(This post contains affiliate links where I may receive compensation if a purchase is made)
A recent site reader, "salocin411" tried to purchase T-Mobile's $30 prepaid wireless sim starter kit when he ran into a problem I had never seen before, the kit was currently listed as unavailable. After a brief scare that the plan may have been eliminated and a little bit of digging, I uncovered that Wal-Mart simply has a new product number for that plan. On top of that, the new sim starter kit is currently on sale at the lowest price I have ever seen. While the old kit usually listed at between $36-$40, this new kit has a regular price of $39.88. Currently though it is being offered for $29.82! What makes this interesting is that the kit comes with one month of service like the previous one did, however, this kit is actually a few cents cheaper than one month of service alone is. For those of you not familiar with this particular plan, it is a Wal-Mart exclusive plan (only sold at Walmart, but users may also activate devices via T-Mobile online) and it is the service I have been subscribed to for that past couple of years. Plan highlights include:
- 100 minutes of talk, 10c a minute thereafter
- unlimited text and data with the first 5GB being unthrottled 4G LTE
- unlimited international texting from the USA to almost anywhere. T-Mobile doesn't specify exactly what everywhere means here.
- no roaming. This plan does not include T-Mobile's roaming agreements with AT&T and so coverage is more limited compared to some of their other plans.
- Music Freedom is Included (
Updated: 3/9/2016 rumors are circulating that this may no longer be included) Binge On Included
If you are interested in purchasing this plan you can pick up the $30 plan via Walmart's website.
@bestmvnocom:disqus
To your knowledge is this T-Mobile SIM re-usable if service was disconnected and one decides to re-activate with the same SIM down the road?
I actually don’t know the answer to that one. Let me know if it works though.
@Bestmvno.com
Will do once I find out.
@bestmvnocom:disqus
Per prepaidnews site a new SIM will be required for activation when porting back to this plan.
Is it specified even if using the same phone number?
I suppose that’s actually not all that bad though, at least for me. This Walmart starter kit even with taxes works out to be a few cents cheaper for me than my regular monthly bill from T-Mobile.
@bestmvnocom:disqus
Once I can afford the hefty price on a newer iPhone with Band12/700Mhz I will give T-Mobile a try again.
I got a hold of easygo today via phone and they don’t offer unlimited global sms. Only to the countries on their site. So AV still has then beat in this department.
Do you know the speed that AV slows their customer’s data to once half the allotted amount is reached? 128Kbps? (Guessing)
AirVoice wouldn’t tell me the number, but yes I would also guess the maximum speed once slowed would be 128kbps. The range would likely be between 64-128kbps
@bestmvnocom:disqus
Thank you sir for the info.
I have a question for you. There might be a slight chance I could be moving to Alaska for work. I know the weather will be totally different for me in the winter time but I only live once and I enjoy seeing new places.
I looked at the coverage map for ATT & T-Mobile and both seem to cover the same land mass per their website. I know Alaska is a whole different beast by itself when it comes to cell coverage.
So my question would be, have you heard of any of the two providers I mentioned above have better signal penetration than the other? Have you heard of anyone on here passing on info from their experience in AK?
No, unfortunately I do not. That’s actually a new one for me.
@bestmvnocom:disqus
If all goes as plan I will provide some feedback once I get settled.
Thanks!
how do I become a mvno?
@bestmvnocom:disqus
I am in the process of renewing my account for the first time. I notice that taxes/fees are being applied to the monthly amount which comes out to a total of $33.08.
Are you being charged this as well with your auto renewal? I haven’t signed up for auto renewal yet.
Seems that you have slightly higher taxes than me. My bill is $32.63
Yup that’s probably it but I assumed it was going to be $30 flat. So much for assuming.
@bestmvnocom:disqus
Today T-Mobile announced extended coverage and calling across the U.S., Mexico & Canada for all Simple Choice customers at no extra charge. In other words Free Calls, Texts and 4G LTE data in Canada & Mexico will be treated as if you were in the U.S.
Is this plan eligible as well since you are currently on it?
https://www.tmonews.com/2015/07/t-mobiles-mobile-without-borders-will-let-you-use-your-phone-in-canada-and-mexico-without-extra-fees/
I saw that, thanks. Unfortunately, with all promotions and plan updates, they never specify if the $30 plan is included for anything. I have someone I can request more information from.
I also wonder how useful this feature is. It’s great to have service in other countries, but it’s not really something that improves service for every day life. I think it benefits people living in the border states as well as those who travel for business the most. I guess if you vacation frequently in those places cell service is one less thing to be concerned about.
It’s definitely a plus for those living at the northern and southern borders. Businesses will also benefit from this as well. Also, I can see T-Mobile gaining more customers from across the border as well.
Folks on cruise ships can benefit as well. Not a shabby move on their part plus regular folks with family and friends in the two listed countries can call them at no extra charge from the U.S.
I will keep an eye on this to see what T-Mobile does. I am not ready to spend more on my monthly plan and jump ship just for this feature. Kudos to them and to those who will benefit. Free call and sms are welcome additions in my book. 🙂
The only missing part to sweeten this deal is free domestic voice/sms roaming.
I will be testing this service next week. I ordered my SIM from Walmart online via your site so hope you receive your affiliate fee.
Thanks for the consideration.
@Bestmvno.com
I am in the process of activating my SIM online and the last step is to fund my account. It’s asking for a refill card number. I don’t see one with the starter kit from walmart.
Advice on how to fund the activation?
I don’t remember having a problem to be able to help and it’s been a long time since I activated to remember, so I can only guess.
Is it asking for your cc number for future refills or an actual refill card number? I have my account on autopay, so I don’t do anything with refill card numbers. You may unfortunately have to call them and post back what the issue is.
OK let me give them a call. It’s asking for refill card or cc/debit card or electronic check.
So I called in to activate the SIM kit and T-Mobile CSR is telling me that the activation code is not valid. I gave them every possible number from the SIM kit packaging and nothing works.
I can now see why some folks don’t like T-Mobile. This should of be str8 forward for me.
Also prior to getting a CSR rep on the line I attempted to activate with their automated system and I was informed that my mobile number is not eligible to be ported over. I mean come on folks really???
Now I have to either go to walmart, call them hoping they can help over the phone or go to a local T-Mobile store to see what they can do.gggrrrrrr
I am already pissd.
Does T-Mobile support any short codes for this plan? Like account expiration and data balance?
Yes, I’ve used short codes with Twitter. For your account balance and voicemail you should just download both of tmobiles apps
Do I find this in the App store or at T-Mobile’s website?
I got them from app store, specifically play store. I assume they’re available on iOS as well
I see only one for them in the App store and it references account. I believe starting with iPhone 5 VVm is supported by default via T-Mobile. Even though I have an unlocked ATT iPhone 5.
I finally got my service activated. Drove to Walmart for nothing. I received an sms from T-Mobile in less than an hour saying my number ported and is active. I thought it wouldn’t work since I couldn’t locate a refill number on my SIM Kit.
So in my same area I am getting one to two bars max in the house with Magenta vs the four to five bars I was getting with AV which is an ATT MVNO.
So my phone’s battery is draining faster now. Fingers crossed this fixed.
Can you switch to hspa if battery drains too fast and signals not strong enough for you?
This is what I have, android equivalent anyway to check out account info.. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/t-mobile/id561625752?mt=8
For me, even though the other app says visual voicemail, it doesn’t actually transcribe anything, it just seems to download the vm’s or at least plays them with an audio player like interface
I installed the app but besides retrieving account balance I didn’t see anything esle exciting with this app. Plus it only works on cellular data. At least this what I got on my iPhone when I attemtped to use the app via wifi. I found the short codes so I uninstalled the T-Mobile App.
I will do some more research later about VM to SMS feature. I saw this option under my T-Mobile account online. I am not sure if there is a charge for this feature. There was a subscribe button for it; I selected it but nothing happened. Will use my wife’s phone to leave a VM on my number to see what happens.
There was also another feature called VM to Email, again not sure if this is a monthly charge as well. I went ahead and hit subscribe and saw nothing happen as far as T-Mobile asking me to top off extra funds for additional services.
Could this mean these features are included for free? If yes kudos to them.
Question: The toll free number listed on the SIM Kit is what I use for CSR support?
That’s weird. That app works fine for me over wifi, but maybe it’s different for the different os’s?
To use VM to SMS the visual voicemail app tells me it costs $3.99. I’m not subscribed to that. I just use the app to have access to all my vm’s in one place and to be able to play them back sort of like audio files.
I would assume so, but I don’t have that exact same kit.
I wil send you some screenshots of both my iPhones so you can see what I am looking at.
For some reason the attachment feature here doesn’t work for me. Is it just me?
Will email them as last resort. Thanks again.
Forgot to update you on the LTE findings. So I disabled LTE and my signal bars disappeared. My iPhone took like 2 to 3 seconds and it switched to 4G so I am assuming this is their HSPA ??
I turned off my cellular data and my bars are holding at 3 bars now. Hope this helps my battery.
I will test my LTE strength whenever I venture in to the metroplex.
I was kinda wondering why my signal was so weak when my wife’s iPhone was showing 3 bars with Ptel.
I know Ptel is advertising 4G LTE now but my wife is only getting 3G. Again not sure if this is due to the fact that we are using unlocked ATT iPhones that doesn’t support AWS??
Apple needs to get with the program and make one iphone with all bands. Then again I’m sure the carriers are bribing Apple to make iPhones for their specific LTE bands.
Will research more on the bands and frequencies of our iPhones to see why my wife is picking up LTE on hers.
AWS 1700/2100 might be the issue if her iphone model doesn’t support it.
Will report back with my findings. As always thanks for the assitance.
I went to my local Walmart today and was only getting one bar while inside. I sent an sms while I was inside walmart and the sms progress bar was a tad slower versus outside a building.
The one bar was with LTE & 4G selection.
Seems T-Mobile is counting on this new Band 12 / 700Mhz frequency to help their cause but customers will need to have a phone that supports said band/frequency whether iOS, Android or any other phone OS since other frequencies are not penetrating buildings thus the low to nonexistent coverage.
For me, there are two buildings in my city where inside them I’ve experienced dead spots. In one of the buildings, given its significance, I’m surprised this was never rectified.
I believe all the new upcoming T-Mobile phones will have that band supported. I may be getting one of the new Nexus phones next month, depending on if I like it’s official specifications. If it supports 700Mhz band 12 I’ll be interested to see what it does to my dead spot areas.
@Bestmvno.com
Today I noticed that I am able to receive and send MMS via wifi. Is this new? Are you able to do the same on your plan?
I’m not aware of that. Were you in airplane mode with wifi on, or in a place with no T-mobile signal but wifi when you did that ? I’m not in a place to try at the moment.
Nope, airplane mode was not on. Had wifi on only. I will test with airplane mode on and wifi on and see if I get the same reaults.
Just sent two pictures. One to a family member on Verizon and a friend on ATT. None of them are on any MVNOs.
I placed my phone in airlplane mode and sent the pictures over wifi and both parties received them.
If this is something T-Mobile enabled at no charge then I am smiling from cheek to cheek.
Fingers crossed they didn’t make a routing mistake and take it away.
No MMS over wifi here. I just tried
Ok so after your findings I decided to turn on airplane mode and wait 5mins.I then turned on wifi only and sent a picture to another friend of mine on verizon and it went through.
I then sent the same friend another picture after waiting 20mins and it failed.
I then decided to send myself a picture and my sms app says it was sent. So I waited and waited to see if I would receive the picture I sent to myself and it didn’t come through.
I then disabled airplane mode and had only wifi on and the picture came through that I had sent myself in less than a minute.
Not sure what to make of this. When I initially asked you about it I was enabling airplane mode after you mentioned it and would immediately send a picture via wifi only and it worked everytime versus whenU waited say 10-20mins it would work at times and at times fail.
Could the cell towers still see my device via an internet connection and route my MMS?
I recall attemtping this twice when I was a customer of AirVoice and it would fail everytime. MMS on AV only worked with cellular data on.
Thoughts?
The cell towers cannot see your device in airplane mode with wifi on because your cellular antenna is disabled.
Theoretically all carriers should be able to support wifi mms, although most don’t. Perhaps there’s not a standard protocol for this that can easily be applied to all phones and os’s?
Perhaps the carriers should all just put out an app to support this on all devices?
I would lean more towards certain or all carriers in the US prefer phone & OS manufacturers to enable these functions on specific phone models based on cellular technology in here in the states. i.e cdm or gsm
Some would go as far as ensuring customers can only use these types of services like MMS over wifi within their network. They wouldn’t allow a customer from a cdma carrier to send a picture message to a customer on a gsm carrier.
They do this to lure customers away from others only to find out you can only use features like these if you bought a phone from said carrier and send a picture to another customer on the same carrier.
It’s all about money at the end of the day. Companies complain how they losing money. I just don’t see how when some cell phone plans and addons are so over priced.
Maybe a few big wigs up top and shareholders should forego the new mod mercedes benz?? Just my two cents…ha
Thanks for sharing your experience.
By the way the wife is on Ptel and she can’t receive or send MMS via wifi. She has to be on data to do both.
I may have my original kit somewhere, but won’t be home for several hours to check. I know that they changed product numbers since I initially bought mine.
@Bestmvno.com
Once I hit my 100 minites can I still receive calls?
A friend just tried to call me a few minutes ago and he said he got a recording and I quote ” the number you care calling is not accepting calls”.
My plan is good for two more weeks.
Once you hit 100 minutes that’s it for calling out and receiving calls. It won’t work. The plan is supposed to be able to take overages at 10c minute. I’ve never tried that myself, but if you want to try, since it’s prepaid, you may need to add $1 to your account to use the overages.
good to know. Wish they would of at least allowed unlimited free incoming calls.
forgot to ask if incoming calls are deducted from the 100 monthly minutes?
My one hesitation with this plan is voice minutes. I don’t normally do hardly any minutes. But i do alot of mobile to mobile with my wife. I am thinking this could totally sink this plan if I add another 400 mins in voice with no FREE mobile to mobile.
Yes, thats not a lot there for sure. Have you considered trying Google voice with hangouts or freedompops app for free calling over mobile data and Wi-Fi? I use hangouts to get around this limitation. Of course there are plenty of other apps out there too that allow free phone calls or voice calls through their respective apps. Google voice/hangouts and FreedomPop actually give you a second phone number to use.
uhm, its 4G speed not 4G LTE
Thank you, but 4G and 4G LTE can mean two different things. 4G is non specific and can refer to HSPA , LTE and even WiMax, in this case the plan includes 4G LTE data.