Tmo To Go
hey,
anyone in the know...will T-Mobile change the specifics of their prepaid phone service any time soon? What i mean is, most other services offer unlimited nights/weekends on prepaid, which puts a damper on the whole "125 mins to start off with." Will TMO cave in and offer a brand new prepaid platform anytime soon? They say the future is prepaid...and I don't see it without N/W.
anyone in the know...will T-Mobile change the specifics of their prepaid phone service any time soon? What i mean is, most other services offer unlimited nights/weekends on prepaid, which puts a damper on the whole "125 mins to start off with." Will TMO cave in and offer a brand new prepaid platform anytime soon? They say the future is prepaid...and I don't see it without N/W.
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Yes, we are. We are testing out a new program starting June 16th in Austin, TX and I want to say Boston, but I can't remember off hand where the other market is. It's called "Take Control" rate plans. (my boss already told us we can spill the beans if it means educating our customers on new products and services). Basically, it's a take off of cingular's GO phone. Now, don't quote me on this, as I just briefly reviewed it the other day...It offers a few different plans that are pre-paid each month by cash or a direct debit from your check or debit card. The way it adds up is that minutes end up being like $0.07 each, I can't remember what sms (text) are billled. But mathematically, it ends up being what the normal rate plans are...$39.99 for...
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bizkitsngravy said:...
Yes, we are. We are testing out a new program starting June 16th in Austin, TX and I want to say Boston, but I can't remember off hand where the other market is. It's called "Take Control" rate plans. (my boss already told us we can spill the beans if it means educating our customers on new products and services). Basically, it's a take off of cingular's GO phone. Now, don't quote me on this, as I just briefly reviewed it the other day...It offers a few different plans that are pre-paid each month by cash or a direct debit from your check or debit card. The way it adds up is that minutes end up being like $0.07 each, I can't remember what sms (text) are billled. But mathematically, it ends up being wha
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Wouldn't that bring profits down from the regular plans, since people would want to jump to Prepaid since they are getting the same thing except no contract attached?
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The only drawback to this plan, like Cingular To Go & Verizon InPulse is you must be on the network to avoid roaming. If you want free roaming included in your plan, then you need a contract. Otherwise for every call made or received off the network will eat away your minutes.
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dave73 said:
The only drawback to this plan, like Cingular To Go & Verizon InPulse is you must be on the network to avoid roaming. If you want free roaming included in your plan, then you need a contract. Otherwise for every call made or received off the network will eat away your minutes.
You're not talking about T-Mobile To Go. Once you are off network you don't have any service. There is no roaming whatsoever with T-Mobile To Go.
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I believe if the phone has the PCS band on it, and you're in an area with GSM coverage in the PCS band, it'll pickup a signal. That however isn't the case in Indiana as all of Cingular's coverage is cellular band coverage as well as rural carrier named Centennial Wireless. I know when my brother had a prepaid plan with AT&T, his minutes were eaten away rather quickly because he roamed on Centennial Wireless's network. And his phone had both the 850 & 1900 bands on the phone.
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dave73 said:
I believe if the phone has the PCS band on it, and you're in an area with GSM coverage in the PCS band, it'll pickup a signal. That however isn't the case in Indiana as all of Cingular's coverage is cellular band coverage as well as rural carrier named Centennial Wireless. I know when my brother had a prepaid plan with AT&T, his minutes were eaten away rather quickly because he roamed on Centennial Wireless's network. And his phone had both the 850 & 1900 bands on the phone.
T-Mobile To Go only works on the native T-Mobile network. It doesn't matter whether a phone is capable of using any other carrier or any other frequency. Why you're talking about cingular and AT&T I'm not quite sure.
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ok well, Portland, OR is one test market, and Jacksonville, FL is the other one, I don't know where on earth I saw TX....
It's available on the 29.99, $39.99, and $45.99 plans, and unlike GO phone, you get the same minutes as a regular plan.
New customers are still asked to sign a one year contract to sign up for this plan, but existing customers are not required to extend their service agreement.
It seems that this plan is more so geared not so much for pre-paid, but as a plan to prevent overage. Overage would not be possible with this plan.
However the payment is still pre-paid for the plan it appears, but instead of counting minutes up, it counts them down until they are exhausted, not allowing further usage unless more min...
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It's available on the 29.99, $39.99, and $45.99 plans, and unlike GO phone, you get the same minutes as a regular plan.
New customers are still asked to sign a one year contract to sign up for this plan, but existing customers are not required to extend their service agreement.
It seems that this plan is more so geared not so much for pre-paid, but as a plan to prevent overage. Overage would not be possible with this plan.
However the payment is still pre-paid for the plan it appears, but instead of counting minutes up, it counts them down until they are exhausted, not allowing further usage unless more min...
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I agree. This is only like the Tmo To Go in the fact that it will have the same roaming area and same features (free incoming text, .10 outgoing, free incoming pix, .25 outgoing, etc) But it will require a credit check (in the test markets Smart Access can only do Take Control and for credit class H will be able to activate Take Control with no deposit) and one year agreement. These plans are more for taking control of bills (hence the name!)
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Why are they coming up with Pre-paid service with a contract, and deposit? In that case people should just go with a plan.
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This would sell really well . . .
You get this scenario all of the time in sales - a parent comes in and wants to purchase a phone for their kid to use. They're going to be using it pretty regularly, so prepaid would get VERY expensive and the kid wants a camera phone which would be expensive to purchase outright, etc.
A post-paid plan is also not a good option, because teenagers can't always be expected to be responsible about things like keeping track of their minutet (they should - buy usually won't). I've seen parents who opted for a post-paid plan in this situation get nailed with horrendous overage charges on their first month's bill because they were unaware of how much their kid was using the phone ($2000 in overages for on...
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You get this scenario all of the time in sales - a parent comes in and wants to purchase a phone for their kid to use. They're going to be using it pretty regularly, so prepaid would get VERY expensive and the kid wants a camera phone which would be expensive to purchase outright, etc.
A post-paid plan is also not a good option, because teenagers can't always be expected to be responsible about things like keeping track of their minutet (they should - buy usually won't). I've seen parents who opted for a post-paid plan in this situation get nailed with horrendous overage charges on their first month's bill because they were unaware of how much their kid was using the phone ($2000 in overages for on...
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Bingo! We have a winner... This one is also for all those cutie pies out there who steadfastly ignore all the options for minute and balance checking and then call up to scream like raped apes when the bill comes in--"Why didn't you cut me off when I went over?! Waaaah!" 🙄 I try to explain to these brainiacs that it isn't actually TMobile's job to monitor them like kindergartners, and I'm absolutely certain these guys would be the first ones on the phone breathing fire if we actually DID cut them off when they went over... I can hear it now "You cut me off but I was only five minutes over and that was a VERY IMPORTANT PHONE CALL you interrupted and I'm a BUSINESS PERSON and I NEED MY PHONE and HOW DARE YOU and...and...and..." ad inf...
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Aleq said:...
Bingo! We have a winner... This one is also for all those cutie pies out there who steadfastly ignore all the options for minute and balance checking and then call up to scream like raped apes when the bill comes in--"Why didn't you cut me off when I went over?! Waaaah!" 🙄 I try to explain to these brainiacs that it isn't actually TMobile's job to monitor them like kindergartners, and I'm absolutely certain these guys would be the first ones on the phone breathing fire if we actually DID cut them off when they went over... I can hear it now "You cut me off but I was only five minutes over and that was a VERY IMPORTANT PHONE CALL you interrupted and I'm a BUSINESS PERSON and I NEED MY PHONE and HOW DARE
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I could have used it the other day...classic case of "I need to cancel my line of service because it's for my son and I can't stop him from running up the bill and now he's refusing to pay for it"
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bizkitsngravy said:
I could have used it the other day...classic case of "I need to cancel my line of service because it's for my son and I can't stop him from running up the bill and now he's refusing to pay for it"
I tell customers to suspend the line to show who's boss--alternately I suggest they spank the kid with an axe... or a chainsaw... 😳
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Actually, there are two spots in StreamLine that show different info. One spot shows Portland, OR/Jacksonville, SC. The other shows Austin, TX/Boston, MA. The correct is the latter of the two, Austin/Boston. I filed a correction for StreamLine but it obviously hasn't gone thru yet. The reason they changed it was because of some promotion/testing already going on in the Portland market. They already had too much on their plates there.
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