It hasn't been too much of a secret that T-Mobile has been planning something big and it had nothing to do with
UMA. We have had some bits of information roll in about the big pink T launching something similar to
Alltel's My Circle, very hipply dubbed "My Faves." This would allow their customers to place and receive calls to any predetermined number of their choice, as much as they want. Not a bad deal. Now the catch, you have to get a new phone because the service needs "special" software to enable the feature. (Good thing for you Pearl users that this handset already includes the extraordinary functionality).
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Do your "faves" need to be tmobile customers also?
no they dont they can be any phone number that isnt a 900 800 or international number. it doenst even have to be a cell phone it can be a land line also
Why do you need a new phone to use the service? It seems like it could be something you set up on their website or through t-zones like callertunes. And if you're buying a new phone do you also have to pay a monthly fee? as far as buying a new phone that would seem like it would leave alot of people out of the loop. Such as me who just renewed my contract for a new phone.
But tmobile phones suck.
So can I use this service with an unlocked Nokia E50? If it can't be used with an unlocked phone then it is pointless.
The my faves service supports some phone currently on the market. An ota is sent to the handset. No currently unsupported handsets cannot use my faves. ANd as far as tmo phones suckage. Tmobile is a service provider not a handset maker. Duh. The my faves is a monthly fee and you get unlimited calling to any of those 5 numbers. They display on your home screen as shown above. Which is why a software update is needed. The my faves numbers can be any provider. Landline or mobile.
"Do your "faves" need to be tmobile customers also?"
No - that's called "unlimited mobile to mobile".
"Tmobile is a service provider not a handset maker."
Cingular and Verizone are service providers as well rather than handset makers but they both have more choices and better choices when it comes to phones. Your reasoning of TMobile not being a handset maker says absolutely nothing and makes absolutely no difference considering the market that they are in.
I might just be an Alltel fanboy.. But comparing the offerings between Alltel and T-mobile, my opinion is that Alltel has the better deal.
For the lowest cost plan with both M2M and My Faves/My Circle
T-mobile's lowest priced plan is $49.99 for 300 Anytime mins, unlimited N/W, unlimited M2M and 5 "My Faves" numbers
Alltel's lowest priced plan that includes "My Circle" is $59.99 and includes 900 Anytime mins, unlimited M2M, Unlimited N/W, and 10 "My Circle" numbers.
You are obviously going to have more people you can call with Unlimited M2M with T-mobile, as they have more customers.
Neither carrier will allow you to use 800, 900 and international numbers to the My Faves/Circle lists.
I may be wrong, but from what I read about T-mobile's offer you can change the My Faves once a month.
With Alltel, you can change My Circle at any time, and the Changes will occur the next day (12:01am to be exact).
On Family plans T-mobile "My Faves" give you 5 numbers for each line, Alltel's "My Circle" gives you 10 numbers across the board, all 10 numbers apply to each line and can be changed using the Alltel website.
That is my comparisan, using these sites to determine the offers.
For T-mobile
http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/7655-first_look_screenshots_tmobile_my_faves.html#post69731
For Alltel
http://alltel.com/personal/wireless/plans/national_freedom.html
It is encouraging to see that T-mobile is trying this out, I use Alltel and have My Circle, it is very useful and I enjoy this feature.
-Jared Philip
#8 The Link you provided shows tmobile as having 59.99 with My faves with 1000minutes.
"For the lowest cost plan with both M2M AND My Faves/My Circle"
That plan is $59.99 but it does not include M2M According to the link provided by Engadget, which is what I based the T-mobile section of my comment on.
To add M2M you would add $10
@6 I'm talking about the quality of phones. I took the comment "tmo phones suck" as a shot at quality. I get bothered by people who buy a phone and when it has a defect they blame the carrier and switch to another provider. When in the end thier just buying another phone from the same manufacter. What you mean as far as tmobiles choice of phones. No they are not very good, mainly because they dont have the same leverage as cing or vzw of restricting a phones release to thier network for a period of time. And they seem to relay on motorola nad samsung avg phones to fill most of thier line-up.
let me comment on the "My Faves" vs "My Circle". The big major factor that we need to look at is that there "circle" is for those that live in the same region as you do..what fun is that when you live in NY and mom lives in Florida..you cant you use "my Circle" but you can with My Faves. this is a nation wide calling plan..including PR from a company that has won the JD POWER award 4 times. Which that alone needs to be mentioned.
Another point is that if you are in a family plan with alltel all you get is 10 "mycircle" thats it regardless of the amount of lines that you have on the family plan..Tmobile offered the myfaves to each and every line . So if you have 5 lines alltel shares the 10 (2 on each line) yet tmobile you get 25 "my faves".
I still think its stupid I just bought the damn sidekick3!!! I went in the tmobile store a couple weeks ago ready to cancel and he told me to wait til OCT 2 but he didn't tell me what the deal was he also didn't tell me it wasn't compatable which isn't fair to customers. So THIS SUCKS!!!........unless you buy a new phone
First of all Alltel who? exactly! they are where? very limited network, but they are growing I do give them that. We all have our opinions. The reason the rep did not tell you about My Faves is because he probably wants to keep his job by not leaking confidential information before it's released. And about the comments on T-Mobiles phone lineup, if you think they suck so bad you WERE right, they werent the best in the past, but you obviously have not been to a store lately, they have gotten 110% better. Why does everybody love those Low Grade phones so much (LG) that Verizon and Cingular offer I will never understand. I know a few employees in all the major carriers very well and their phones are no better, in fact the chocolate from verizon for example has had a load of problems right from the launch. Maybe it's the phone your using, just like Michael said, people have a problem with their phone and it's the carrier that sucks and then they tell everyone they know and they believe them and so on. IF YOUR NEW PLASMA TV SUCKS DO YOU BLAME IT ON BEST BUY AND THEN GO TO CIRCUIT CITY????? On last comment: I want to clarify that T-Mobiles Lowest My Faves plan is NOT $49.99 it is $39.99 for 300 mins w/myfaves and Nts/Wknds. or $29.99 without My Faves and Nts. $49.99 for 6oo mins w/My Faves and nts/wknds, $39.99 without My Faves, $59.99 for 1000 my faves nts/wknds, $69.99 for 1,500 etc......and mobile-mobile on a single line is only $6.99 if you think you will still need it, honestly sit back and think how many people do you really talk to most of the time, really, I bet most of you have hard time with that 5th person...................
A lot of venom between Alltel and T-Mobile fans. Looks like a competitive pricing structure for the two companies. Alltel gives MyCircle free, whereas T-Mobile charges for it. This puts both on an even keel. Both allow to include any non- 800 domestic phone number, so we can compare coverage. Based on roaming agreements, looks like Alltel has a larger coverage area. Phone selection is always a popular issue. All tel typically sells a subset of Verizon Wireless' product line. T-Mobile tends to stick to their own lines, but you can typicaly use a Cingular phone on thier network as well... Let's all be happy with our own calling plans and put each other on a MyFaves or MyCircle plan!
Oh, and JD Power is not a very good indicator or a company's industry dominance.