Starting Sunday March 22nd, Data Stash will start rolling out to Simple Choice prepaid customers. Customers with a qualifying Simple Choice plan will be greeted with a Starter Stash containing up to 10 GB of 4G LTE data. Once that starter stash is finished, customers will have their unused data begin to get stashed away for use up to a full year.
T-Mobile says that since they implemented their Data Stash program, twenty seven percent of customers have already dipped into their data stash. The program only began less roughly three months ago.
It's nice to see prepaid customers get some of the premium features our postpaid brethren are accustomed to. However, I am a little bit suspicious about what is going on here. Curiously, T-Mobiles Simple Choice Prepaid plans are rather hard to find on their website. They make no mention of pricing or specifics of the plans. The only way to see anything about the plans is to click the option to "compare our monthly prepaid plans," or to signup for one during activation of your account. This leads me to believe that sometime in the future they will no longer be available. Perhaps that's why these plans are now getting Data Stash? Perhaps in the future Simple Choice Prepaid will fold into their Simple Choice Postpaid plans? This would seem to make sense given that just a few short months ago T-Mobile introduced new prepaid plans under the moniker Simply Prepaid. I believe having all these different prepaid brand names and options leads to confusion on the customers behalf and seems more complicated than it should be. With all these options, lines become blurred between the two prepaid and the postpaid plans, so I'm willing to bet one of the prepaid plan types disappears by years end. What do you guys think about all of this? At one point will Simple Choice Prepaid disappear?
@Bestmvno
Does T-Mobile offer roaming agreements with any of the top three carriers where their cell coverage is limited or nonexistent while on any T-Mobile pre-paid plan?
Yes, although plans that include it are a bit pricey imo. Prepaid plans that cost $50 and up offer varying degrees of roaming including data roaming
Got ya! Guess they stick it to us the consumers one way or the other. I can live without data roaming. Besides, if I can’t get good cell coverage then data will surely not work or work poorly.
Thanks again.
Thanks for the info.
Does that mean our 29.82 unlimited plan gets days stash too?
I believe the answer to that is no as it is not a simple choice prepaid plan
I went to a walmart store close to me and even though walmart dot com says the store has it in stock the shelves said otherwise. Either I go to another store or order it online with a shipping charge.
Yeah, unfortunately online isn’t always accurate in terms of in store availability. I suggest calling around before going if you’re not interested in purchasing online. That’s actually what I had to do, and had to drive a little out of my way to get one as they don’t carry it in many stores really close to me.
I will be moving an hour outside the Forth Worth area and wanted to see if their coverage is better than where I currently reside. T-Mobile’s site says LTE is availbe via the following frequencies: Band 2 (1900 MHz), Band 4 (1700/2100 MHz), Band 12 (700 MHz). I just don’t know for sure if T-Mobile is only using the 700MHz frequency or a combination of all frequencies I mentioned above.
We all know T-Mobile suffers with its signals penetrating buildings and homes.
Or I can wait til I move and temporarily test their cell coverage while in buildings specifically via an MVNO of T-Mobile that is now offering LTE hopefully in the 700MHz range.
Or maybe metro DFW area gets good building penetration and cities on the outskirts are only able to use the frequencies other than 700MHz.
I believe a few MVNOs of theirs are on LTE now so maybe this will be a cheaper route to test their coverage. Plus SIMs for some of T-Mobile’s MVNOs are readily available on ebay for $0.99. I can test before porting over my number.
Unleas MVNOs are not permitted on T-Mobile’s 700MHz frequency?? I can’t see why they would implement this.
Thoughts??
I thought they were supposed to update their maps a few months ago to show what cities support what bands, but apparently that is not the case.
Also, you still can’t completely trust their new updated coverage map. I know a few spots around my area where the signal indoors in specific buildings is not very good, but on the coverage map it doesn’t show any problems using their “real world” technology.
The MVNOs will work on all of T-Mobile’s bands, with some exceptions of course. Those exceptions are the ones that don’t support LTE but only HSPA . Other than for those types of situations, I haven’t heard of carriers restricting specific bands from being used with MVNOs.
If you are wanting to just test T-Mobile service with an MVNO, you can probably do that with Rok Mobile. They do offer a free 7 day trial, and their site says no credit card is needed. I have not tried it out for myself, so I can’t tell you more than that.
Will definitely consider Rok Mobile. Seven days might not be enough if I can’t find time to get out and test their coverage. T-Mobile’s MVNOs like Ptel claim to offer 4G/LTE and their $20 a month plan won’t hurt the pocket. I hope the area I am moving to in the coming months have better cell penetration inside buildings.
I had to switch to an ATT MVNO and cell penetration in buildings is much better but ATT MVNO plans are not as competitive as T-Mobile ones.
Like you mentioned, I also don’t really rely on these coverage maps due to their inaccuracy in certain parts of cities and towns. The only info I have regarding their bands/frequencies is at the link below but it doesn’t state what metro areas and outlying cities have whether a combination or one.
https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4988
Thanks again for your informative site and your time and effort.