T-Mobile's "Project Dark"

Ah, thanks for answering. Guess we'll have to hope that they have the phone she picked out at the store.

Will there be a price difference to what I have already calculated because we are getting one subsidized phone? She doesn't want a smartphone, just a candybar style phone (maybe clamshell design) that can be used in the UAE.
The 70+25+Activation Fee +Tax?

Ok, if I understand your question, you're activating two new lines on a Family Plan and you want to know if getting a subsidized phone will change the price you're calculating.  If the subsidized phone is free, no it will not.  Currently t-mobile.com is showing like 9 free phones.  (I do not know if there are any that won't work in the UAE).  So you might pull up the website and check out the list.  Usually if you're in doubt, you can look up a model on GSMarena.com and it will give a detailed list of the phone's frequencies to see if it is compatible with UAE.  

T-Mobile is pretty good about giving out the unlock codes for their phones so you'll want to get that done before she goes away.  

If you're signing a 2 year contract, and you're getting one free phone, you might as well get two.  You shouldn't let that subsidy go to waste.  No extra price, and you'll have a spare phone or you can sell one on ebay.  

The other option is to do a no contract deal.  Some store reps will tell you that this doesn't exist but it does.  (it's very uncommon) Since your buying your N900, you could pay a few bucks for a simple unlocked phone for her, get the same plan you want and not have the 2 year commitment.  Just another idea if not having the commitment is important to you.  

Darn.  The Tmotoday pic looked like it said something about a 200 minute "bucket" but it is hard to read.  I was hoping that this "bucket" meant that the minutes could be shared with other 200 minute add-a-lines.

Well, where I was looking was in the latest tmonews pics.  
If you look in the caption above the add-a-line sections it says: WHENEVER MINUTES (for each additional line)

Then for the 700-1500 addl lines it says the addl lines share in the pool.
For the 200 minute line, it doesn't mention sharing.
Maybe it is possible that they'll let multiple 200 lines share and they just didn't spell it out.  You'll have to check Sunday to be certain.

http://www.tmonews.com/2009/10/project-dark-again/

Jet,  It is my understanding that the $5 additional lines are only for the 750 and 1500min Family plans and the $10 200 min. and $30 unlimited additional lines are for only the Unlimited Family plans.  Since is says (Only available with Unlimited plan). In other words you can only get the 200 min additional line when you get the unlimited plan.
See: http://www.tmonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/rateplan-1024x768.jpg

Jet,  It is my understanding that the $5 additional lines are only for the 750 and 1500min Family plans and the $10 200 min. and $30 unlimited additional lines are for only the Unlimited Family plans.  Since is says (Only available with Unlimited plan). In other words you can only get the 200 min additional line when you get the unlimited plan.

Yes, that's how I've been reading it. 

I do have a question on the $5 additional line to the family plans.  No were does it state that the $5 additional lines (for the 750 and 1500 min family plans) include the unlimited text that is on the first 2 lines (if you opt for the voice + unlimited text plan).  Will the $5 additional line/s include the unlimited text if you opt for the 750 or 1500 min + unlimited text family plan?

These analysts recommended T-Mobile followup to AT&T's A-List with the following:

• T-Mobile USA cannot stand to allow larger carriers to equal its myFaves number count as this jeopardizes its value-centric reputation. It should consider including unlimited messaging within its myFaves plans or consider increasing the number of myFaves numbers to greater than five to offer differentiation. On a portfolio basis, T-Mobile should make myFaves the flagship plan and discontinue the standard Individual plan portfolio as having a variety of plan portfolios may provide choice, but it can also confuse customers and sales representatives.

Good find Mystictrust.  This is an excellent analysis.  If T-Mobile would’ve have tried to follow this they would’ve been fine.  Instead they did the exact opposite.  Here’s what they could’ve done to implement the suggestion above, and see if this sounds better than what they are doing.

1)   Take all regular individual plans and family plans and add MyFaves to them and do not increase the cost.  Have a big advertising campaign saying T-Mobile now gives MyFaves to all it’s customers.  Current customers with non-MyFaves plans would automatically get them.
2)   Implement the suggestion to include all text messages sent to the Fave 5 to be included in the plan.

That’s it.  Done.  Now people are flocking like crazy to T-Mobile to get their MyFaves at lower prices.  It’s also a lower price than AT&T & Verizon favorite plans are. 

Also, you can eliminate half your plans because the older more expensive MyFaves plans would no longer be needed.  So you still get plan simplicity. 

For as long as I can remember when you went into the plan selection screen on T-Mobile.com, next to MyFaves 300 $39.99, it said “Our most popular plan.”  (It doesn’t say this anymore---they must have felt guilty because they’re deleting it)  So let’s understand this, their most popular plan, and they’re no longer offering it?

That would be like Toyota saying, we’re not going to make the Camry anymore!  Eliminating MyFaves is going to rank right up there with the stupidest business decisions of all time.

I think they’ll at least bring it back as an add-on in a couple of months.  But by then, it will be too late.  This holiday season and earnings quarter will be lost.  These Even More, Even More Plus plans are just plain hard to understand.  First of all, why not give them better names that actually mean something.  Like Contract Plans and No Contract Plans.  That wasn’t so hard was it? 

Then on top of that they’re advertising high prices!  Look, if they had implemented the suggestion above, they could’ve advertised---Unlimited calls and texts to your Fave 5---$29.99 (because MyFaves would be available on the lower priced plan).  Sounds pretty good right?  Instead Catherine Zeta is on a poster that is advertising $69.99!  And that doesn’t even include data!  I drive around my town and I see MetroPcs advertising $30 unlimited talk and Cricket is advertising $40 for unlimited talk & text.  Does T-Mobile seriously think that anybody is going to turn their head when they see $69.99.  And on top of that, $69.99 is not even their cheapest price for that plan!  They could’ve put the Even More Plus price $59.99 on that poster.  Granted it’s only $10 less, but it just shows that T-Mobile execs aren’t even following the BASICS of marketing.

I’ll close in saying, that existing T-Mobile customers who have heard about these plans aren’t impressed.  I can guarantee you when reps find out the true prices, after being hyped for at least 2 weeks that something BIG is coming, they will be extremely disappointed.  And when they go to sell these new plans to people in their new black & white uniforms, it’s going to be even a bigger nightmare because all of the confusion the customer will have. 

Amen, brother...T-Mo stuck their heads where the sun don't shine on this.

If they really wanna move up from 4th place, they'll have to buy Sprint now 'cause Project Dumb won't do it.

Amen, brother...T-Mo stuck their heads where the sun don't shine on this.

If they really wanna move up from 4th place, they'll have to buy Sprint now 'cause Project Dumb won't do it.

You said it just about perfect.

After reading most all the post on alot of sites the general feeling seems to be that the "Project Dark" is not a "game changer", what a shame, I was pulling for tmo. And I'm not one that believes there still may be a pleasant surprise tomorrow.

You said it just about perfect.

Actually, jet1000 is the one who summed it up right.  Credit where credit is due...

You said it just about perfect.

Actually, jet1000 is the one who summed it up right.  Credit where credit is due...

Then I must say Jet100 said it about perfect.
Also was just messing around on T-mo site and either its overloaded or big maintenance or changes are going on you can't even look at the list of phones they carry.

Yeah, it looks like they have started working on it.

You can still access the handset upgrades section from within MyT-Mobile is you wish to do so.  Everyone, remember that if you plan on adding any services, want to change to a myfaves plan, or change the minutes you have on a plan that you want grandfathered in, you need to do so today!

just talked to csr on the phone.  she said she "couldn't say anything about  the new plans", but advised me that if i wanted to add anything currently in their existing plan structure, that i should definitely do it today because they will no longer be available AT ALL!  this is bs.  what about current customers who have no idea about this project dark?  what if tomorrow someone felt like adding a message plan to their 29.99/300 minute plan?  they couldn't do it - at least that's what i was just told...this whole project dark thing is bad for current customers, especially thos not paying attention to tech-type blogs...

10 minutes ago I added Web2Go to one of my lines, and also upgraded phones, since I don't know how much of this I can do after today.

in about half an hour i'n on my way to upgrade to a subsidized MT3G, add the 24.99 data plan, and the 4.99 300 message plan.  my total will be 59.97.  none of the new plans will come close to that with a subsidized phone.  the closest new plan comes in at 79.99 - screw that.  i feel awful for the people who don't know about this....

Just got back from TMobile and then lunch. Got the $70 family plan (400 min, fav 5 with a $25 smartphone data plan). At first, the representative said customer service wouldn't let her add it because I was just going be using a free phone until my n900 comes in November so I could only get the $10 plan. But I voiced my displeasure at the idea since TMobile is likely to identify the n900 as a smartphone thus say I need to pay for the higher data plan or stop using the $10 data plan. And seeing as how prices changes tomorrow I don't want to pay the new price for the unlimited data plan so I sought to sidestep the situation entirely by just buying the smartphone data plan now. Though she put a note in the records that I wanted the $25 one and hopefully that they would give it to me once I switched the SIM to the n900.

Later got a call from her saying she recallled customer service and got them to budge so instead of the $10 data plan I will be getting the $25 smartphone data plan despite only using the free phone for now.

Later got a call from her saying she recallled customer service and got them to budge so instead of the $10 data plan I will be getting the $25 smartphone data plan despite only using the free phone for now.

Well, good job on being persistent.  I figured last night that could be an issue, though I thought they could override it at the store.  Since it's supposedly on your account, I would try to log into your account on t-mobile.com.  Go into Manage Plans & Services and make sure it is showing up on your account. 

If it is not, you can change the device on that line to a smart phone such as the Touch Pro 2.  Then go back into Change Services, and you should be able to add it.  Try to make sure it is showing on your account before the end of the day.

If I add the $25 smart phone data plan today without any other changes could I cancel it again after a month?

On the tmonews blog they posted some new charts which shows in most cases how T-Mobile's new unlimited pricing is lower than the other 3 large carriers.

http://www.tmonews.com/2009/10/project-dark-mini-breakdown/

This is also the first visual confirmation that we have had that the family add-a-line price DOES NOT include data.  See the footnote at the bottom of the talk+text+web charts.  That pretty much clears up all pricing aspects of the new plans. 

If I add the $25 smart phone data plan today without any other changes could I cancel it again after a month?

Sure.  There's no minimum time you have to leave it on your account. 

On the tmonews blog they posted some new charts which shows in most cases how T-Mobile's new unlimited pricing is lower than the other 3 large carriers.

http://www.tmonews.com/2009/10/project-dark-mini-breakdown/

This is also the first visual confirmation that we have had that the family add-a-line price DOES NOT include data.  See the footnote at the bottom of the talk+text+web charts.  That pretty much clears up all pricing aspects of the new plans. 

Wow can't believe 70 a line with date, that's nuts.  The chart seems to show T-mo will be cheaper but none of these new plans work for me, especially with my favs gone, that was the one thing that let me keep a lower minute plan and save a few bucks.  It's not like I'm gonna say I'm leaving T-mo but definately not impressed with the changes.   Older customers get screwed while new ones save money, just doesn't seem right to me.

This is also the first visual confirmation that we have had that the family add-a-line price DOES NOT include data.  See the footnote at the bottom of the talk+text+web charts.  That pretty much clears up all pricing aspects of the new plans.  

This seems like a total ripoff to me.  You can get an individual unlimited talk/text/smartphone data for $80.  However, it cost $70 to add this same line to a family plan.  Shouldn't it be more than $10 cheaper to get this all as part of a family plan than it is to buy each line separately.