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Comment by 999900000999 | Hacker News Reader

An MNVO for 20$ and an unlocked phone is the best experience.

That's a sweeping generalization and not true for a lot of users. I stay with T-Mobile so that I don't get deprioritized, but also because I get free global roaming, which I use a lot.

And also because I can add tablets and watches for only $10/month extra. Once you start adding secondary devices, the MVNOs get expensive very quickly.

The thing I don’t understand is why you should have to pay to add devices. Or even that data expires each month.

Just sell me a bucket of gigabytes and I’ll consume it via as many devices as I want, then pay for another bucket when I run out.

Network congestion should be managed by towers anyway, not by artificial limits on number of devices or expiring data.

Most people want unlimited for the convenience. You can very easily go to Fi or a budget carrier for more fine-grained plans like the ones you described.

EDIT: typo

I suspect number of devices is a good approximation for ability to pay & in general price discrimination is good for business

FYI Google Fi has plans where you can get extra SIM cards that share the same data (data only, but all Google Fi calling is over data anyway, really; you can "call" from a computer).

I like the flexible plan because I'm almost always near wifi, and thus my bill is often just $35 or so, but the bill will never be over $80 even if I were to have my phone downloading 24/7. MVNO mostly on T-Mobile network. It seems that Google has a better MVNO deal than many others, less slowdowns.

Fi deprioritizes after 15 or 50 GB/month based on your plan, though. I mostly don't hit that, and even if I do, I've never really noticed it -- I'm in a low population density area.

See "Shareable data included for tablets and other devices" in https://fi.google.com/about/plans

I should’ve mentioned that I am currently on a T-Mobile data only 5GB/$20 plan, which is more than I currently need.

Fi looks interesting though, will look into it. Thanks for sharing.

I wasted money a couple upgrade cycles buying tablets with the SIM slot for extra money thinking I may one day need it.

What's the point in spending the extra money per month instead of just using your phone as a hotspot. I'm genuinely curious about the use case. With watches, they now have GPS built in and I just don't want to feel like I'm talking to Zordon the few times I would be outside without my phone but with a watch

> use cases

Battery life, kids, and much larger data caps.

> What's the point in spending the extra money per month instead of just using your phone as a hotspot.

Hotspot data is limited, but $10/month gets you unlimited data on a tablet on TMob.

I'm on a similar 3rd party (?) carrier, Visible, through Verizon and obviously the dataplans are deprioritized. That being said, I've had 100% the same experience using them and Verizon throughout my state, and speeds stayed on par at the times I've tested. IIRC they do also offer an uptier that puts you as priority, but so far I haven't needed it.

Visible is wholly owned by Verizon.

My experience with T Mobile is them always trying to upsell me on more expensive phones.

I know exactly how much I want to spend.

$20 total, tax-inclusive, for three unlimited lines from T-Mobile is the best experience.

What plan is this?

2017 Kickstart v1 + 2020 unlimited free line (both from Sprint) + 2023 unlimited free line

I agree. It's insane when you look at the plans of the big 3 providers. First of all, always showing prices for 3-4 lines, which is ... weird.

Then you read and you see stuff like 'X on us'. I don't want that. Or '480p DVD quality' shown as a feature! So I can't even decide how to use my data? Or 'choose your perks, $10 each! (I thought perks where things that you get? Not thing that you have to pay for.).

Or you show 5 plans and half of them have taxes included, and the other ones don't? How am I supposed to compare?

Both Mint and Boost are "MNVOs" but are sub-companies of T-Mobile.

I do agree its a good experience, but they all are from the same corporate tree today. If T-Mobile's main business starts to get into trouble, you can expect a shakeup.

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