We detail all the minutia of the new T-Mobile Prepaid Data rollout. At the end, you’ll see all the tidbits of where each T-Mobile device stands on prepaid data. Brace yourself for some twists and turns.
In general, T-Mobile says they have two prepaid data plans. One’s new, and one’s old. The old one being the Sidekick Prepaid Data Plan. It’s $1/day and includes unlimited data and messaging. The new plan, is $.99/hour for unlimited data on other devices.
It’s the term “other devices” that gets hazy. And, unofficially, there’s a third data plan, for the Nokia Nuron.
In case you didn’t know, Costco is selling in their stores the Nokia Nuron for $119.99 as a prepaid phone. Though, it’s currently sold out online.
The Nokia Nuron would be perfect for the $.99/hour plan. After all, HSPA data with tethering in a pinch, at a fair price for a per-hour plan. Only, the $.99/hour plan doesn’t work with the Nokia Nuron. T-Mobile claims only prepaid devices sold on their web site work with the $.99/hour plan currently.
So, what can the Nokia Nuron do? While T-Mobile won’t comment on it, you do get access to the Ovi Store and Ovi Maps without data usage. Of course, Ovi Store apps you download can’t access the internet, but if it’s Ovi branded, it can get on the web. T-Mobile appears to have opened a proxy for Ovi services data-free when using a Nuron.
This actually gives you access to a lot of great stuff, such as free turn-by-turn GPS navigation. And, the Nuron also lets you download maps from your Mac or PC for offline use. Know of any standalone GPS units that give you 180 countries of map data for only $119? We didn’t think so.
Figuring out T-Mobile’s prepaid options is so difficult, we made a chart of your choices.
We did check with T-Mobile beforehand to see if this information was correct. They did confirm the above in regards to Sidekick and 2G Prepaid Devices. We’re still waiting to hear back on the future of prepaid data on the Nokia Nuron and other 3G devices. We suspect however, that eventually they too will be offered the $.99/hour option.
Our take on the matter is that T-Mobile is still rolling out prepaid data. It’s clearly a work in progress. After being the lone prepaid carrier in the Big 4 that hasn’t offered any prepaid data at all, T-Mobile is working on a comeback plan.
[…] PhoneNews.com lays out the options, and the picture becomes a bit clearer after reading their article. You can get data access on any 2G feature phone offered through their prepaid program for 99 cents per hour. That seems like a decent deal if you use it correctly. Unfortunately, T-Mobile does not support this plan for 3G postpay phones that customers are using in prepaid. That, of course, makes the plan much less valuable. […]
Just give us something straight & reasonable like $0.10/MB or something competitive with AT&T’s GoPhone $20/100 MB ($0.20/MB) plan. Instead of these limitations and hourly rates, which is a joke. There’s a reason why no other carrier has hourly charges.
Data by a pack, by the meg or by the day is okay. Other carriers have used those systems with success. But BY THE HOUR?
When Sidekicks get unlimited data for a buck a day, they have to charge TWENTY FOUR TIMES AS MUCH for other phones?
Tmobile has great talk/text unlimited and messaging only plans. But for data, they SUCK. Plain and simple.
I think there could be a big niche here, though they should offer better plans.
For example, let’s say you’re on-site and you need to download a big file for a client. $.99 seems cheap for a 250 MB file in a pinch, especially compared to 250 MB aircard rates.
Of course, you have to do SIM swaps to make that work today, but we suspect that they’ll roll the $.99/hour plan out to 3G devices… eventually…
Between that, and Simple Mobile’s new $60/month unlimited everything plans, T-Mobile does appear to have something for everyone. I’m sure people still want a $20/$30 a la carte data option, but that’s not realistic these days. AT&T wants 100 MB for that price range, and Sprint’s & Verizon’s prepaid are jailed to a select few phones.
Aside from the comparison with the Sidekick data, the .99/hour really looks ridiculous when you look at T-Mobile’s UK site: 3 pay as you go data options: 2 (GB Pounds) (+/-$3USD) per day, $10/week and $21/month. (see http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/mbbpayperday/). Following that nearly everything is more expensive over there than in North America, .99/hour is a crime for T-Mobile USA to even be considering.
I should have looked even more closely before posting. The above pricing is for data cards. surfing the internet on a phone: (prices in UK pounds – multiply by 1.48 or so for USD): 1 pound per day, 2.50 for 5 days and 5 pounds for the month – all are unlimited. see: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/mobile-internet/on-your-phone/). We are getting hosed at .99 and hour.
[…] does not work properly on the prepaid version of the Nuron (currently exclusive to Costco). As previously reported, the prepaid Nuron cannot access services outside of Ovi, including SW […]
t-mobile better i can down or 250 MB in one hour on the pc better then at&t would cost me $60 to do that (are room were we stay prohibits us to get a real line the own wont let us use his)(were in calif ass old man) now we don’t don’t to go to a stupid coffee shop or damn library (everyone should have right to have acces at home no mater what) about time the us starting to offer us prepaid internet like evy other country has for a lonnnnnnnnnnngggggggg time we are so slowwwwwwwww 3rd world country have much better technoligy in the prepaid systtem or at least we should have the write to sign up with no id or ssn i think metro pcs still offerse server with no ID required so at lest there still contract plan out there
This makes me sick. I live in Italy and have tre as my service provider. For 5 Euro per month (about 7 or 8 bucks) I get 3GB of data. All United States service providers are evil when it comes to data plans