T-Mobile Wireless - Looking After The Consumer

T-Mobile Wireless plans offer some of the lowest per minute cell phone rates in the industry. However T- Mobile has some problems with static on calls and has a higher turnover rate (38%) than most other similar cell phone companies. T-Mobile has plans that cater to casual users, frequent users and families. They are currently offering free accessories and free shipping in an effort to demonstrate that this company is worthy of consideration as a potential provider of your cell phone service.

Cell phone plans from T-Mobile start as low as $30.00 for a basic plan that includes 300 peak minutes and unlimited off peak or nighttime minutes. However the charge for minutes exceeding the plan limit is $.40 per minute. This can really add up quickly. T-Mobile offers a Get More 300 Plan which offers 3000 total peak and off peak minutes with an over limit charge of 35 cents a minute. Long distance calls are 20 cents a minute. You need to make sure you know your coverage area because roaming calls are 49 cents a minute.

Family Time Plan from T-mobile includes two lines with the opportunity to add additional lines for 10 a month each. For under $100.00 a month family members can share 800 peak minutes and unlimited off peak minutes. Extra minutes will cost you 35 cents per minute and roaming is 49 cents per minute.

The Get More Plus Plan for about $100.00 includes 1000 peak minutes and unlimited non-peak minutes. Roaming and long distance charges are the same as in other T-Mobile plans. For an additional $5.00 a month T-Mobile¡¯s Get More Plus Plan gives you an additional 50 minutes for a total of 1050 peak minutes. Over limit charges, roaming and long distance are similar to the Get More Plus Plan.

Consumer Reports, in a recent study of cell phone carriers based on input from 30,000 participants, placed T-Mobile in the mid to top range of overall user satisfaction. However some consumers reported problems with service, dropped calls, busy circuits, and static on the line. On the plus side, T-Mobile ranked near the top of cell phone carriers for economical calling plans.

When comparing T-Mobile¡¯s Family Plan at $70.00 a month to Nextel¡¯s Get Connected More 600 plan at $56.00 a month, T-Mobile proves to actually be cheaper. Nextel¡¯s fee only has one line, T-Mobile¡¯s Family Plan has two. Additional lines from Nextel turn out to be $10.00 more than those from T-Mobile. Also a family of four averages 1800 minutes of cell phone usage a month. T-Mobile offers 200 more peak minutes per month. These factors make T-Mobile about $65.00 a month cheaper than the Nextel Plan. It turns out that T-Mobile¡¯s plan is even a little less expensive than the Cingular Family Talk plan at $50.00, due to the difference in additional lines and the number of peak minutes offered by each.

Recently T-Mobile has added the revolutionary ¡°T-Mobile Pocket PC¡± phone to its line of cell phones. This phone boasts excellent PC capabilities, including Microsoft Mobile 2003 OS, full color touch screen, email, Pocket Word, Excel, PIM, an Intel processor, 32 MB RAM, and international phone for use in over 130 countries, and more features are available. T-Mobile also provides phones made by Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola. These phones are available in the standard pocket style phones, as well as flip phones. You can get a wide variety of features including camera phones, 25 ring tones, and MIDI and MP3 formats built in, to name just a few. So when shopping for a cell phone carrier, you owe it to yourself to at least consider T-Mobile as your carrier.