My T-Mobile honeymoon has long since passed, with the day-to-day reality of life on a second-rate carrier having set in. Of course, your mileage may vary as cell coverage is highly dependent upon locale (or building composition). For me, T-Mobile has provided an extremely frustrating experience with perhaps, ironically, superior coverage roaming overseas partners versus native networks here at home — with the majority of my calls dropping. On the occasions I have coverage to initiate one.
My latest Uncarrier lesson, where marketing hype once again doesn’t square with my experience, comes via a tethering/hotspot cap I clearly wasn’t aware of. In T-Mobile’s favor, they are extremely generous in the pricing and quantity of data they provide compared to AT&T and Verizon. And, at those times when I’ve had LTE coverage, I’ve appreciated the seemingly unlimited 4G firehose via both smartphone and laptop. However, whereas I was once told I’d never be cut off, only throttled, there is some magic number where tethering/hotspot service is suspended… as you can see above. Officially, my plan indicates 3GB of hotspot data. Yet, having consumed over 9GB of combined phone/tethered data thus far this month, there is a generous but misleading line in the sand somewhere and knowing is half the battle. So now you know.