Guest PaulOBrien Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 When T-Mobile UK recently announced their new 'Full Monty' all you can eat data plans, they were understandably very proud of their unlimitedness... but forget to mention the dreaded 'T-Mobile speed cap'. For years now there has been a speed cap on T-Mobile connections that could only be removed by calling customer services, requesting a service plan they denied existed any more while standing on your head chanting backwards Latin [note: 50% of previous statement is actually true]. A bit of a nightmare for all concerned. Now, with the launch of their new plans, a bit of a storm was raised about said capping, which they denied, admitted, then claimed to have removed. The official party line now is that there is no cap on the speed. However... I'm getting a lot of reports from Full Monty customers that while their download speed is much improved (and actually, this change seems to have been rolled out across the network), there is still a very obvious (albeit higher rate) speed cap taking place on downloads, but more worryingly, a pretty low speed (sub 0.5Mb/s) upload limitation. Now, i'm thinking that if T-Mobile are managing their network traffic in this way, they should at least come clean to you and I, their paying customers. With this in mind i'd like to collate some data about download / upload speeds, whether you are seeing a cap and whether you are seeing changes... both as regular and Full Monty customers. Please post your experiences below! This item was promoted to the News page - click here to view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest garthy Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 So I noticed this when I first joined T-Mobile SIM-Only £10 30 day contract. Rang them up and pointed out this wasn't on any documentation. Took a while but in the end they admitted it and removed it. with 2 bars I just got 2886kbs But still get capped on uploads to ~512kps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest puj Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 I am on a simonly deal with 500mb allowance. I was previously capped to 300kbps until i complained and they increased it to 1000kbps. Now it seems to be uncapped and i just got 1498kbps in a speed test for download and 589kbps for upload. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest puj Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 A followup; Just moved and got a better signal, went up to ~3000kbps for download but remained near ~500kbps for upload so you are probably right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hecatae Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 http://forums.t-mobile.co.uk/discussions/index?page=forums&topic=801019cc098a30135383a7abb004973 3rd comment, which will probably be removed, so I'm quoting in full here: I've spoken to someone in the Scottish technical support team who knew pretty much everything there was to know about the issue. The bottom line is this. ALL the new internet add ons - Basic, Standard and Extra are rate limited to 1mbit down and 385kbit up The ONLY one that has no rate limit is the Super Internet tarrif - if you get this tariff added on and then speak to technical support - there is an option to set the profile to 7.2mbit down and 2mbit up (T-Mobile max network speed). Took me three days to find all this out and if I hadn't got through to someone in the know I'd have never known, if you have the super internet add-on and your speeds are still throttled - if you go through to technical support on the add-on there is the option to change your profile to unthrottled - the computer SHOULD do this automatically but it might not sometimes. FYI whilst playing around with the Extra and Standard plans there is something they can tweak to give you 3.76mbit down and 385kbit up - however they are not sure what it is and the profile will still state 1mbit down 385kbit up. Hope this helps anyone who needs the info. so, anyone want to try the above? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jchamier Posted February 12, 2012 Report Share Posted February 12, 2012 Good article Paul, Mate bought SIM only contract (30 day min term) last May, moving from PAYG as given smartphone but I was dismayed to see speeds of 384kbps/384kbps. Last Sept I used a PAYG SIM to try the network and found great coverage, and speeds of 1980kbps/384kbps, so I bought a 12month SIM only contract. Found the speeds were 384kbps/384kbps - so complained and retentions managed to get me a £5/m add-on that gave me 1980kbps/384kbps (or "2meg" as they called it). Just around Christmas my mate found his speeds had increased to "1meg" (880kbps/384kbps) and mine were the same. Today (12th Feb 2012) we both find speeds of 3.7Mbps/440kbps in full signal areas, which seems to be a 4meg/512kbps type cap. So my extra £5/m is now not getting me anything for the money? (maybe tethering). The network is great, the coverage is great, what is needed is transparency on what is being provided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zarch1972 Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 I'm on £7.70 a month, 300mins, 300 txts, unlimited internet. Up until the other day, my downloads were capped at 900k. But as you can see from the picture, i'm getting upto 4meg in strong signal areas. Although upload using speedtest does appear to be capped at 500k. They (T-Mobile) are all smoke and mirrors when it comes to their speeds/caps etc. When I signed up, the small print said you would get unlimited "3G". Only when you spoke to customer services did you find out that 3G actually meant "capped at 900k". Although the guy I spoke to said it was dependant on your credit rating what you got capped at..... if poor, you got 384k....... not sure I believed that bit, but that is what he said. T-Mobile........ great coverage.... pathetic description of service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon O Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 Zarch1972: Not defending T-Mobile but unlimited 3G simply means use as much as you want. It doesn't mean you get unlimited download speed - that would be silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pd.ryder Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 Well! A mahoosive improvement since I last looked a few days ago: On 10/2 I had 0.78Mbps down, 0.54Mbps up Today 13/2 I get 3.76Mbps down, but still similar up (0.43) Still, a massive difference! All tests run from the same room in my house at the same time of day (18.30ish) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jchamier Posted February 13, 2012 Report Share Posted February 13, 2012 flibblesan - T-mobile have always said 3G means 384kbps - which the rest of the world knows as 'strange marketing' !! See these threads: http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/discussions/index?page=forums&topic=80101801afda00f0133265bf264006f74 and http://support.t-mobile.co.uk/discussions/index?page=forums&topic=801019114689730134158c03af039a4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Simon O Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 jchamier - For download speed yes, and this is why people are unhappy since the service is capped and T-Mobile are denying it. The unlimited part of the Full Monty tarrif, just like 3s All You Can Eat, is for the amount you can download, not the speed in which you can download at. However one would expect the download speeds to be true HSPA speeds and not artificially capped by T-Mobile. The reference to unlimited 3G in the t&cs is rather confusing and I do believe this is meant in regards to data and not speeds. I can see why people think this reference means the speed will be unlimited which is technologically impossible. T-Mobile really need to make thinks crystal clear for it's customers. It's clear there is a cap, they should remove the cap or change the product to ensure the cap is clearly mentioned. Denying the existence of a cap and requiring customers to call up to have the imaginary cap removed is piss poor customer service in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AG2 Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 flibblesan - First of all I am not in UK, butI am T-Mobile Austria customer and it looks like they use the same or similarcaps there. More over even for 3G modems with well-defined speeds there arestill some caps that LOWER than advertised speed! My house is within 300 mantenna with T-Mobile infrastructure and in direct visibility (equipmentinstalled just a year ago and it is HSPA capable). Signal is perfect and verylittle people living around. Never get >3.7 - 3.8 on one device (unlimited)and EXACTLY half one cheaper contract (with no cap mentioned in contract). Soit seems to be common practice for T-Mobile in Europe. I will switch to anotherprovider – thanks got we still have some competition in that area in Austria.BTW, in some popular skiing areas you cannot get Internet faster than G (or Edgeif you lucky) with T-Mobile. In the same location alternative provider givesyou full 3G. Just my 2cc. PS: I checked my 3G modem in New York on US contract and can get ~7+Mbps, so itis not a limitation of my equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jchamier Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 flibblesan - agree it needs to be transparent. I don't mind if T-mobile want to use speed as their "user control" as most other networks have megabyte or gigabyte usage limits - but they need to be *documented*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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