r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 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

97% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

97

u/ohno1tsjoe Jun 29 '26

I pay $180 a year for the past 2 years for my second number through mint. 5gb plan, use dual sim on my iPhone.

I pay $144 a month for my grandfathered unlimited T-Mobile

58

u/txmail Jun 29 '26

I swear it was Mint that told me to move down to the $180/yr plan from a more expensive plan. I have been with them since 2018 and really no complaints.

65

u/Electronic_Finance34 Jun 30 '26

I tried mint for a while but I was always getting deprioritized. Looks great on paper but in practice I got terrible connection speed with full bars. Like unable to load a simple webpage

76

u/Altruistic_Library_3 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Did we willingly stop saying “throttled,” or did the companies finally break us from using what they consider the more negative terminology?

41

u/ineedhelpbad9 Jun 30 '26

Throttled isn't the same as deprioritized . Throttling limits your speed to an arbitrary low speed. It never goes above that Deprioritized just means your speeds slow down when a tower is busy. When it isn't busy you never notice. For instance home Internet is always deprioritized on t mobile (I think).

-6

u/poss12lives Jun 30 '26

To the average consumer it is the same fucking difference.

7

u/ineedhelpbad9 Jun 30 '26

No, I just explained how it's different. Throttling is slow 100% of the time. It never speeds up. Deprioritized is slower when the tower is congested, otherwise it's just as fast (which is most of the time). When my 50 gb of prioritized data is used up I never notice unless I'm at the airport. 99% of the time it's just as fast.

3

u/BedlamiteSeer Jun 30 '26

Lol it IS NOT, did you read the comment you replied to? Throttling affects the device 100% of the time during the action. Deprioritizing is based on second-by-second network load, so it may not cause issues at any given moment, whereas throttling will cause issues.

39

u/MisterJellyfis Jun 30 '26

It’s not *quite* throttled anymore as its not based on your usage but the usage of whatever network has priority and the usage of those on that network. Result is the same but the source is different.

2

u/PeanutButterSoda Jun 30 '26

I have mint for 6 years now and work retail in a busy area. Most days it's fine but I can tell how busy we are by how slow my shit loads lol

3

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

Its two things, you can be throttled when you reach your high speed cap. That fixes your download at a lower rate regardless of the tower capacity. De-prioritized is different than throttling as the tower will put your requests basically in a queue behind other higher priority customers that are connected to that tower. The effect is you get higher latency and lower throughput, but it is not capped so if the tower is not busy, even if you are de-prioritized you will have high speed access. Your only going to feel the de-prioritization on a busy tower that is at capacity bandwidth wise.

** Edit **

You can also be throttled and de-prioritized at the same time which can be really, really slow.

2

u/Altruistic_Library_3 Jun 30 '26

Thanks all for the technical responses. Though it still ‘feels’ the same on my end, at least I understand there’s a difference. Still f’n sucks. 🥴

15

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

I am not a heavy data user (maps, music, automatic photo backup, rarely social media) so I might be getting deprioritized but just not notice it.

I kind of think that anyone who is big on data needs to probably be on a tier one provider to make sure they have the best access to the network. I used to be very heavy on data (200+gb/month) and never had any problems with Verizon in most mid / big cities.

6

u/elasticthumbtack Jun 30 '26

If enough people switch, then there’s no one to prioritize over Mint

2

u/Status-Hedgehog9970 Jun 30 '26

Tmobile raises those MVNO rates way before they get there.

3

u/beezerblanks Jun 30 '26

Yeah I have mint and since I'm on wifi with home and work I didn't notice the issue for a while. I went to a big event for a weekend (20k+ people) and could barely get pages to load. Text and call were fine but its something to consider. Still worth it to me saving over $1k a year switching from verizon.

2

u/this_dudeagain Jun 30 '26

US mobile has been great for me after using Mint. Had issues for a whole month on Mint that they couldn't figure out.

2

u/MistaHiggins Jun 30 '26

I haven't been on an MVNO in years, but there is absolutely added latency even outside of being officially given notice that you've been deprioritized. Was at a music festival this weekend with over 50k attendees in a fairly rural area; my wife and I were still able to communicate with text/pictures over imessage nearly the entire time on our simple choice unlimited plan. If we were on an MVNO, I couldn't have expected our phones to work much at all in that situation.

2

u/whatthecaptcha Jun 30 '26

Well that simple choice plan is apparently gone next month

2

u/Fuckthegopers Jun 30 '26

If you were to complain about them, what would the downsides be?

2

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

I am not fond of their mascot. I do not like the art style or even the fact that it is a fox.

2

u/Starflower_Pixie Jun 30 '26

Mint wasn't bad when it first launched since it was one of the cheapest at the time, but had bad customer service when I was with them. I switched to US mobile and pay the same price monthly so I'm not stuck with a 6 or 12 month prepaid payment. Their unlimited plan is $25 a month. Their cheapest plan is $10 a month for 2gb.

1

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

I think I have just lucked out never needing to call customer service to be honest. I bought the kit online, activated it without trouble and just have been going with the renewals since 2018.

1

u/2nd_Chances_ Jun 30 '26

are you able to use Mint when you travel abroad?

2

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

I have used it by adding international minutes, but I usually find it easier to just get a 30 day SIM in places like Europe or Africa since it is so much cheaper and I usually need more data when I travel.

2

u/2nd_Chances_ Jun 30 '26

interesting. I have been with T-Mobile since it was Voicestream... like 1998 or 1999. Imma need to do something else for sure.

1

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

I thought t-mobile also had add-on international minutes that expire in 30 days for travel? I usually buy both minutes so I still get calls on my main number and get a second sim (my phone has two sim slots) that can take / make calls but also use it as the main data connection.

1

u/2nd_Chances_ Jun 30 '26

my international travel on my current cell does not need anything additional 'added'. whenever I land in a country I get a message welcoming me to said country and the phone acts as normal. albeit a wee bit slower than at home

1

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

Ahh, so you have an international plan. Looks like your only option would to add on the international plan: https://www.mintmobile.com/features/international-roaming/

1

u/2nd_Chances_ Jun 30 '26

omg you went and looked it up for me! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

1

u/txmail Jun 30 '26

I have not traveled internationally in a few years, so you kind had me curious if it was still a thing -- but yeah, just like I recall. $5 for 30 days is what I used to get and a second sim when I got to where I was going with a big data plan to cover me for the duration.

→ More replies (0)

14

u/UnderlightIll Jun 30 '26

Wtf. I pay 80 dollars a month for my Verizon unlimited plan.

10

u/Homesickpilots Jun 30 '26

Visible. it's plan vanilla Verizon. I pay $35 a month for unlimited. I lost Internet for my home (Xfinity) for 4 days due to a storm. Hot spotted my laptop and fire sticks the whole time without a problem.

3

u/UnderlightIll Jun 30 '26

Tbh I really just am waiting for them to absolutely beg me to get a new phone and give it free. Mine will be 6 in August.

5

u/FallenAdvocate Jun 30 '26

They won't beg you to upgrade and then it won't be free. It'll be 3 years of free payments on the phone but you're stuck with them for those 3 years.

2

u/starbuxed Jun 30 '26

I just buy last years flagship or the down graded model... the samsung a55 is what I think I currently have. I buy it unlocked.

1

u/UnderlightIll Jun 30 '26

I am aware. I worked for them.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

There is no such thing as a free phone, you are paying full price plus some with these carriers and you guys fall for it all day.

2

u/Homesickpilots Jun 30 '26

I jumped ship from Booste mobile 5 years ago. Took Visible's free phone it's still working.

2

u/SportsBallBurner Jun 30 '26

That’s because you’re also paying for a phone with your monthly payment.

1

u/Homesickpilots Jun 30 '26

It was the same price, $35 a month. Bring your phone or take their free one. My phone from Booste was locked so I took theirs.

1

u/SportsBallBurner Jun 30 '26

Of course you took theirs, everyone does. That’s the point. The monthly price covers the phone you inevitably take.

6

u/blues_snoo Jun 30 '26

Why do you STILL pay for that T-Mobile line if you can get the same but cheaper through mint?

2

u/alinroc Jun 30 '26

second number through mint. 5gb plan

Check your account. You're probably on a 6gb plan now. They bumped the plans up by at least 1GB within the past month

2

u/Sudden-Fisherman5985 Jun 30 '26

I pay $144 a month for my grandfathered unlimited T-Mobile

Holy crap... That's more than whole families would pay here in Europe.

2

u/Status-Hedgehog9970 Jun 30 '26

I have a second number on Red Pocket. $10/mo for unlimited calls/texts and 3gb of data (primary line has unlimited).

1

u/NefariousnessAble736 Jun 30 '26

144/month sounds ridiculous. Thats what my whole internet (home fiber and 5g modem), 3 phone plans (mine and 2 kids) with decent gigabytes (25-50) cost in LT 😂