T-Mobile announces Un-carrier 9.0 for businesses

T-Mobile has just announced Un-carrier 9.0, which is specifically targeted towards businesses. The carrier claims that this new plan will bring transparency and reduce wastage of fees as well as other carrier specific charges.

Putting it in very simple terms, the carrier mentions that each additional line for businesses will be charged just $15. Now, you can add 20, 30 or even 300 extra lines and the price will be the same. If your number exceeds 1,000 lines, you can get each line at $10.

T-Mobile clarifies that each line comes with 1GB of 4G LTE data as well as unlimited talk and text. If you’re looking for extra data, you can add $10 more per line for an extra 2GB or $30 per line for unlimited 4G LTE data.

Putting things in perspective, the carrier claims that small businesses can save up to $5,100 on 20 lines over a two year duration, which is a lot of money for small businesses. These new plans are sending a strong signal to the other carriers that T-Mobile is not only focused on individual customers.

“We’re going to do for businesses, what we’ve already been doing for consumers,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “Eliminate pain points and force change. The majority of US businesses − a full 99.7% − have less than 500 employees and don’t have the money or resources to waste debating, negotiating and deciphering the carriers’ hidden pricing. Today, we’re upending how business buys wireless with 100% transparent pricing, the best rates, business family discounts, and more.”

You can find more details on these new prices from the carrier’s detailed post below.

Source: T-Mobile

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T-Mobile brings Un-Carrier strategies to business segment

You may already be familiar with T-Mobile’s Un-carrier branding as of late. It means no more annual contracts, overages and inflated international roaming fees, and the start of anytime upgrades, Wi-Fi calling and texting, free inflight messaging and Data Stash for its customers.

T-Mobile announced at its Un-Carrier for Business event today that, now, the company is bringing these strategies to businesses. Here is the company’s reasoning, according to President and CEO John Legere:

“We’re going to do for businesses, what we’ve already been doing for consumers. Eliminate pain points and force change. The majority of US businesses − a full 99.7% − have less than 500 employees and don’t have the money or resources to waste debating, negotiating and deciphering the carriers’ hidden pricing.  Today, we’re upending how business buys wireless with 100% transparent pricing, the best rates, business family discounts, and more.”

Each line for businesses will cost $15, with every line after 1,000 costing $10. That comes with unlimited talk and text and up to 1GB of 4G data. Businesses can add high-speed data per line or add a data pool for employees to share.

Additionally, T-Mobile and GoDaddy have partnered to give a free .com domain and website structured for mobile viewing, as long as businesses have at least one line and paid data. This also comes with free .com email addresses powered by Microsoft Office 365.

Lastly, Un-Carrier’s Business Family Discounts considers a customer’s company-paid line as his or her first line on his or her family plan. This means a customer saves 50% over on a Simple Choice family plan.

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T-Mobile announces new Un-contract and Carrier Freedom plans

In addition to announcing Un-carrier for businesses, T-Mobile also had something for regular customers of its network. Starting March 22, the carrier will kick start the Un-contract, which is its own version of the contract system. 

The carrier however reassures customers that it won’t be the same as a conventional contract, thus explaining the name. With Un-contract, T-Mobile mentions that users can keep their existing Simple Choice plans untouched for the duration of their stay with the carrier. The carrier also promised that those on its unlimited data plans can be assured that the prices will not go up for at least two years. The offer is available to all existing T-Mobile Simple Choice customers.

T-Mobile also announced something known as Carrier Freedom, where it offers up to $650 per line (on up to a 10 total lines) for those switching from another carrier like AT&T or Verizon. All you have to do is take the smartphone to T-Mobile where you will receive the trade-in value immediately. The remaining balance such as ETF and payments will be paid off by T-Mobile upon submission of the bill from your original carrier. The outstanding amount will be given to you in the form of a T-Mobile prepaid card.

The CEO of T-Mobile, John Legere said – “We’re the Un-carrier. Everything the carriers do, we un-do,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “The other guys have been throwing out all kinds of desperate, short-term promotions to suck you in and lock you down − only to jack up rates later. We’re not playing that game. The Un-contract is our promise to individuals, families and businesses of all sizes, that − while your price may go down − it won’t go up.”

Source: T-Mobile

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T-Mobile steps on the gas with Carrier Freedom and Un-contract initiatives

As if you might need another reason to consider switching to T-Mobile for your wireless service, the “Un-Carrier” today announced two more features for its customers.

For starters, T-Mobile is bringing back the contract; except it isn’t. Dubbed the “Un-contract” it’s T-Mobile’s way of saying it won’t change things on you. Formally, and informally, T-Mobile agrees that they will not raise rates on customers or adjust promotions on you. That is, unless, they want to drop prices on you, which they assume is going to be okay with you.

As part of this commitment, customers on existing Simple Choice promotional plans − like the Un-carrier’s ultra-popular 4 lines for $100 with up to 10 GB of 4G LTE data − can keep them for as long as they’re T-Mobile customers. And, if you have an unlimited 4G LTE plan, you can rest assured your rates won’t change for a minimum of two years.

The Un-contract automatically starts on March 22 for all existing T-Mobile Simple Choice customers and does not cost anything.

Today sees T-Mobile announcing “Carrier Freedom”, an initiative designed to make it much easier for you to break your contract with another provider. Indeed, T-Mobile will pay off whatever it is you owe on an existing equipment installation plan – to the tune of $650 per line up to 10 lines. Yes, this also means those leasing programs that we’re seeing pop up across other providers, too. And, yes, that’s on top of paying early termination fees, too.

According to T-Mobile, there are 29 million people currently stuck in an equipment plan. Businesses with more than 10 lines can also take get in on the love with with bill credits up to $100 per line after the 10th line.

T-Mobile

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T-Mobile will pay off devices for switchers and keep promo plans for good

Most of John Legere’s time spent on stage dealt with T-Mobile’s bid to play nice with businesses, but average consumers just got a few bones here, too. First up is Carrier Freedom, a new spin on the company’s Contract Freedom initiative that’ll see T-Mobile pay not just your early termination fees, but remaining payments on your phone if you’re stuck in a plan like AT&T’s Jump or Verizon’s Edge. As long as you owe your current carrier $650 or less, you’re golden. That’s solid news for new, would-be T-Mobile customers, but Legere outed what he calls the “Un-contract” for customers who already bleed magenta. If you’ve already landed yourself one of T-Mobile’s cushy promotional plans, congratulations — they’re going permanent as of March 22.

“Your rates will never go up,” Legere boomed to (mostly employee) applause. “But they might go down.”

The only real caveat to the Un-contract proposition is if you’re clinging to one of T-Mobile’s unlimited data plans. While huge rivals like AT&T and Verizon have treated customers with grandfathered unlimited plans like second-class citizens by throttling speeds after thresholds are hit and barring them from tethering, Legere is enacting a sort of data détente that means he won’t change the terms of the game for at least two years. As he puts it, he can’t zoom out and see how things will shift over the next ten years, but it’s a nice little reprieve for folks clutching those plans like their lives depend on it.

Filed under: Mobile

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The fight for the open internet isn’t over

The FCC’s Open Internet order could be the most important 313 pages in the web’s short history, but “could” is the operative word. Proponents of the order say it’s a landmark document, promoting net neutrality and dissolving telcos’ power over the internet; naysayers believe it’s needless regulation over an already free market, and everyone else falls somewhere in between. So what does and doesn’t the order do, and what exactly does it all mean for you?

Three simple rules*

The Open Internet order consists of three “bright-line rules” that both traditional ISPs (like Comcast) and mobile broadband providers (like T-Mobile) must adhere to: no blocking, no throttling and no paid prioritization. The “no blocking” rule actually refers to two things. First, ISPs can’t prevent access to any lawful content, applications or services. Second, they can’t stop any device deemed “non harmful” from connecting to their network. The “no throttling” rule means that ISPs can’t slow down specific sites, applications or services. Finally, “no paid prioritization” means that ISPs can’t take money from content providers for preferential speeds — often referred to as internet fast lanes.

At its core, then, the order is pretty simple. But it’s 313 pages for a reason: How legislation like this is interpreted is very important, and there needs to be as few gray areas as possible. It’s in this explanation and expansion that any order succeeds or fails in its goals. The FCC has got things right for the most part, but the Open Internet order is not without its problems. Let’s break them down:

No blocking

The order says that the “no blocking” rule only applies to “transmissions of lawful content and does not prevent or restrict a broadband provider from refusing to transmit unlawful material, such as child pornography or copyright-infringing materials.” It also does not prohibit “reasonable efforts by a provider of broadband internet access service to address copyright infringement or other unlawful activity.” What it doesn’t do is put in place a framework for deciding what is and isn’t lawful. By not doing so, it gives the ISPs the right to act as judge and executioner, letting them block a website or have knee-jerk reactions to copyright complaint, all without the need for a court order.

Guilty until proven innocent.

To be clear, there’s nothing stopping an ISP from doing that now, but if the point of the order is foster an open internet, then much more could have be done here. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit organization that tasks itself with “defending civil liberties in the digital world,” believes the decision to block content should only be taken by the courts. Right now, it’s a case of guilty until proven innocent. Kit Walsh, staff attorney at EFF, explains that “if the provider engages in a blocking or throttling process and claims that the purpose of it is to prevent copyright infringement or other unlawful content, then the burden falls back on the public to detect that process and challenge it on a case-by-case basis. We’re no better off than we were before.”

No throttling

Question marks also pervade the “no throttling” provision. The FCC is effectively only regulating “the last mile” — the bit that connects your laptop, smartphone and other devices to the internet — but what happens before that mile isn’t changing. The “fast lane” debate largely came to fruition because of Netflix’s very public disputes with ISPs last year. As a result of those disputes, Netflix saw its service slow before it struck interconnection deals with Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner and AT&T to bypass third parties and connect directly to their servers, ensuring a smooth service for its users. The Open Internet order does not address these kinds of deals.

Netflix’s diagram explaining the Comcast interconnection deal, prior to striking a deal with AT&T.

Of course, ISPs won’t be allowed to serve you Netflix movies at an artificially slower rate than other traffic, regardless of whether or not an interconnection deal is in place. That’s firmly outlawed by the “no throttling” rule. But they will still be free to pursue interconnection after the order becomes law. It’s worth noting at this point that often interconnection deals are simply commercial arrangements and don’t affect the open internet.

There’s also the matter of “traffic management.” Many ISPs were concerned the throttling part of the order would affect their ability to manage traffic on their networks, but the FCC doesn’t go too far in changing the status quo. An ISP can’t discriminate against sites or users unnecessarily, but, so long as it has a technically sound reason, (network overcapacity, for example), it can still manage traffic. ISPs will need to be transparent with the FCC (and by extension, their customers) regarding their traffic management practices, though.

No paid prioritization

You could be forgiven for believing there’s a conflict here between the “no throttling” and “no paid prioritization” sections of the order. Companies can’t pay for preferential treatment, sure, but they may be required to pay for “interconnections” that allow them to serve video at a decent rate. Netflix, as an example, argued the exorbitant fee it was charged for interconnection was tantamount to paying a “toll to the powerful ISPs to protect our consumer experience.” ISPs claimed they were merely charging the company for a service. It’s a muddy area, for sure. The FCC says it’ll deal with complaints on a case-by-case basis, admitting that it doesn’t really know how to proceed yet. Whether what happened last year to Netflix was fair will no doubt be subject to much discussion.

The other problems with the order are pretty much everything else about the internet that it doesn’t address. There is a lot, it seems, that the FCC doesn’t understand about the internet. There are gray areas, things like “zero rating” deals that give users access to services outside of their contracted data allowance. This is especially relevant in the mobile space (hello, T-Mobile), and pretty much the antithesis of a free and open internet.

Zero rating is pretty much the antithesis of net neutrality.

The commission does acknowledge these deals can distort competition. How many T-Mobile customers will want to try out a new music service like Tidal when they can use established brands’ apps free from data charges? Fast lanes may have been outlawed, but if every other road has a fee, you’re probably going to take the toll-free route. Indeed, it could be argued that zero rating is more harmful to the competitive landscape of the internet than fast lanes, but the FCC does not legislate against such deals, instead hiding behind dealing with complaints on a case-by-case basis. “[Zero rating] certainly does pose some of the same risks as paid prioritization,” explains Walsh. While there are some appeals to zero rating, like providing the public with free access to knowledge like Wikipedia, he argues, “We would have liked to see a less ambivalent approach in the FCC’s order.”

Case-by-case basis

It’s these “case-by-case” decisions that are perhaps the biggest problem with the Open Internet order. The FCC is essentially avoiding complex questions about the future of the internet because it doesn’t have the answers yet. It’s opening itself up to preside over dispute after dispute, and while some will be minor, others will have major ramifications on the very fabric of the internet. Comcast, Verizon, Google, Amazon and even Netflix are huge companies with the in-house expertise and/or financial power to argue their cases with the FCC. What hope does a smaller company have in raising and defending disputes against such giants?

The case-by-case system favors big companies.

“It’s very much like litigation. It’s very expensive. It’s very specialized,” says Walsh. “The frame that this is about ISPs versus big, incumbent internet companies misses the fact that it’s the new entrants, the startups, individuals and non-commercial users who are the most at-risk if we don’t have a neutral internet, and similarly are the least able to engage with the case-by-case adjudication mechanisms that the FCC is using for a variety of issues.” He believes that “the repeat players, the ISPs, are going to be at an advantage in adjudicating such things on a case-by-case basis.”

It might seem like we’re being negative. There is so much that the Open Internet order gets right. Its core principles have left even EFF with a smile on its face. It lays the groundwork for the internet to remain the competitive, free and open place, which is something that will benefit companies and consumers, but it undeniably leaves many questions unanswered. The FCC’s work is nowhere near done, though. It’s indicated that it’s looking into the missing pieces of the order, and there’s at least some hope that we’ll get additional clear, bright-line rules as it investigates and understands the complexities of zero rating, interconnection and other areas.

“The best approach is to watch, learn and act as required, but not intervene now, especially not with prescriptive rules,” says the FCC, speaking specifically about interconnection. The process of hearing cases, it says, “is sure to bring greater understanding” on the issues it’s not certain on. Even if we don’t get more bright-line rules, with each case that’s heard precedent will be set that makes the existing rules clearer. Like an FCC-specific, open-internet version of case law. The only issue with that is the future of the internet remains clouded, to be decided across tens if not hundreds of hyper-specific cases. We’re off to a great start, for sure, but the battle for true net neutrality is only just getting started. And it’ll rage on for years to come.

[Image credits: Netflix (interconnection diagram); Mark Wilson/Getty Images (Tom Wheeler holding hands)]

Filed under: Wireless, Internet, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile

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Source: FCC Open Internet order (PDF)

T-Mobile adds Data Stash feature to prepaid plans

T-Mobile prepaid customers will soon have the same Data Stash feature that postpaid subscribers have been enjoying over the last few months. Starting on March 22, prepaid customers can roll over any unused data from one month into a pool that doesn’t expire for twelve months. And, like it did for its Simple Choice subscribers, T-Mobile is giving each prepaid user 10GB of 4G LTE data to get started. The new Data Stash feature is a zero cost addition to the current plan and goes into effect automatically.

T-Mobile has an event scheduled for tomorrow in New York City where it’s rumored they’ll announce something business-related.

T-Mobile

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