T-Mobile Announces Uncarrier 8.0: Data Stash
by Brandon Chester on December 16, 2014 10:33 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- T-Mobile
- Uncarrier
Today in a live interview T-Mobile CEO John Legere has made his eighth major announcement in their line of Uncarrier programs that try to differentiate them from the business practices of the other major US carriers. Legere described Uncarrier 8.0 as the biggest change they have made so far, and based on how big of a shift it is from how cellular data plans currently work I'm inclined to agree with him.
The big feature being introduced with Uncarrier 8.0 is called Data Stash. As you know, when you pay for a certain amount of data from your cellular carrier, that data bucket is only good for your monthly billing cycle. If you have 3GB remaining at the end of your cycle, that data is lost when your next cycle begins. Data Stash allows users to keep their high speed data that they have unused at the end of the month, which allows them to have a greater amount of high speed data for future months. This is similar to how some prepaid carriers have operated for many years by letting users carry their minutes over to later months. Users should be aware that data will only remain valid for a year, but because it is continually rolling over every month this should not be much of an issue except for users who hope to save up in order to turn their LTE service into their home internet.
Legere has also stated that new customers will be given 10GB in their Data Stash for free. Later on in the interview Legere is now discussed various topics, including T-Mobile's network expansion, 15 MHz FDD-LTE, and subscriber numbers.
Source: T-Mobile Uncarrier 8.0 Stream
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lothinator - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
Reminds me of when AT&T did rollover minutes. Didn't take long after that till TRUE unlimited minutes arrived. Hopefully that's where we're headed with data.anactoraaron - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
Actually IIRC, AT&T stole/absorbed the rollover minutes idea from Cingular when they bought them out. Cingular had this first.slashbinslashbash - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
Cingular actually bought the smaller company that had the rights to the AT&T name, then changed their name from Cingular to AT&T.eanazag - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
From what I remember, AT&T sold their cellular division to Cingular and then a short while later bought Cingular. They then ditched the Cingular name.Does this matter today? Nah.
I don't have T-Mobile, but I am glad they're doing what they're doing. I hope they get some success off this because the cellular market needs shaking up.
I think cell phone costs need to be changed. I find it hard to believe that an iPhone costs the same or more as an iPad. 16GB iPad Air 2 with cellular is $629 and the 16GB iPhone 6 off contract costs $650. Something is not right. Apple is not losing money on that iPad.
Deelron - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
I find the moderate amount of price differences between devices to be less offensive then the cost of service between having a "phone" and a "tablet", it's far more insulting to pay (as an individual, just grabbing T-Mobile's plans here) $50 for 1GB of LTE Data (unlimited slow speed) + Unlimited text/minutes on a phone when it costs $20 for the same amount of data (plus 200MB free) for a tablet.erple2 - Thursday, December 18, 2014 - link
The cost of the phone is something the phone maker sets, and has no (direct) bearing on cell carrier pricing, at least not any more. The only exception to that is with phone subsidies. Miniaturization doesn't always mean cheaper products. Smaller components are harder to manufacture then larger ones. Its also market forces that dictate prices.gggplaya - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
We were already there for the first few years of the iphone and budding android. Then smartphones really took off ushering in the "limited" data plans.Impulses - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
T-Mobile (and Sprint) already offer TRUE unlimited data, so we aren't really headed anywhere, we're already there... You do pay a slight premium for it, but it's still less than what'd you pay for the largest data allotments on AT&T/VZW.I've been using 10-20GB for months on Sprint while paying $60/month... I'm moving, haven't been using the crappy DSL at my old house and haven't installed cable on the new one. Those 10GB+ I've used are like 90% browsing too (Chrome alone usually accounts for like 7GB on my phone).
I honestly don't know how anyone streams anything on tiered data plans... Streaming just one network show usually gobbles up anywhere between half a gig to over a gig depending on how many times you restart the stream cause of pauses, commercials, etc.
coburn_c - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
Good plan for vacations. Let's you binge on the data you don't use at home. Other than that pretty pointless. Was hoping for something more exciting.icrf - Tuesday, December 16, 2014 - link
I think it's highly useful for that. I use about 500 MB / mo, but when I went on vacation with family and hotspotted for the long weekend, those four days consumed about 6 GB. Just enough rollover to not worry about it is all I'm after.Honestly, rollover being good for a year is a lot more than I expected from data rollover. I was thinking there'd be an amount cap of double your monthly allotment, not a timing cap, especially one that long.