Roger Fingas
T-Mobile USA has announced plans to bring Data Stash — a policy rolling over unused 4G data from each month — to new and existing Simple Choice prepaid subscribers, having previously limited the perk to postpaid customers.
The prepaid benefit takes effect on March 22nd, and as with postpaid will come with a "Starter Stash" of up to 10 gigabytes. After that bandwidth disappears, prepaid users will begin rolling over any unconsumed data in their plan from month to month. Stashed data will remain available for up to a year.
Data Stash was first introduced in December, and has since been copied by AT&T, which launched Rollover Data in January. Unlike T-Mobile's offering, though, any unused AT&T data expires a month after it's accumulated.
Verizon has yet to announce a similar policy so far. Sprint's main plans offer unlimited data, but there is no rollover for prepaid.
The change may have an impact on the iPhone world. When the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus went on sale last year, US customers ordering from Apple could initially only choose a T-Mobile model if they wanted unlocked service. While they were not beholden to using T-Mobile, many customers may have gone that direction regardless. SIM-free devices arrived at the beginning of the year.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
9 Comments
Hey Verizon! Get your head out of your _ _ _ and follow suit.
Just ditched T-Mobile yesterday and went back to verizon. I love the services T-Mobile offers. But unfortunately their coverage is beyond terrible, at least in my area. These things are cute n all...but it makes it difficult to enjoy these services without connectivity. That should be their #1 goal right now. For the record (and this shocked the heck out of me...) my phone bill (2 lines) dropped $80 going back to verizon. Did not make financial sense to be paying a butt-load of money and having calls constantly dropped. Also, I was having serious AppleInsider withdrawals...
[quote name="AppleZilla" url="/t/185258/t-mobile-brings-data-stash-rollovers-to-simple-choice-prepaid-subscribers#post_2693037"][COLOR=000000]Hey Verizon! Get your head out of your _ _ _ and follow suit.[/COLOR] [/quote] Verizon don't do race to the bottom.
We are very happy with T-Mo. Of course, depends on where you live. I don't think T-Mo wants a race to the bottom, but they do offer great deals to bring customers over. Hopefully, it's enough revenue that they can continue to improve service and get more customers. Seems Verizon can have the upper hand in deploying better services simply because they do charge more and are not shy about it. So far, T-Mo's been doing some good strategizing. Great about the unlimited music streaming.
[quote name="pfisher" url="/t/185258/t-mobile-brings-data-stash-rollovers-to-simple-choice-prepaid-subscribers#post_2693093"] We are very happy with T-Mo. Of course, depends on where you live. I don't think T-Mo wants a race to the bottom, but they do offer great deals to bring customers over. Hopefully, it's enough revenue that they can continue to improve service and get more customers. Seems Verizon can have the upper hand in deploying better services simply because they do charge more and are not shy about it. So far, T-Mo's been doing some good strategizing. Great about the unlimited music streaming. [/quote] Of course it's not enough revenue. They're paying out more than they get from new customers.