier's vital Scam ID, Scam Block, and Caller ID-including Scam Shield tool set, that general instability has to raise serious concerns for T-Mo's bottom line, so hopefully, we'll see updates focused on fixing these very important issues rolled out before long as well. T-Mobile spokesperson, May 2025 And then you have quite possibly the most contentious topic of them all, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, generating a frankly impressive volume of vitriol since then. Clearly, T-Mobile customers don't like to be monitored or spied on (especially without proper warning), but alarmingly, the "Un-carrier" doesn't see anything wrong with the "Screen Recording" feature (or the way it was surreptitiously introduced), with no plans to get rid of it announced as of now. Beyond the pretty obvious violation of privacy, T-Mo's insistence to employ such sneaky tactics and disguise them as necessary compromises or even as features is undoubtedly rubbing users the wrong way, reminding us all of another big problem with T-Life: the way the app is pushed on customers and employees alike as the only acceptable method to perform a device upgrade, network switch, add a line, or even buy a new phone. cxpe15 on Reddit, March 2025 Until that policy is terminated, T-Mobile will continue to get (deserved) hate and criticism. Maybe less than before, but still far too much compared to how things were in the pre-T-Life days. Switch to Total 5G+ Unlimited 3-Month plan or Total 5G Unlimited and get a free iPhone. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase Buy at Total Wireless
Phone Arena
25-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
T-Mobile TPR reportedly turns away customers seeking plans "not profitable enough"
You might not be old enough to remember when T-Mobile was dead last among the four major U.S. wireless carriers. Not only were they among the last of the majors to offer 3G service, they also were among the last to flip the switch turning on 4G LTE. The carrier was not relevant until September 2012 when John Legere was named president and CEO of T-Mobile in the U.S. Taking a customer-first approach, Legere did away with customer pain points such as subsidized phones and the two-year contracts that went with them. He gave T-Mobile the Uncarrier brand to differentiate it from the competition and helped T-Mobile offer zero-rated perks such as free streaming music and Netflix "on us." Legere also made fun of T-Mobile's competitors calling Verizon and AT&T "Dumb and Dumber," respectively. Who would have thought that taking care of customers would turn T-Mobile around? Legere did, obviously, and after acquiring Sprint and making other smaller acquisitions, T-Mobile became the most innovative and fastest-growing wireless provider in the U.S. But after Legere left following the closing of the Sprint deal, his former right-hand man Mike Sievert took over; while T-Mobile continues to report spectacular numbers every quarter, as you probably know, there has been a huge drop in customer service as the current regime has put more emphasis on certain metrics that reps must meet to keep their jobs. Current T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert (L) sits next to his predecessor, John Legere. | Image credit-T-Mobile Reps barely make any money for selling a new phone unless they also get the customer to add items such as a charger, a case, insurance, and a new line. Since the "suits" frown upon sales of a "naked" phone, a few rogue reps have felt the pressure to add accessories to customers' invoices without their consent. T-Mobile Mobile Experts have gone on social media to detail some of the ways that they trick consumers in order to hit their metrics requirements. As bad as it is in corporate-owned stores, things are worse with the carrier's TPR ( T-Mobile Premium Retailer) stores which are owned and operated by third-party companies with authorization to use the T-Mobile name. These stores look like they are owned and run by T-Mobile , but they are not and many of them have been accused of seriously shady sales tactics. Among the worse of the TPR locations have been those units owned by Arch Telecom. According to the Arch employee, the top brass doesn't want him or other reps to sell this plan because "it's not 'profitable' enough." For some working at stores like this, it doesn't matter to them that seniors with low income are being turned away from buying a plan designed just for them. But the Redditor obviously doesn't think like some of his colleagues and management since he writes, "Never mind that many of these customers are seniors just trying to save money in this economy. Management would rather we push more expensive plans to hit inflated sales goals than do what's right for the customer." -Anonymous Arch Telecom rep on Reddit The post goes on to note that Arch has cut commissions even while reps are being forced to handle the "skyrocketing" numbers of customer complaints. Things look bleak for those reps working for this T-Mobile TPR and most likely others as well. Don't expect T-Mobile to force Arch and others to make any changes. As long as the stock holds at its current level, just 14% from the 52-week high, CEO Sievert and the T-Mobile Board have no incentive to clean things up despite many complaints from T-Mobile subscribers posting online.
