$30 prepaid plan to stop supporting LTE?

[new optimus]

any idea if the $30 plan is still 5 gb at full LTE speeds? I am looking at the activation page right now and it says 5gb at 4g speeds

 

[jhawkkw]

any idea if the $30 plan is still 5 gb at full LTE speeds? I am looking at the activation page right now and it says 5gb at 4g speeds

If it isn't full LTE, I haven't noticed. I regularly hit 20mbps down on it.

 

[mogelijk]

any idea if the $30 plan is still 5 gb at full LTE speeds? I am looking at the activation page right now and it says 5gb at 4g speeds

I've noticed that, as well, so it might be interesting to see if new users get LTE on that plan. It does seem like the $30 plan has had a lower priority than other plans; I know that I was getting between 10 and 20 Mbps down when I was on the plan at the end of last year; when I switched to one of the unlimited type plans I was suddenly seeing 30 Mbps down.

 

[codesplice]

I think it's safe to say that $30/mo plan still gets full LTE. 😉

 

[mrnyjet]

it might be lte for grandfathered customers, but it is non-lte 4 g for new ones. Walmart had to pull the old sim kits and replace them with new ones, that clearly state " at up to 4 g speed".

 

[mogelijk]

it might be lte for grandfathered customers, but it is non-lte 4 g for new ones. Walmart had to pull the old sim kits and replace them with new ones, that clearly state " at up to 4 g speed".

Again, they may be planning on removing LTE from the $30 plan but they haven't done it yet. On the "I Ordered the Nexus 5" thread there is a person who got a new SIM and just started his $30 plan this last week (after July 1) and he is getting LTE on the plan.

We'll see what happens but, for now, the $30 plan still has LTE.

 

[ragnarkar]

I heard rumors on another thread that the $30/mo 100min 5gb plan will stop supporting LTE in a few months. Is there any substance to this rumor? If so, I might get Ting on my new Nexus instead of Tmobile..

 

[jhawkkw]

I heard rumors on another thread that the $30/mo 100min 5gb plan will stop supporting LTE in a few months. Is there any substance to this rumor? If so, I might get Ting on my new Nexus instead of Tmobile..

I found the thread you were talking about. Since the posts were a bit off topic for the thread they were in, I moved them out of there and into yours to keep this topic organized.

As for the rumors, they have been just that. I'm not even sure if it's an official rumor because I don't recall one major tech blog running this story. At the time of this post, the plan still has full LTE.

As for running with Ting, I highly recommend against it because it requires them to flash some software to make it work, and it will lock the phone to the network instead of keeping the Nexus in it's natural state. And according to one testimony, no one was willing to undo it.

 

[ragnarkar]

I found the thread you were talking about. Since the posts were a bit off topic for the thread they were in, I moved them out of there and into yours to keep this topic organized.

As for the rumors, they have been just that. I'm not even sure if it's an official rumor because I don't recall one major tech blog running this story. At the time of this post, the plan still has full LTE.

As for running with Ting, I highly recommend against it because it requires them to flash some software to make it work, and it will lock the phone to the network instead of keeping the Nexus in it's natural state. And according to one testimony, no one was willing to undo it.

Thanks.. according to here, it seems Sprint will lock a Nexus purchased from Best Buy to their network but I'm not sure if the same applies to those from the Google Play store (where I bought mine, still waiting for it.)

 

[jhawkkw]

Thanks.. according to here, it seems Sprint will lock a Nexus purchased from Best Buy to their network but I'm not sure if the same applies to those from the Google Play store (where I bought mine, still waiting for it.)

I think it's the same person, since the story sounds the same and the timeline is the same roughly.

You should be fine on the $30 dollar plan as far as LTE goes for the foreseeable future. Whether the low amount of minutes will suffice, depends on the person and can often be a deal breaker.

 

[mogelijk]

I heard rumors on another thread that the $30/mo 100min 5gb plan will stop supporting LTE in a few months. Is there any substance to this rumor? If so, I might get Ting on my new Nexus instead of Tmobile..

If they do remove LTE from the $30 plan, I'm fairly sure they will only do that for new customers. T-Mobile has a history of grandfathering customers, including prepaid customers, on their current plans; so I'd expect those currently on the $30 plan to keep LTE.

At worst, that is the beauty of prepaid. If T-Mobile decides to change the plan and no one on the $30 plan gets LTE, at that point it is just as easy to change to another carrier as it would be now. I'm sure we'd see a lot of people on the $30 plan jumping to new plans elsewhere.

Last, I might point out that the $30 plan on HSPA+ only would still likely be faster than Ting in many (even most) cities. For example, examine PCMag's Fastest Mobile Networks and you will find many cities where T-Mobile's 3G speeds are actually faster than Sprint's LTE speeds. Even the cities where Sprint wins, it is typically very close.

 

[kate]

If they do remove LTE from the $30 plan, I'm fairly sure they will only do that for new customers. T-Mobile has a history of grandfathering customers, including prepaid customers, on their current plans; so I'd expect those currently on the $30 plan to keep LTE.

Agreed, I'd be pretty shocked if T-Mobile didn't grandfather in LTE for existing customers.

 

[jm101]

On the $30 plan with the Optimus L9. Have been considering eventually buying a Moto G 4G LTE but after hearing the rumor maybe I'll just wait to see if T-Mobile takes LTE off of the $30 plan.

 

[duvallite]

After seeing this thread, I'm wondering if they haven't already started dropping LTE from the $30 plan. For the last couple of weeks, my speeds have been overall noticeably slower, and I have not been seeing the 4G LTE icon in the notification bar (stock 4.1.2), only 4G. Still, some of the DL speeds are in the 20s, 30s, & 40s, but it still only shows 4G.

Is there some way to tell which type of network I'm actually connected to? I'm using the latest version of Ookla Speed Test, but it does not show the network type even when I click on a specific test result.

 

[jhawkkw]

Are you using a touchwiz rom or a stock android rom? Chances are if you're in the 30's or 40's it's LTE. I've never seen HSPA+ hit that high. Low to mid 20's from those in HSPA+42 regions is expected, but not 30 or 40mbps. Another sign is your ping times and upload speeds. Ping for HSPA is usually going to be 500ish or more while LTE is generally between 30-150. And upload speeds, HSPA doesn't tend to get much higher than 3mbps.

 

[duvallite]

Stock android rom in my S3. Ping times are typically 30s & 40s, with some lower and some higher, and my upload speeds range from 5-11 since July started. So maybe it is LTE, and not HSPA+. Any thoughts on why I'm not seeing the 4G LTE icon though? The mobile network icons I've gotten in the past are E, G, 4G, and 4G LTE.

 

[jhawkkw]

Prior to Android 4.4, stock android would only show E for EDGE, H for HSPA, and 4G for LTE. When KitKat was released, they dropped the 4G icon for LTE. Some custom roms had the option to change it from 4G to LTE so that could be partly responsible. Touchwiz would often be confusing and show E for EDGE, 4G for HSPA, and 4G LTE for lte.

 

[jm101]

I wish I could get 20 Mbps on my HSPA+ connection. I am lucky to get 6 Mbps.

 

[jhawkkw]

I wish I could get 20 Mbps on my HSPA+ connection. I am lucky to get 6 Mbps.

It's becoming less common now since they started refarming their spectrum. HSPA use to be on band 4 and would feature dual-channels in order to allow those high speeds. They have since moved most of their HSPA to band 2 and only have 1 channel for that. Speeds on that band will likely max out somewhere between 8 and 10.

 

[jm101]

It's becoming less common now since they started refarming their spectrum. HSPA use to be on band 4 and would feature dual-channels in order to allow those high speeds. They have since moved most of their HSPA to band 2 and only have 1 channel for that. Speeds on that band will likely max out somewhere between 8 and 10.

Thanks! That's good to know. Time to get an LTE phone?

 

[Gman9831]

It's becoming less common now since they started refarming their spectrum. HSPA use to be on band 4 and would feature dual-channels in order to allow those high speeds. They have since moved most of their HSPA to band 2 and only have 1 channel for that. Speeds on that band will likely max out somewhere between 8 and 10.

In a lot of places sooner or later the may have H+42 on PCS (Band 2) I know South Florida and a couple other places do already. Especially in markets supplied by Nokia Siemens Network since they have a technique where you use less spectrum for each HSPA channel

 

[jhawkkw]

In a lot of places sooner or later the may have H+42 on PCS (Band 2) I know South Florida and a couple other places do already. Especially in markets supplied by Nokia Siemens Network since they have a technique where you use less spectrum for each HSPA channel

Interesting. I wonder how widespread of a rollout they're considering for this considering HSPA is old technology compared to LTE.

 

[mrnyjet]

Again, they may be planning on removing LTE from the $30 plan but they haven't done it yet. On the "I Ordered the Nexus 5" thread there is a person who got a new SIM and just started his $30 plan this last week (after July 1) and he is getting LTE on the plan.

We'll see what happens but, for now, the $30 plan still has LTE.

I made the switch today. Took a chance based on your post. First, stopped at t mobile mall store where rep put her sim card on my lg f3, taking out brightspot sim. It showed lte signal. So, l went to walmart and got 30 dollar plan kit. When i tried to activate, it would not allow me to , using imei from brightspot phone. So, i used the imei from my unlocked moto g/lte. Bingo, activated plan and ported over phone number from brightspot. I then called t mobile, told them i had requested unlock code a week ago from brightspot, but they had yet to send it. Plan was renewing tomorrow, so i was switching today.
They told me to move sim card from t mobile to the lg3 and see if it works now. Sure enough, it does, lte signal and all. So, it got done without the unlock code.
Thanks to quick thinking and advice from other posters.

 

[Skyroket]

well, I'm not sure whats going on but lately my "LTE" icon started to change to "H" more frequently and LTE reception get 2 bars.. im pretty sure i used to get full LTE reception in my area a couple of weeks ago.

 

[ragnarkar]

I activated my N5 with the $30 plan and can confirm it still has LTE.