T-Mobile's unlimited $5.99 mobile web not unlimited?
By Brian White 
posted May 10th 2007 6:04PM
posted May 10th 2007 6:04PM
Wireless carriers in the US have a great habit of stating the term "unlimited" in marketing materials only to renege on that message later on. T-Mobile USA's reference to an "T-MobileWeb unlimited for $5.99" would make one think that accessing the web from a T-Mobile phone would be $5.99 (per month) for unlimited usage. The devil is in the details here: as some T-Mo customers are finding out, "unlimited" from the T-Mobile dictionary means regular handsets only using data connections through port 9021. So, are PDA phones and other smartphones left out in the cold here? From all appearances, yes. Those devices generally use port 80 (or 8080), which is blocked for T-Mobile customers subscribing to the $5.99 T-MobileWeb plan. Want more "unlimited" data on that T-Mobile Dash? Better be prepared to shell out $29.99 for that kind of "unlimited" service, unless you want to use T-Mobile's proxy server for everything.[Thanks, Djakona]
Update: It seems this bizarre on-again, off-again practice of T-Mobile's has been going on for some time and continues to this very day -- some folks are having luck bypassing the proxy, others aren't. Can we please get a uniform, official policy here?
Set up WAP browser using WAP over GPRS on your PDA/Smartphone and you can happily browse t-Zones unlimited "web"...
i was under the impression that under the 5.99 T-Mobile web you were able to use HTML browsing through normal t-mobile service. the 29.99 was just the T-Mobile hotspot and wi-fi.
Be happy. In Canada there is no unlimited data.
Someone posted a workaround on another thread on HoFo. You basically have to set up two proxy settings on the device. I tried it on my WM6 device and it works like a charm for GMail, Web Browsing, Virtual Earth Mobile, and Google Maps. Here's the thread: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1159857
In Sacramento, CA the $5.99 plan still works for browsing the web using the proxy.
Your other option for unlimited web is to sign up for the $19.99 Blackberry plan, this will give you unlimited web (minus the hotspot access). If you want to sign up online, just temporarily set your phone as a Blackberry, then the $19.99 option should become available, sign up for it, and you should be good to go.
Where the hang up comes in is the phrase "T-Mobile Web." That is T-Mobile's offial WAP internet service name. (Sidebar: T-Zones is just the heading for WAP services that all customers get for free such as Account Management, Shopping for Ringtones, Games, etc.). T-Mobile total internet by their guidelines is supposed to go with Smartphones. BUT if someone had a Dash, SDA, etc and only was interested in WAP pages and T-Zones the 5.99 T-Mobile Web add on would be fine.
I'd say that at some point in the near future we are going to see class action suits for deceptive advertising over these 'unlimited' claims.
In the mean time - get a sidekick ;-)
Admiral, the Sidekick data plan in $30 / month though. Anyone who gets the regular $30 plan doesn't have the problems. The problems are on the $5 / month plan.
There has to be laws against this false practice. If a company sells (keyword SELLS) you an "unlimited" plan but then places a limit on the "unlimited" plan and then charges you additional overage fees (or stopping the flow of data until the next billing cycle)... isn't that false advertising??
Where the heck is the FTC to regulate this??
So far reports are from Oregon, Washington and California. Even using T-Mobile's proxy (port 80 and 8080) doesn't work for java and other apps as well as browsing outside of T-Mobile's t-zone home.
Makes sense to me. "T-MobileWeb" sounds like a branded service, not the open web that I would expect to gain access to through an unlimited data plan connection.
This is crying about branding, come on, stop making a big deal out of things you already knew the answer to beforehand. Anyone looking to gain access to the web on their mobile phone is going to be savvy enough to realize that a $5.99/month service called "T-MobileWeb" isn't going to provide unlimited access to the web without a multi-step workaround that would get you banned from the service if they found out you were doing it.
Go with Sprint. There $15 unlimited is just that, phone or PDA. That and their cutting edge EVDO rev A rollout make Sprint the best choice for data access.
As of may 9th most of the holes have been closed t-zones is wap and not for data phones dash, wing, blackberry, etc.... the proxy connection as seen in howards forum and xda-developers, was closed on the ninth also. Supposedly.
I dont what everyone is complaining about. This is nothing new. And to the chap that implied their will be some future law suits against the mobile provider, I highly doubt that as you signed a contract in the first place to get the plan. Knowing these mobile providers there is already some mention to the capped data usage in the contract. This is true for the unlimited blackberry plans, and MyMail plans offered to corporate Rogers users.
ok i work for tmo pda and there is no data cap on the amount of data you can download but these packages were not intended for pda use,those who used this trick was using the system. your free ride is over sorry beside cant be a breach of contract because these are non contract effecting addons you can add and remove them anytime.
Odd that the author of this misinformation article provided no links to anything at the T-Mobile website. All one has to do is read their explanations for each of the different levels of web-service for a clear understanding of the differences. If that's not enough, it doesn't take long to dial 6-1-1 from your handset and get further clarification. Must be slow news day?
Just had to comment about that last comment (#17). I am a technically savvy t-mobile customer, and it was NOT easy at all to find the descriptions of their different plans, let alone understand their mumbo-jumbo talkarounds about what type of service you actually get for which programs. In fact, it took me hours of studying to figure it out! As fas as 6-1-1, that only takes a second to call, they are not mentioning the hour you spend listening to muzak while waiting for an operator!
I'm waiting on that 3g network to get fully operational before I raise any hell about my data plan.
I've used the $5.99 plan on my MDA for almost a year and have never had a problem. I keep reading about service outage in various regions but have yet to experience any problems myself.
To #14: It's 5/11, and my T-MobileWeb plan still works on the MDA.
To #16: There are so many problems with your comment, I don't now where to start. What do you mean, "not intended for PDA use?" If that's the case, then why did T-Mobile let me sign up for the plan, and why does the T-Mobile network service the requests I send from my MDA? And what do you mean, "free ride?" How can my "ride" be "free" when I pay $5.99 for it every month?
I have no data plan for my T-Mobile Blackberry. I only want web access, so I signed up for T-Mobile Web $5.99. But I have no brower on my phone? How to get one?
Please. You look up T-MobileWeb on the internet and the first link is to: http://www.gruups.com/tzones which shows you have to setup T-MobileWeb on your dash, windows Mobile pc, Treo, and even your laptop.
And you can tell by the link that the instructions have been working since the service was called T-Zones which if I remember right was $2.99 once.
Here in the UK, I'm on Pay as you go on T-mobile. And with any Web'n'walk phone (May I suggest the Sony Ericsson K750i) you pay 75p per KB, but if you download 2kb or more the price is locked at £1 a day, till Midnight that night. Its like unlimited, without the contract.
MDA user with T-Mobile's unlimited $5.99 ($4.99 for me, grandfathered) mobile web user checking in here. Still works fine for me, with proxy.
I'm in the eastern part of the United States FYI.
I am using my HTC s710 with a old voicestream sim chip and all my data works with tzones. Email, Google Maps, Yahoo Go etc, IE etc. BTW Tmobile tech help me setup my phone...
You can manually add the proxy to your PDA. The catch phrase is "unlimited web". Well, a proxy will let you out. I think the restriction comes with other IP services, not just HTTP. Get the $29.99 plan which includes hotspot, and unproxied GPRS. If you're going to be doing IM, and other services you might as well pony up and play fair like the rest of us.
The problem is they have 2 plans.
1. a $5.99 plan that gives you very little.
or
2. a $29.99 plan that gives you access to everything including the WiFi Hotspots.
If they offered a middle plan for JUST GPRS/EDGE internet, I'd get that. $15 sounds reasonable. The other mobile company have a plan like that.
But I don't need WiFi. I don't drink coffee, I don't fly everyday, and I get free WiFi at home and work.
My point is, if they'd just offer a middle plan, I'd pay for it no problem. But paying an extra $30 to causal web and email use on my phone is NOT going to happen. It's a shame.
I'll try to clear up what James (17) said. The truth is that the only mistake that T-mobile made in all this is that a flaw in the system allowed many, many PDA users to have the full HTML internet without paying for it. May 9th is when the flaw was patched up and ended the "Free Ride" that James was talking about. People will complain, but as a comparison, would you tell your cable operator that you have been recieving free cable for a year? The different add-ons in question here (That are NOT contracted and can be added on and removed as pleased) are the 5.99 Tmobile Web, and the 29.99 Tmobile total internet. Now a "technically savy customer" as one put it should have no problem finding out the answer to what is what. And yes, you can find it on T-mobile.com, Click on PHONES, then click on the one you would like to see, such as the DASH, and then click on SERVICES. It will give you an exact definition of the Tmobile Total Internet. And as you will see, the DASH does not mention anything about the Tmobile Web because it is not designed for it. The T-mobile Web for 5.99 is exactly what the name says, the TMOBILE WEB. It says nothing about the Internet. It is WAP web sites and T-zones. And when it comes to that, YES, it is unlimited. If you are not sure, then the reps are available 24/7 for YOUR assistance, rare circumstances that could not be seen ahead of time can make a wait 10-20 minutes, but 90 percent of the time for months now it will be 5 minutes or less. Most likely no wait. And one last thing, some advice, if your are going to spend $300 on something, you should probably investigate and know exactly what you are buying before you buy it.
I have been using t-mobile dash for a month and
I have been using msn messenger/ie(internet explorer)/yahoo messenger thru GPRS/EDGE without paying or adding any internet plan.
3 days ago, my msn messenger and ie stopped working but yahoo messenger is still working fine. there is no added cost or what's ever to get online. I called t-mobile the other day and their tech-rep was saying that there was glitch on t-mobile system and that's why I was able to get online thru edge/gprs without any cost. i was able to use Unlimited EDGE. Now the have fixed it. well, my friends were using online thru edge/gprs too witouth any cost.
question#1: If i were able to use online without paying a single peny, why ppl pay monthly for internet?
question#2 if they fixed the glitch, how come my yahoo messenger still working but ie/msn messenger not working?
since I am still able to get on yahoo messenger, I should be able to get on msn messenger or browse thru IE too. but I can;t.
is it a setting problem in my t-mobile DASH?
The T-Mobile Web add-on plan used to be called "T-Zones" (which yes, started out as $2.99, then $4.99, and now $5.99) which was intended for lower bandwidth cellphone use. It has no per-data-unit charges, simply a flat fee.
BTW, the post number is 9201, not "9021" as written by the above author.
People discovered that the other ports were left unblocked in many markets, which allowed java app use on the web. Many people signed up for the $5 plan then used pcmcia/pc cards or bluetooth thru their notebooks to get "full" non-metered web access.
T-Mobile of course noticed this and has been periodically and progressively shutting down all other ports. Full port access is now increasingly only available with the $29.99 T-Mobile Internet add-on plan. At times, T-Mobile will, unannouced, open the other ports on the T-Mobile Web plan. For many of you, this is noted by Google Maps suddenly working again.
[By the way, anyone who kept the earlier pricing on T-Zones (such as the $2.99 plan) before the price raise actually kept that price, plus all the ports, as long as they stayed with T-Mobile, i know this from experience. Today, there is no way to add a $2.99 or $4.99 plan, but if you had it before and it was never cancelled, it stays in their system under your account number.]
Amidst all of their whining, has anyone else noticed that T-Mobile is still the cheapest mobile internet provider of all of the wireless companies? Verizon, Sprint, Cingular are all faster, yes, but metered-service rates and very high monthly fees come with that.
If you got free web access without paying anything, congratulations! And, you are welcome, since the rest of us are paying for you.
Why would anyone pay for access? Because some of us believe in fair play.
Those who posted to this board to boast about stealing service are pathetic.
Lots of confusion and misunderstandings in this comment thread (and the article). I think Joe's description is exactly correct, though. Over the past year, I noticed that T-Mobile was blocking ports on its T-Mobile Web service in more and more places I travel to, but hadn't started blocking them at home (Chicago). Until this week.
It's hard to make sense of or see a pattern in the way they periodically and regionally block and unblock various ports. I'm sure it generates a lot of expensive customer service calls.
And it isn't about restricting you to "WAP" pages, by the way. Even with the ports blocked, HTML pages are just as accessible as WAP. You just have to set the proxy server/port in your cell phone's browser.
Wherever I travel, email and web browsing work just as well whether or not ports are being blocked. Most other apps (Google Maps, Java apps, IM clients, etc.) don't work, though, because the ports they use for direct Internet access are blocked, and T-Mobile's proxy server doesn't support them.
Seems like we might have something like this starting in the UK. IM not working for some days now! We have two levels of what is called Web'n'Walk. Both are more expensive than your US plans and yes they both have "unlimited" access. The cheaper has a fair usage clause (basicly capped to 1Gb) and the more expensive is suposedly truely unlimited.
Joe, I must comment about fair play! All these plans are commercial tools to get customers! They, "TheMob", are all about revenue and these various plans serve them well as means of promoting their services until someone notices usage trends and says "hey we could gain more money here!" How fair is that? If it's fair to do it, it's fair to try and avoid it! What's not fair is for large companies to manipulate their customers after they join specifically for the companies profit. Cos when they gotya, they gotya and they invoke the clauses for their profit making actions. In my mind it's actually perfectly reasonable, but it's still reasonable to try and avoid it!
I joined "The Mob" because they have the best data access offering I could find and here that means HSDPA and what they should do is create a one cost data access plan with a reasonable cost and leave it at that! They would wipe the others away!!!!!!
Here is my deal. All I want is access to my home network and Internet provider without the cost of a data plan. Any details about WiFi access are unclear from T-Mobile.
When I purchased the Dash, I saw "WiFi enabled phone". So I naturally thought that accessing my already-paid-for service should be a no-brainer. I looked carefully through all of the T-Mobile agreements and marketing. There is nothing about blocked WiFi access.
Go to their web site for the Dash phone and you will see "Real web browsing*" and "GPRS/EDGE and Wi-Fi enabled*" and "*Additional fees may apply". I scoured the web site for anything that indicates that Internet access from your home network or other free WiFi network is blocked. Their web site lacks any detail about this. Then there is nothing in the agreement, which I DID read by the way. If anyone finds anything about limited access using a data phone with their home network from T-Mobile, please post it.
Then when speaking to their representatives, you never get the same answer about t-zones and t-mobileweb with regard to home WiFi access. I have had them tell me "no problem, you can do that without a data plan." While others tell me, "no way unless you have full Internet access."
T-Mobile's marketing department needs to get it right, let their customer service reps know, and put the details somewhere so there is less confusion. No wonder there are so many complaints.
I live in New York and want to tell everybody out there that they shouldn't buy an official tmobile phone. I have had the samsung e900 and nokia n73 (symbian) and I have always had full, free internet access (even through 3rd party chat and email applications). I never subscribed to tzones. My settings are the legitimate settings that tmobile sent me!!! If you bought a blackberry and money matters to you, you should throw that piece of scam away. Nobody should ever pay more than 5.99 on tmobile to get an all inclusive internet and when you buy one of their phones, they set them up so you are screwed (for people using blackberrys, etc...).