Tag: T-Mobile

T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G

Christian 3 Comments

In a press release shared yesterday, T-Mobile started referring to some of its 5G services as Ultra Capacity 5G. We’ve seen this kind of branding move before. Verizon calls its 5G service using low-frequency signals 5G Nationwide and its millimeter wave service 5G Ultra Wideband. AT&T calls its millimeter wave service 5G+.

T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G will typically deliver excellent speeds, but it isn’t well-suited for extensive coverage. Ultra Capacity 5G stands in contrast with T-Mobile’s low-frequency 5G, which T-Mobile is branding as “Extended Range 5G.” T-Mobile’s Extended Range 5G has better coverage potential than Ultra Capacity 5G, but Extended Range 5G will tend to deliver slower speeds.

I expect T-Mobile intentionally copied the word “ultra” from Verizon’s term 5G Ultra Wideband. While Verizon reserves the phrase Ultra Wideband for millimeter wave 5G, T-Mobile is using Ultra Capacity to refer to both mid-band and millimeter wave 5G.1 I’m guessing T-Mobile is hoping consumers will incorrectly conflate the two terms.

While I’m not a fan of T-Mobile’s deceptive naming, I have to acknowledge the company’s cleverness. T-Mobile is leading the nation in mid-band 5G coverage, but the network is way behind AT&T and Verizon in millimeter wave coverage. By using a single branded term for both mid-band 5G and millimeter wave 5G, T-Mobile can brag about how extensive its Ultra Capacity 5G coverage is without drawing attention to how little millimeter wave coverage the network offers.

Trouble At Teltik

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Teltik, a reseller of T-Mobile business lines, has been running into trouble lately. This summer, Teltik abruptly suspended activations of new lines. Starting yesterday, many subscribers began to report service outages. Hundreds of comments have been shared on a Reddit thread about the current issues.

Subscribers who lost service yesterday were often told Teltik would restore service within two hours. That appears not to have been the case. Today, Teltik’s website has a banner running across the top that reads, “Teltik is working aggressively with T-Mobile to resolve the service disruption we are experiencing. We anticipate a resolution by the end of the morning.”

Reports about the issues vary. Several commenters on the Reddit thread reported receiving an email from T-Mobile explaining that their accounts had been deleted. One user reported receiving the email three separate times over the last day. While most commenters reported losing service yesterday, a handful of commenters say their Teltik service hasn’t been interrupted. At least one commenter reported that his or her service worked yesterday and only ceased to work today.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I don’t think Teltik will manage to resolve the issue this morning.

2:47 MT Update: Teltik has updated the notice on its website. It now reads, “Teltik is working aggressively with T-Mobile to restore service on all disrupted lines. We anticipate all service interruptions to be resolved by the end of the day.”

Rumors About T-Mobile SIMs on Tello

Christian 1 Comment

While Tello has historically used Sprint as its host network, Tello announced plans to transition to T-Mobile’s network following the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. It looks like that transition may be starting.

A user in Reddit’s NoContract community recently shared a transcript from a conversation with a Tello support agent. Among other things, the support agent mentioned a date for the beginning of Tello’s transition to the T-Mobile network:

Starting 12/07/202, Tello will switch to the T-Mobile Network

Based on the rest of the conversation, it looks like the agent was suggesting 12/07/2020 will be the first date new subscribers can order service and SIM cards running over T-Mobile’s network. When the support agent was asked when existing Tello customers would be moved over to T-Mobile’s network, he could share a specific date. However, the agent suggested existing customers that wanted to transition to T-Mobile as soon as possible may be able to order new SIM cards at their discretion:

However, you will have the option to purchase a Tello SIM if you want to switch networks.

Tello’s website as of 12/7/2020

When I looked at Tello’s website early today, I didn’t notice major changes. The coverage page still showed a Sprint coverage map. The page about Tello’s bring-your-own-device program still suggested Tello ran over Sprint’s network:

Screenshot from Tello's website suggesting the service works for phones built for Sprint's network

I’m not sure what to think. Tello may already be shipping T-Mobile SIM cards, and an update to Tello’s website could be coming soon. It’s also possible the transition to T-Mobile’s network didn’t start today. Whatever is going on, I expect we’ll see Tello beginning its transition soon. A blog post Tello shared in October indicated that the carrier planned to start transitioning to T-Mobile’s network by the end of 2020.

Thanks For Approving My Merger!

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T-Mobile’s former CEO, John Legere, was extremely successful in branding himself as an advocate for consumers. While I admire Legere’s success, I don’t think he lived up to the persona he created.1

Today, Legere shared a tweet that reaffirmed my feelings:


While I think a lot of criticism of Ajit Pai has been unfair, “advocating for wireless competition” is quite the phrase. It feels particularly insincere coming from Legere who made the better part of $100 million from a bonus and other compensation tied to the closure of the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint. I’m on the record saying I expected the merger to be bad for consumers. Eight months later, I continue to stand by my view.

FCC Hits T-Mobile With A $200 Million Fine For Sprint’s Abuse Of The Lifeline Program

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The FCC fined T-Mobile $200 million for Sprint’s abuse of the Lifeline program. Under the Lifeline program, wireless carriers can get a nearly $10 subsidy for each eligible, low-income American they provide phone service to. Often, the Lifeline subsidy is large enough for carriers to offer basic service at no cost to eligible consumers.

According to the Lifeline program rules, carriers are only supposed to get subsidies for lines that are in active use. Lines that go unused are supposed to become ineligible for a subsidy. Here’s how the FCC explains the rationale for rules about usage:

The FCC developed this and other rules after investigations showed that companies were aggressively selling free Lifeline service, knowing that they would get paid each month even if consumers didn’t use their phones. Since there was no bill, consumers had no incentive to relinquish the subscription.

Before Sprint’s merger with T-Mobile, the carrier was receiving subsidies for almost a million lines that we’re in violation of the usage rules. Since T-Mobile now owns Sprint, T-Mobile is on the hook for the FCC’s $200 million fine. The FCC’s press release describes the fine as the “largest fixed-amount penalty to be paid in Commission history.”

T-Mobile’s Update On Mid-Band 5G

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In today’s press release from T-Mobile, the company claims that it has doubled the number of cities where it offers mid-band 5G service over the last month. The company expects to further expand mid-band, 5G coverage by the end of 2020:

Engineers are lighting up 1,000 sites per month with 2.5 GHz 5G and T-Mobile has plans to cover 100 million people with mid-band 5G by the end of the year.

While the press release involves an obnoxious amount of hype and marketing-speak, I think T-Mobile’s basic claim that mid-band service will bring consumers what they expect from 5G is more-or-less accurate. Low-band 5G doesn’t deliver speeds much better than what consumers are used to with LTE connections. Millimeter wave 5G coverage is still extremely sparse. With mid-band 5G, network operators can offer high speeds while still covering decent-sized areas.

For more information, see my page dedicated to T-Mobile’s 5G strategy.

Tello After The T-Mobile & Sprint Merger

Christian 1 Comment

The carrier Tello has offered some of the best prices in the industry for a while now. Until recently, the major downside of Tello was that it ran over Sprint’s lackluster network.

Ever since the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint closed, I’ve been wondering what the future would look like for Tello. On Friday, Tello shared a blog post that shed some light:

  • Tello plans to start implementing service over T-Mobile’s network in late 2020.1
  • Tello does not plan to change its pricing structure at this time.2
  • Sprint-only service is expected to be available until at least mid-2021.3
  • Sprint-only phones may see a big decline in the performance of data service before mid-2021.4

Phone compatibility with T-Mobile

Fortunately, many Tello subscribers already have phones that are compatible with T-Mobile’s network. High-end phones purchased in the last few years are particularly likely to work with T-Mobile.

If you bought a phone in the past 2 years — such as a recent iPhone or Galaxy — it likely already has support for both networks. Same goes for iPhone XR, XS, or later that should be good for the full T-Mobile experience, but devices older than 2018 may not be able to tap into the full capabilities of the new network.

Tello recommends using phones that support LTE bands 2, 4, 12, 66, and 71 along with VoLTE. Customers without compatible phones will probably need to upgrade their devices if they want to remain with Tello after the legacy Sprint network shuts down.

The long term

Tello has said it won’t raise prices, but I don’t think that’s a long-term commitment. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a price hike by the end of 2021. Tello will be more appealing with the expanded coverage offered by T-Mobile’s network. Additionally, the market for low-cost service is likely to become less competitive as Sprint disappears and large companies buy out a number of MVNOs.

While we may see a price increase eventually, I’m tentatively excited for Tello’s future. T-Mobile’s network is likely to offer Tello subscribers a far better coverage experience than Sprint’s network ever could.

T-Mobile Expands LTE Home Internet Options

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T-Mobile just announced that it will massively expanded the pilot program for its LTE home internet service. Almost 500 cities are being added to the service. T-Mobile shared a list of new locations in its press release.

In the press release, T-Mobile takes a lot of shots at AT&T’s recent decision to cease offering DSL service:

What AT&T takes away, T-Mobile brings back. Following news that AT&T is discontinuing DSL home broadband in many communities, T-Mobile is massively expanding its Home Internet pilot service to give another option to an additional 20 million households in parts of 450 cities and towns — many in rural America — being abandoned by AT&T in the middle of a pandemic when connectivity has never been more important.

While I’ve only looked into it briefly, T-Mobile’s service seems promising. With automatic payments enabled, it comes in at $50 per month. It looks like that $50 includes taxes, fees, and hardware costs. Further, T-Mobile doesn’t appear to be pushing subscribers into long-term contracts.

The service seems to be in its infancy. I entered two different address on T-Mobile’s website to whether the internet service was available. In both cases, I didn’t actually get an answer. Instead, T-Mobile requested my contact information and suggested the company would get in touch if service was available in my area.

You can find more information about T-Mobile’s LTE home internet service on the company’s website.

5G abstract

T-Mobile Expands Mid-Band 5G

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T-Mobile just launched mid-band 5G in a bunch of cities. Here’s the key bit from the press release:

T-Mobile lit up a supercharged 5G experience in another 121 cities and towns with mid-band 5G, delivering up to gigabit-per-second peak speeds and average download speeds around 300 megabits-per-second for capable 5G devices.

The expansion into mid-band 5G is exciting. While T-Mobile has been destroying its competitors in terms of 5G coverage, T-Mobile has relied mostly on slow, low-band 5G.

Twitter sweepstakes

In the press release, T-Mobile mentions a sweepstakes to encourage Twitter users to discuss T-Mobile’s 5G:

To celebrate, T-Mobile is giving away $100,000 on Twitter over the next several months, with #5Gsfor5G.

Interestingly, T-Mobile’s President of Technology, Neville Ray, criticized this sort of thing in a Tweet he shared the same day the sweepstakes launched:

Mint Mobile Launches An Unlimited Plan

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Mint Mobile launched an unlimited plan this morning. It’s available for as little as $30 per month.

Plan terms

Like many unlimited plans offered by mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), the plan isn’t actually “unlimited” in the mainstream sense of the word:

  • Subscribers can use 35GB of regular, full-speed data each month. After 35GB of data use, Mint throttles speeds to a sluggish 128Kbps.1
  • Mint caps mobile hotspot use at 5GB per month.

I’ll save my complaints about Mint misusing the word “unlimited” for a second post. 35GB of data and 5GB of mobile hotspot access will be sufficient for the vast majority of people.2

Like Mint’s old plans, the new plan includes unlimited minutes and texts. Calling to Canada and Mexico is also included at no charge.

Subscribers with 5G-capable devices will get access to 5G coverage from T-Mobile’s network. While T-Mobile’s 5G network is lackluster in terms of speeds, it leads the nation in 5G availability.

Pricing

With the new unlimited plan, Mint is continuing to price service based on how many months of service customers pay for upfront.

  • $30 per month – 12 months of service
  • $35 per month – 6 months of service
  • $40 per month – 3 months of service

The unlimited plan is eligible for the same introductory offer that Mint offers on its other plans. New customers can purchase three months of service at the rate Mint usually reserves for customers that purchase 12 months of service. I.e., three months of service on the unlimited plan costs $90 ($30 per month).

Reflections

Competitiveness

I’m glad to see Mint offering a plan for heavy data users with such a low price point. I expect the plan will be popular, especially among people who only need one or two lines of service. The new Mint plan should be competitive with other low-cost unlimited plans offered by carriers like Visible and Cricket. While I don’t think Mint’s new plan will make T-Mobile’s Essentials plan irrelevant, I’m ready to argue Mint’s plan is almost strictly the better option.

Pricing strategy

Interestingly, Mint has narrowed the distance between pricing tiers with the new plan. Mint’s 8GB plan costs $20 per month for customers that purchase a year of service upfront. The plan is 75% more expensive ($35 per month) for customers that purchase 3 months of service.3 Mint’s unlimited plan is only 33% more expensive for customers that opt for 3 months of service.4

In the past, I’ve wondered whether Mint’s pricing structure made volume discounts too aggressive. The large difference between monthly rates on three-month terms and twelve-month terms may have made the carrier unappealing to budget-sensitive consumers that could have been a good fit for Mint. Is it possible we’ll soon see Mint narrow the gap between pricing tiers on its old plans?

Mint’s new approach to pricing has a funny consequence. In some situations, Mint’s 12GB plan is now $5 per month more expensive than the 35GB (unlimited) plan.5