T-Mobile Pre-Paid Throttling.

[keegh]

Hey all, sorry if this was brought up before, did a quick search but couldn't find anything.

I recently bought the lumia 521 for a relative on the $30/month prepaid plan on t-mobile. After just a few days I've noticed that 100 minutes may not be enough each month.

My question is I noticed that with the $30 plan t-mobile will not throttle speeds until 5gig, while the $50 plan with unlimited everything throttles at just 250mb, for those who know, or are currently on the $50 plan, how bad are the speeds one they are throttled. Would be it worth just adding extra cash to the account and paying .10/min for anything over 100 minutes or is the throttle not bad enough to warrant that?

Thanks in advance

 

[Corepc]

521 here has well.

Throttle speeds are 2g speeds after you reach your data limit. Applies to 50 (500mb) and 60(2.5gb) plan and 30 100min/5gb plan, the 70 plan I just switched too (Unlimited Everything) so no throttle.

Once I do reach my data limit I get about 12 to 20 kbs per sec once I am throttled. But it could be higher depending on coverage and reception etc.

I read that MVNO- Simple Mobile throttle speed is much higher 20 - 25kbs per sec after data limit is reached. They have a 40 plan Unlimited Talk+Text+500mb of Data then throttle.

 

[HeyCori]

Have you looked into WiFi calling on T-Mobile or using Skype as an alternative? A Skype phone number is $60 for the entire year.

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

I have the 30 dollar plan and tmobiles throttling is slower than 2g. 2G is up to 256kbs and tmobiles throttes less than a fourth of that. Download speeds are capped at around .06. You will not be able to stream anything when its throttled.

One hope you might want to look into is, like me, you should get a Skype plan added on every month just for talking. 10 a month gives you unlimited calls with your own call back number. So I just get my calls ran through Skype after my 100minites are gone.

Even when its throttled I can still make calls through Skype
.

 

[keegh]

Thanks for the suggestions all.

I think for the first month atleast I will add an extra $20 onto the account, essentially paying $50 a month for 300 minutes and not throttling til 5gig of data. If they cannot keep below that I feel like I will need to look into skype or actually upgrade to the 50 plan and tell them to suck it up when it comes to data speed.

 

[eric12341]

When I had that plan and got throttled my speeds were still reasonable enough to stream slacker radio or TuneIn radio and web browsing. Everything else was like being in the dialup days so I'd estimate my speeds were no faster than 128kbps but no slower than 64 since those apps worked. I'd recommend opting for the $70 unlimited everything plan which has no throttling and includes 2.5GB of tethering which can also be unlimited depending on what you do.