T-mobile banning PLUS services on many phones

[mvl]

As of last night (8/24), T-mobile USA started banning PLUS services (or any other bluetooth data), on many phones.

Per a call to their tier3 data support, they are banning all phones unless they are Windows Mobile, Blackberry, or data-only USB/PCMCIA cards.

I immediately ported my family line to AT&T.

 

[trikdacy]

T-mobile

I was on the phone with t-mobile, and t-mobile said it was a problem with my 920T. As a matter of fact t-mobile said it was a problem with all tomtom products. my phone now fails to connect via bluetooth, and then my phone now states that I need to subscribe to GPRS first! This never happened before.

 

[spook45]

Vote With Your Money ! !

Time to give your money to a service that values you as a customer

 

[dervari]

As of last night (8/24), T-mobile USA started banning PLUS services (or any other bluetooth data), on many phones.

Did you have a data plan associated with the phone in question?


http://forums.t-mobile.com/tmbl/board/message?board.id=Data&thread.id=282

 

[mvl]

Yes, your link describes the issue.

According to T-mobile. they only sell two plans:

1) Data plans for smartphones. This is only available for T-mobile branded Blackberry and Windows mobile phones, and for their Aircard/USB stick data-only adapters. These plans allow tethering.
2) Wap-only plans for non-smartphones. This plan now no longer permits tethering, via either bluetooth or cable. Bluetooth tethering is what's needed for Tomtom PLUS.

All data plans were forced into category 1 or 2 from a capabilities perspective, although prices are grandfathered.

So none of family's current/prior phones permit tethering now at any price: 3G Tmobile Nokia 6263, Unlocked Razr2 v8, T-mobile Razr v3, Unlocked Razr v3, nor unlocked Nokia N97.

T-mo just lost a 5-year customer.

My new 3G Moto Razr v9 (to keep) and Moto Karma (to sell) are being shipped free from Motorola.com with a 2-year AT&T contract.

The AT&T family plan has data at $10-$15 per line unlimited, as long as you agree not to use it for business purposes.

And I'll be fighting the T-mo early termination fee.

 

[dervari]

Unfortunately, I don't think TMo is going to give in on the ETF....

1. Permissible and Prohibited Uses

Your Data Plan is intended for Web browsing, messaging, and similar activities on your device and not on any other equipment. Unless explicitly permitted by your Data Plan, other uses, including for example, tethering your device to a personal computer or other hardware, are not permitted.


Are you sure you're better off with AT&T? They don't allow tethering on a family data plan, only their PDA Connect plans.


Furthermore, plans (unless specifically designated for tethering usage) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to computer accessories, BLUETOOTH? or any other wireless technology) to Personal Computers (including without limitation, laptops), or other equipment for any purpose.

 

[mvl]

Tmo sold me the phone/contract under the understanding that it was available and designed for tethered use, as long as my phone was Tmo branded and not a smartphone (my phone, the 6263, met those spece). You're probably reading their new terms that don't apply to the web2go plans available a month ago. They're going to assess the ETF, and I'm going to fight it when billed.

I'm going with what AT&T sales told me. They could be lying to get a sale, but 2 sales reps and one tech support rep told me the data unlimited plan allows laptop connection via cable or bluetooth. We'll see, I don't mind paying more for the data, as long as I don't have to carry around an ugly smartphone everywhere.

I'll post my experiences. At this point the worst AT&T can be is on par with Tmo, and the AT&T network is much much better in Boston. After Tmo cut their customer support from 24hrs, and ATT raised their to 24hrs, the $10 plan was the only reason left for me to stick with Tmo.

It's stupid how these carriers all want to move us to ugly smartphones. Does anyone sell a bluetooth headset that looks/feels/dials like a razr/flip phone?

 

[dervari]

if you get "busted" for tethering, be prepared for a big bill, depending on how much data you use. While the salespeople may tell you one thing, keep in mind that the final responsibility to read and abide by the TOS and AUP is yours.

Is the only thing you're tethering for is the PLUS services?

My 'berry is in use for voice at times, and on EDGE you can't have voice/data at the same time. So I have a backup device....a Motorola V3m on PagePlus Prepaid. It's $10 every 4 months to keep it activated and data is $1.20/mb. I find that in a 20 minute commute I use about $.02 of data. The phone is hardwired to constant power and velcroed out of the way inside my console.

That may be an option for you if you have issues with AT&T.

 

[mvl]

Yup - I've been watching your posts and may default to prepaid if I have issues.

The Razr v9 is 3G, on the compatibility list, and works for doctormstein. So that's what I got. I love Motorola.

Wife's N97 also worked fine (pre ban) with Tomtom on Tmo, and it will be 3G once it's on ATTWS (supports ATT 3G, not TMO 1700 3G).

I learned the hard way: 3G is important for Tomtom, since the Tomtom will crash if you lose data reception when there's a traffic incident en route. Since a 2G call is like "losing data reception", Tomtoms crash on every 2G call (if there's incidents en route). I'm really happy to have my Moto back, I only flipped to the 6263 for 3G.

So let's hope everything works. I'll let everyone know. The phones are in the mail, UPS ground will deliver on 9/1 (I chose free/slow shipping)

 

[mvl]

Looks like something is changing.

At 8:55 eastern this morning, PLUS services started working again on my Nokia 6263 on T-mobile.

As I was talking to AT&T customer services, they said they were getting lots of new customers due to this new T-mo policy.

Perhaps as all the number ports started coming in, T-mobile realized what a mistake they made. Or it could be a temporary favorable fluke.

I think I have 30 day buyer's remorse on AT&T. I'll have to see how this issue materializes over the next few days, whether I want to port back to T-mo.

 

[Germerican]

Does this mean I'm save with my BlackBerry 8320? I noticed this morning that I had traffic service (green circle was displayed over traffic bar) but I got stuck in a 10 mile back-up, even though the TomTom indicated that the route was clear. This is the first time that a major back-up wasn't reported.

Anyway, the way the OP describes it, the new policy excludes BB's, is that correct?

 

[mvl]

Anyway, the way the OP describes it, the new policy excludes BB's, is that correct?

T-mobile branded blackberries, with the tmo blackberry data plans are fine.

If you've got a non-branded blackberry, tmo told me no data plan is permitted, although it appears they are permitting the blackberry plan to be sold for other unlocked owners.

The $10 plan I am on, that was previously sold as bluetooth-tethering-capable has been changed to a non-tethering / wap-only plan (that won't work with Tomtom PLUS). They are not grandfathering prior subscribers, and all of us were blocked from tethering.

All the system blocks to enforce this appear to have been removed on 8/27, but since this was a policy thing, they could return at any time.

Also, I moved your traffic posts to the other traffic thread here, just to keep things organized.

 

[mvl]

Quick followup that AT&T with the $15 medianet plan works fine with PLUS for me, on a razr2 v9. Now on to fighting the Tmo termination fee...

 

[mikealder]

I would think avoiding the termination fee should be easy, they changed the service available to your phone making the service provided unacceptable, this left you with no option to seek an alternate service provider - if T-Mob switched this missing service back on they were still outside of contracted service - get the media involved and have some "fun" they could ill afford any further bad press if they are losing customers in a big way - Mike

 

[dervari]

I would think avoiding the termination fee should be easy, they changed the service available to your phone making the service provided unacceptable, this left you with no option to seek an alternate service provider

Devil's advocate here....he was never SUPPOSED to have the service, per the TMo TOS. So, they didn't change the service he signed up for. They just removed something he was never supposed to have.

Glad the $15 media net is working. Since it doesn't use much data, you should be able to slide under the radar.

 

[mvl]

Devil's advocate here....he was never SUPPOSED to have the service, per the TMo TOS. So, they didn't change the service he signed up for. They just removed something he was never supposed to have.

We can agree to disagree on this one.

I was sold an upgrade to a tethering web2go plan. No TOS was offerred, so the terms of sale were the verbal information from tier3 support who sold it to me.

The fact that contradictory TOS is up on the web today, after they changed their plan/policy on me, doesn't mean it was/wasn't online when I was sold the upgrade, nor does it mean I had any obligation under terms of the sale to look.

As a high-paying family plan customer with only one line still under contract, T-mo will have lost more then the term fee from me in just 2 months. If they don't fight this term fee, they have a chance to regain my business when my AT&T contract is up. If they fight it, they've lost a customer for life.

T-mo was #1 in customer satisfaction for almost a decade in the US. With their shrinking of call center hours, weaker reception in most areas of the US, raise in prices, and blocking of existing capabilities without warning, T-mo is going downhill fast. I doubt they'll keep the #1 rating next year, and they'll have a very hard time staying in business when Verizon moves to SIM cards in 2010.

 

[demeulenaere]

Interesting...

As of last night (8/24), T-mobile USA started banning PLUS services (or any other bluetooth data), on many phones.

Per a call to their tier3 data support, they are banning all phones unless they are Windows Mobile, Blackberry, or data-only USB/PCMCIA cards.

I immediately ported my family line to AT&T.

I have had my BB curve 8320 working on the data side with no problem for a very long time. Around this time, my data plan just stopped working. I can still use my calling side, but not data. I have been very bummed about this. I tried upgrading the tom tom 910 go firmware, but that didn't seem to make a difference.

It has been very frustrating. Not sure if it is a tether thing, since I have the BB curve, but any thoughts on what I can do to get it going would be greatly appreciated.

Darren

 

[mvl]

Make sure you have the blackberry data plan, then unpair and repair the phone, and choose t-mobile (I) as your data carrier.

 

[demeulenaere]

thank you, I have tried that multiple times, even changing out blackberry devices...all have failed. Not sure what changed. I do have a data plan.

 

[mvl]

So when you try to access weather, what error do you get? It's help us troubleshoot.

- does it not pair at all?
- or does bluetooth data not go to 100% when you try to set it up?
- or does it go to 100% but not connect to weather?