T-Mobile announced its latest Un-carrier initiative today with a new “Data Stash” feature that allows customers to bank unused data and carry it over month-to-month for up to a year.
“Can you imagine your gas station siphoning unused gas from your car each month? The US wireless industry is even worse,” said John Legere, president and CEO for T-Mobile. “Americans have been gamed by the carriers into buying huge data plans – all to avoid getting screwed with overage penalties. Only to find out they bought more than they need which is then confiscated by the carrier. For the consumer it’s lose, lose.
It’s also offering 10 GB free for new and qualifying customers to kick things off, but it notes that the “data does not begin carrying over until after free 10GB runs out.” The free 10GB promotion will last until 12/31/15.
There is no limit to the amount of data users can stash, according to T-Mobile, although data can only be banked for up to a year. T-Mobile’s 200MB Free Data for Life offer for tablet users isn’t eligible for data rollover.
T-Mobile is going to begin rolling out the Data Stash features to all existing customers at no charge starting next year in January. T-Mobile says that includes “every individual, family and business – with a postpaid Simple Choice plan who has purchased additional 4G LTE data, 3GB or more for smartphones and 1 GB or more for tablets.”
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Imagine gas stations charging you UP FRONT for gas that you didn’t even pump into your car?
This is a good move, but Legere is talking out his ass with the gas station analogy. Just charge a modest amount for data that’s actually used. Tier it to apply savings as your usage goes up. Simple, manageable. No silly carry-over, stashing or banking gimmicks that still expire after a set time.
Be a part of the solution, don’t perpetuate the problem.
I get what you’re saying, but Legere’s analogy makes way more sense.
It’s not that it doesn’t make sense, it’s that his comment is completely disingenuous. Their plan may be better than the next guy’s, but it’s still nothing like any other industry – it’s still a convoluted mess. A lot of people are still going to pay for what they don’t use.
@bruno (god this comment system sucks) yeah, to make it sound as ridiculous as it actually is, i feel like we have to paint the whole picture–
Gas is sold in subscriptions (ex: 20Gal/month for the lowest tier). You have to have a fuel subscription in order to own a car.
AT&T takes your partially full barrel and gives you a new, full one and charges exorbitant high prices for extra gas, and T-Mobile lets you keep the leftovers in case you plan on taking a long trip.
If I understand it correctly, though, you only get to keep the leftovers if you paid for an XL plan to start with (i.e., 3GB or more). E.g., we currently just have a 1GB plan for every member of the family. Most months we don’t even get close to using that. But very occasionally we might want to rent an iTunes movie while away from WiFi and then being able to use those leftovers would be awesome.
Still, T-mobile remains the least bad of US carriers for those who can live with their coverage restrictions (which are improving).
@Bruno,
I prefer to pay little to nothing for my data, thankyouverymuch. My costs and coverage with TMobile improved over AT&T or Verizon – both.
The problem with the big 2 are that they’re lazy and don’t want to give back to the customer. I hope they feel the heat from TMobile.
If you like your service, keep it.
What’s up with that image? Woman looks like she’s packing Popeye arms.
It’s called Depth of Field. But yes, it’s a disturbing image nonetheless.
I think….that’s a dude.
“Here customer, get used to more data than you can afford so when your 10 free GB runs out youll be addicted to over using facebook and have to sign up for a bigger plan”
To bad T-mobile sucks balls here in Los Angeles……
What are you talking about? Coverage is great for me in Los Angeles, and just about everywhere in So Cal for me. I’m usually in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Vegas, and the coverage is great for me, even faster than AT&T.
Is it just me or everyone know what terrible network T-Mobile is in terms of territory coverage? Why I need so much data, so cheap, as I can have even normal phone connection? I was T-Mobile customer for many years, and I did contact T-Mobile support so many times during my 2 yeas subscription and year after that to ask to improve the coverage where I work and area I leave. They never improve anything for the period of 3 years. I moved to AT&T and since I move I never have bad connection EVER. I am not paid to comment on this. I just have no idea how people could not understand that TM is very bad in coverage normal leaving and working areas. Now I have friend who do not want to pay too much and struggle with TM connection, even with some device they send him for free. If TM invest in infrastructure and have the same coverage as AT&T I will move with this prices, but at this point, I do not see any significant desire from Legere to do the most important think in order to get more customers on his network. I am just regular user who never even go over 500GB of data, but when I need it, I have it on AT&T network. It is so simple. May be if they offer a free plan I may move.
Because fwiw, I do understand that Tmo has pretty poor coverage, but price and overall less bs was more important. And for us at least, they have perfectly fine coverage out here in SoCal.
T-Mobile has really improved their network significantly over the past 2-3 years. I get LTE everywhere I go that’s within a metro area (SF bay, LV, BOS, STL, etc) – in fact I’ve gotten better coverage and data in some of those places than my coworkers with Verizon.
Rural coverage for Tmobile is a work in progress – they’ve identified this is a sore spot they want to address – but if you’re not in a metro area for significant amounts of time, other carriers may be a better choice.
It’s very dependent on where you live. I never have a problem with my signal on T-Mobile. In fact, in the places I go, the data coverage and call quality is much, much better than AT&T.
Super T-Mobile! While I’ve been a customer of yours forever, I especially love what you’ve been doing the last few years! Innovation! Show the ‘others’ how it’s done!
it is expected that is next move will be free 4g on nights and weekends
so, it’s only for those who pays for more than 3GB of data?
Yes. To clarify: smartphone is 3GB and Tablet is 1GB
Great article 9to5! Thanks for posting! I love my T-Mobile service! I wouldn’t go back to AT&T!