Tag: T-Mobile

Network Slicing Hits Prime Time: T-Mobile’s T-Priority

Christian

T-Mobile recently launched a service for first responders called T-Priority. The service involves a combination of priority access, preemption capabilities, and a dedicated network slice.

With network priority access and preemption, your voice, data, and messages get automatic prioritization over non-essential network traffic. And once you’re connected, you stay connected, even with severe congestion or poor radio coverage.

During times of major network congestion, non-priority users are preempted from the network to make room for your team’s traffic. And, in rare cases, non-priority users are dropped from the network, although that’s less common today with the robustness of our 5G network. When needed, the T-Priority 5G network slice can also expand to provide extra data capacity, ensuring your team is first in line.Via T-Mobile

Network Slicing – Finally Real

Network slicing received significant attention during 5G’s launch, but T-Priority is one of the first major offerings actually implementing the technology. With network slicing, a portion of network resources is carved out for a specific use case or set of customers.

T-Mobile hasn’t shared much about T-Priority’s technical implementation. The network slicing component likely only functions on 5G standalone (5G SA) connections. T-Mobile suggests it will increase resources for the T-Priority slice during emergencies, but details on how resource-allocation decisions are made remain unclear.

Priority Still Matters

While on a dedicated network slice, priority levels may be nearly irrelevant. However, since T-Mobile’s 5G SA coverage isn’t universal, T-Priority subscribers will often connect via 4G and 5G non-standalone networks. On these networks, enhanced prioritization (via an improved QCI or 5QCI) could make a significant difference during congestion.

Early Days

Since T-Priority is a new service, T-Mobile is likely still working out aspects of how the service works—including decisions about the appropriate amount of network resources to dedicate. More details about T-Priority’s technical implementation should emerge over time.

Satellite over Earth

T-Mobile Starlink Beta Update: Thousands Being Added Daily

Christian

I’m on the waitlist for T-Mobile’s Starlink beta program and just received a status update email. For those interested, I’ve reproduced the relevant portion below.

An update on the T‑Mobile Starlink beta

Demand is high, and we’re adding thousands of people to T‑Mobile Starlink beta every day. We know you’re eager to try out satellite-powered messaging. Rest assured your place in line is secure and right now there’s nothing you need to do. When you are ready to be admitted to the beta, we’ll reach out with more information and additional steps!

Once you’re in the beta, here’s what to expect

  • The first time you enter satellite coverage you will receive a text confirmation.
  • From then on, whenever you are out of reach from your land-based tower signals, your phone will automatically connect to T‑Mobile Starlink. It just works!
  • You’ll be able to send and receive messages and share your location. That’s just the start. Up next after launch—share photos, use data, and more.
US Cellular coverage map screenshot

T-Mobile Plans To Buy Most Of U.S. Cellular

Christian

T-Mobile plans to buy U.S. Cellular’s almost 5 million subscribers, all of U.S. Cellular’s stores, and some of U.S. Cellular’s spectrum. The deal is expected to close in mid-2025 and will likely involve a final price between 4 and 5 billion dollars.

While I’m often not a fan of consolidation in the wireless industry, the writing has been on the wall for U.S. Cellular. The deal still needs to make it past regulators, but I don’t expect major hurdles getting in the way of approval.

While U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile’s networks remain distinct, I’ll continue to offer a map of U.S. Cellular’s coverage that’s accessible from the coverage map’s settings menu.

Screenshot from the coverage map showing an option to add U.S. Cellular as an additional network

Photo of an open padlock

T-Mobile’s Price Unlock

Christian

Here’s how T-Mobile used to describe its old Price Lock guarantee (thank you, Archive.org):

Price Lock is our guarantee that we won’t raise the price of your qualifying rate plan for new accounts. You can rest assured that T-Mobile won’t raise the price of your regular monthly rate plan price…as long as you’re a T-Mobile customer and keep your plan.

As of today, new subscribers can receive something that’s still called Price Lock, but the terms are different:

Starting January 18, 2024, customers activating or switching to an eligible rate plan get our Price Lock guarantee that only you can change what you pay—and we mean it! To show just how serious we are, if we were to make a price change and you decide to leave, just let us know within 60 days and we’ll cover the cost of your final month’s recurring service charges.

The old Price Lock was purportedly a passive guarantee. Subscribers allegedly didn’t need to do anything to keep the rates they started with.1

The new Price Lock (1) doesn’t lock in prices, and (2) requires active involvement from anyone taking advantage of it. Most people don’t memorize or monitor the detailed terms of their phone plans. If T-Mobile raises prices on plans covered by the new Price Lock policy, I doubt many customers will remember they’re eligible for a bill credit if they leave.

The new policy is fine. But it needs a name change.

People holding cell phones

Visible’s January Promo

Christian 1 Comment

Verizon’s flanker brand, Visible, is running a pretty sweet promo through the end of the month.

Visible’s standard unlimited plan is discounted from $25 per month to $20. The premium Visible+ plan is discounted from $45 to $35.

A Two-Year Deal

Even without this month’s discounts, Visible offers some of the best value in the industry. But what I find most notable about the promo is the explicit duration of the discount (emphasis mine):

New members qualify to receive either (1) $5/mo off the normal rate of the Visible plan or (2) $10/mo off the normal rate of the Visible+ plan for each of the first 24 months of service…Now-current standard costs of service of $25/mo (Visible Plan) or $45/mo (Visible+ Plan) apply starting with the twenty-fifth month.

Carriers often entice people with long-term discounts that are neither guaranteed forever nor given an explicit end date. I get that carriers don’t know what the competitive landscape will look like years down the road, but leaving customers in the dark about how long they’ll receive a discount rubs me the wrong way.

Years ago, T-Mobile tried to buck the trend with a guarantee not to raise prices on certain plans. However, grandfathering customers forever isn’t great for business. In October, T-Mobile flirted with weaseling out of it’s commitment by automatically migrating customers away from grandfathered plans. After some bad press, the company backed down.

I like what Visible is doing. Twenty-four months is a long time. But it’s not such a long time that Visible is likely to look for loopholes to push customers away from the discounts. Perhaps I’m over-optimistic, though. I’ll note another line from the promo’s terms:

For purposes of clarity, any service plan change of any kind – whether initiated by the member or if required by Visible, including but not limited to changes from the Visible plan to the Visible+ plan and vice versa – will result in the discount being removed.
U Turn Road Sign

T-Mobile Continues To Walk Back On Forced Plan Migrations

Christian

In T-Mobile’s earnings call earlier today, CEO Mike Sievert reiterated that the company is walking away from forced plan migrations and associated price increases.

By the way, that was sort of not very accurately reported. So let me just kind of clear it up…we tend to do tests and pilots of things quite a bit to try to figure out what’s the right answer. In this case, we had a test cell to try to understand customer interest in and acceptance of migrating off old legacy rate plans to something that’s higher value for them and for us. And we had planned to test and did some training around that. And then it leaked. And it leaked as if it was a broad national thing, and it kind of wasn’t.

Now I don’t know that we still have to do that test cell because, to your point, we did get plenty of feedback thanks to the erroneous context of the leak. And I think we’ve learned that particular test cell isn’t something that our customers are going to love.

Now exactly none have rolled out. So even to your question that we recently rolled out, we didn’t. We had planned it. We had planned it as a test cell and then we aren’t doing it because I think we’ve got plenty of feedback.

Every company has bad ideas. T-Mobile put a stop to this bad idea before it adversely affected customers. Maybe that says something positive about T-Mobile. On the other hand, the suggestion that this was just a small test is frustratingly evasive.

A test was only going to take place because T-Mobile considered making forced plan migrations “a broad national thing.”

Other Changes To Legacy Plans

Sievert later hinted that T-Mobile is still considering eventual adjustments to legacy plans:

We remain very interested in rationalizing our legacy rate plans for IT purposes, simplification purposes, revenue realization purposes, customer satisfaction and retention purposes. So we’re going to stay at it. But that particular idea is — we’ll probably do something different. Good. Okay.
That use of “rationalizing” confused me. Apparently, there’s a business meaning of the term that’s something like “adjusting products and reorganizing things to increase efficiency”.

If T-Mobile moves forward with changes to legacy plans, I hope they’ll go about it a bit more honestly.

Image of a finger pointing at a frowning face

T-Mobile’s Price Increase Saga

Christian

Earlier this month, a now-deleted post on Reddit and an article from The Mobile Report broke a story about an impending price increase for T-Mobile customers. Leaked documents suggested that T-Mobile would switch some customers on older plans to different plans with monthly prices $5 to $10 higher. Customers would be alerted of the upcoming changes and given an option to opt out of the automatic migration.

The documents included suggested lines for T-Mobile representatives fielding calls from customers. The lines include a gem that’s emblematic of the sort of bullshit consumers have to deal with in the cell phone industry:

We are not raising the price of any of our plans; we are moving you to a newer plan with more benefits at a different cost.

Raising prices of certain plans would violate a promise T-Mobile made not to raise prices for existing customers. T-Mobile appears to be weaseling out of its commitment by switching customers’ plans.

Most Customers Are Unaffected

Initially, it sounded like the automatic migrations would affect customers on the following plans:

  • Magenta
  • One
  • Magenta 55+
  • Simple Choice / Select Choice
  • Simple Choice Business

I’d guess tens of millions of customers are on those plans. However, documents released later suggested only 1% of T-Mobile’s customer base, about a million people, would be affected.

The leaks generated pushback and confusion. T-Mobile’s CEO, Mike Sievert, sent a company-wide email clarifying the situation. Sievert explained that reporting around the leaks missed context. Allegedly, price increases and plan switches were part of a small test. The email made me more sympathetic to T-Mobile, but it still reeked of bullshit. It didn’t acknowledge that the changes are, in practice, a price increase.

We hope our customers will be thrilled with the new benefits and service they will eventually receive…We continue to remain committed to being the Un-carrier.

Did T-Mobile Walk Back?

I’m unsure what to make of the whole saga. Maybe a price increase for a tiny segment of T-Mobile’s customers got blown out of proportion. Or perhaps T-Mobile planned to rollout the price increase more broadly but backed off after bad press. It’s hard to say. T-Mobile may scale up the plan migrations to a much larger portion of its customer base.

Hands shaking

Dish Amends Its Agreement With T-Mobile

Christian

While convincing regulators to approve a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, T-Mobile committed to allowing Dish to offload traffic to T-Mobile’s network for several years. Then, roughly a year ago, Dish announced that it formed a similar agreement allowing the company to piggyback on AT&T’s network.

On Tuesday, Dish announced that it renegotiated the arrangement with T-Mobile. Among other things, the amended agreement involves better pricing for Dish:

DISH Network (NASDAQ:DISH) and T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) signed an amendment to the 2020 Master Network Services Agreement…The amendment…incorporates financial and operational changes, including improved pricing and enhanced roaming solutions.

The new agreement will need to be approved by regulators. It’s expected to get a green light by the end of the summer.

Mike Dano at Light Reading wrote a more detailed article covering Dish’s announcement. While I don’t entirely trust the numbers, I found this excerpt especially interesting:

New Street analysts wrote in a note to investors Tuesday that Dish paid T-Mobile a little less than $2 billion in 2021 for access to its network, which equates to $17 per subscriber per month, or about $2 per GB. The analysts estimate that Dish’s deal with AT&T is closer to $1.50/GB, with a path to $1/GB over time. They said they believed Dish’s new agreement with T-Mobile is likely in line with its $1.50/GB deal with AT&T.
Calendars

T-Mobile Delays CDMA Shutdown & Calls Out Dish

Christian

Today, T-Mobile issued a press release announcing that it will delay the phaseout of Sprint’s legacy 3G/CDMA network. The phaseout had been set to occur on January 1, 2022, but it has now been pushed back three months to March 31, 2022.

In the press release, T-Mobile takes shots at Dish but does not mention the company by name (emphasis mine):

To build out our revolutionary network…we need to sunset outdated CDMA technologies as soon as possible…This is why we have aggressively executed on plans to take care of transitioning our impacted Sprint CDMA customers by the end of this year and provided our partners plenty of time and resources to take care of their customers as well.

Recently it’s become increasingly clear that some of those partners haven’t followed through on their responsibility to help their customers through this shift. So, we’re stepping up on their behalf. We have made the decision to extend our deadline for the CDMA sunset by three months to March 31, 2022…Our reason for extending is simple: we want to give those partners who haven’t done the right thing for their customers every opportunity to step up now and do so.

There should be no more room for excuses.

I’ve updated my page on major networks’ 3G phaseouts to reflect the new plan.

Hat tip to Eli Blumenthal who tweeted about T-Mobile’s announcement.

Calendar visual

Dates For T-Mobile & Sprint’s 3G Phase-Outs

Christian

T-Mobile has been moving towards phasing out its 3G network for some time, but until recently, the company had not committed to a specific date. In a recently published webpage, T-Mobile shared a deadline of July 1, 2022 for shutting down its native 3G network. Here’s an excerpt from the page:

  • As of January 1, 2022 Sprint’s older 3G (CDMA) network will be retired
  • As of June 30, 2022 Sprint’s LTE network will be retired
  • As of July 1, 2022 T-Mobile’s older 3G UMTS network will be retired

We’ve also shared that we plan to retire T-Mobile’s older GSM 2G network as well, but no date has been set. We will update this page with any additional information in the future.

With T-Mobile’s latest announcement, all of the major US networks now have dates set for their 3G phase-outs. I won’t be shocked if one or more of those dates are pushed back.

Credit to Mike Dano of Light Reading who tweeted and posted about this topic.