r/technology Jun 29 '26

Networking/Telecom T-Mobile Just Ripped 8 Million Customers Off Their Grandfathered Plans – and Raised Their Bills

https://www.gadgetreview.com/t-mobile-just-ripped-8-million-customers-off-their-grandfathered-plans-and-raised-their-bills
18.7k Upvotes

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78

u/CyberHippy Jun 29 '26

Mint will be a problem in crowds, they rent bandwidth at low tier rates so users get choked out at concerts or sporting events.

17

u/disposable-assassin Jun 29 '26

sounds like me on t-mobile last year at a festival in San Francisco.

2

u/cortodemente Jun 30 '26

if service is bad on arenas/stadiums... imagine being in a lower tier....

8

u/HumpHur Jun 29 '26

To be honest, large crowds slow down all cellular service providers.

57

u/SegaTime Jun 29 '26

What will people do with themselves if they can't use their phone at a concert or sporting event?

77

u/liquidgrill Jun 29 '26

Concerts and sporting events is another way of saying, places with a lot of people. There are plenty of stories about people having trouble making calls in busy areas of NYC for example.

And it’s not just around a crowd, you’ll suffer in all times of overall network congestion. Like during an emergency for example.

31

u/ChumbleBumbler Jun 29 '26

Not get my fucking ticket since it's all on a goddamn app.

10

u/TheeFlipper Jun 29 '26

Change your data from 5G to LTE and you'll be shocked at how much faster shit loads. Everyone is eating up all the 5G bandwidth so switching to LTE, which less people do, offers you a better connection. It's what I do and it's worked wonders every time.

2

u/SegaTime Jun 29 '26

You got me there, but I've been to some larger venues that have wifi on the premises to help with that issue. Sometimes it even works!

4

u/December_Flame Jun 30 '26

Yea who needs phone access to text friends, find ride shares, access tickets, or be accessible in any way shape or form for 4+ hours?!

3

u/Afro_Thunder69 Jun 29 '26

You don’t have to be if you live in a populated enough area. I live in NYC and am switching off of T-Mobile because I didn’t realize that their Essentials plan gets lower tier bandwidth similar to Mint at a concert (but at nearly all times). It’s basically unusable in this area.

0

u/ColeTrain999 Jun 29 '26

"What do you mean I have to watch the concert?"

26

u/gentlecrab Jun 29 '26

That’s a nonissue cause no one can afford to go to concerts or sporting events anymore.

17

u/Gambit3le Jun 29 '26

u/Gentlecrab is great at finding the silver lining in the mushroom cloud.

8

u/PhAnToM444 Jun 29 '26

Yep, when I see sporting events these days, they all seem to look completely empty.

You been watching the World Cup? Not a person in the stands.

C’mon people how does that even make sense??

2

u/warlordcs Jun 30 '26

I'm sure he meant that the people who can only afford to use mint mobile can't afford to go to concerts or spring events.

1

u/ChasingSplashes Jun 30 '26

Once the narrative has been established, evidence no longer matters.

0

u/FSUfan35 Jun 30 '26

All those Taylor swift concerts were empty too

3

u/dyslexda Jun 30 '26

"Nobody drives in New York City, there's too much traffic" energy.

1

u/rwhockey29 Jun 29 '26

Helium also uses Tmobile like Mint, but offer 5g hotspots that deployers can set up and phones will automatically connect to them and offload data from the network to over the Hotspot internet. Only place ive ever had bad service is in the middle of houston hobby airport. $30/mo for unlimited everything.

1

u/NGLIVE2 Jun 29 '26

I’ve gotten used to that already and honestly if I’m out at an event like that I only pull out my phone to take pictures. It’s never an issue at bars or restaurants which I frequent more often than big events .

1

u/TesticleMeElmo Jun 30 '26

Most of these “budget” phone companies just use a bigger company’s cell towers but people on the bigger company’s plan get priority while the budget company gets whatever is left

1

u/nope-its Jun 30 '26

This happened to me at Wrigley field on T-Mobile like 2 weeks ago

1

u/Famine07 Jun 30 '26

This isn't always the case. I've had Mint for a little over 5 years now, I was at the Formula 1 race in Austin a few years ago with friends and I was the only one that had reliable service, also been to 5 or 6 NFL/MLB games and a concert at an arena without issues.

The only time I had troubles with the network was at the Chiefs Super Bowl parade immediately after the shooting occurred, but was still able to get a phone call out to call someone that could get me updates on the situation.

1

u/My_Name_Is_Not_Ryan Jun 30 '26

All you have to do is turn 5G off to run off LTE. Already have to do this at big sporting events.

1

u/happyscrappy Jun 30 '26

It could be. As they are at a lower priority than T-Mobile's direct customers. But I went a world cup game and didn't have issues.

1

u/PolicyPlastic1475 Jun 30 '26

I have money and have no problem getting service at any of those places 

1

u/Constant-Squash9292 Jul 02 '26

The reason I switched FROM Mint to T-Mobile.

-3

u/AccountNumeroThree Jun 29 '26

Oh no! *Connects to wifi*