T-Mobile Hotspot access for WnW Plus and Max customers - some clarification please!

[Guest Christopher Woods]

I'm a (technically) new customer on Flext 30 with WnW+ on my account. I'm on the new billing system, I moved across in July when I renewed my contract (lost my HSDPA, wrangled with T-Mob for a while, eventually sorted out WnW+ upgrade).

Now, I thought earlier, "I think I get hotspot access included with my WnW+ subscription, let's go check" and sure enough, the site vaguely mentions how all new Web & Walk Plus, Max and Plus Daily* customers get it... But then the little asterisked sentence underneath this paragraph reads "* WiFi HotSpot access only included on the pay monthly version of web'n'walk Plus Daily"

(this is all on http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/mobile-.../hotspot/costs/ by the way.)

So, in the meantime i texted open to 9526 and I immediately received my login information. I'm not in an area with a hotspot I can use at the moment, but what I want to know is - if I log in to a hotspot with my details, will I be charged, or will the usage be billed to my account but then automatically credited back when my bill is due (effectively making it free), or am I misunderstanding the (quite vague) Hotspots minisite and no, I won't actually get inclusive hotspot usage?

It's a question I'll probably pose to TM CS sometime next week, but I was just wondering if anybody on here knew the answer straight off.

Cheers in advance!

[Guest tsutton]

Have you asked T-Mobile's customer service and if so, what was their answer? I'm interested to know - thanks.

[Guest andrewkeith5]

i spoke to a very nice guy from tech support about this a week or so ago (the guy in custoemr services tried to help me and did give me lots of useful information, but i wanted to request more detail info and he said it would probably be best if i spoke to tech support because he was unsure - makes a nice change ;))

basically, it is a really sketchy implementation but seems to work, and i'm not sure how it appears on your bill

you basically get with web 'n' walk plus or max (you will be on the standard w'n'w plus, not daily, so don't worry) unlimited access to T-Mobile wifi hotspots. You do not get unlimited access to "partner" hotspots, for example the Cloud or BT Openzone or BT Fon, rather you get an allowance that is time limited to use at such locations - the tech support guy could't tell me the exact amount, but it is at least 300 minutes so i was basically told to just regard it as a limit of 300 (you're use of t-mo hotpots is unlimited with no fair use policy). The use of hotspots does not detract from the fair use policy for your mobile internet

you can get your username and password by sending said text, or by calling up tech support who said they could give me a permanent one if i wanted

basically, the rule is only use t-mobile hotspots (which basically restricts you to airports and starbucks) and you should be fine

i opted not to bother upgrading to web 'n' walk plus as the nearest t-mobile hotspot to me is 15 miles away and the cloud cover me much better (and it would only cost another £1.99 overall once the extra fiver for w'n'w+ was added)

[Guest Christopher Woods]

i spoke to a very nice guy from tech support about this a week or so ago (the guy in custoemr services tried to help me and did give me lots of useful information, but i wanted to request more detail info and he said it would probably be best if i spoke to tech support because he was unsure - makes a nice change ;))

basically, it is a really sketchy implementation but seems to work, and i'm not sure how it appears on your bill

you basically get with web 'n' walk plus or max (you will be on the standard w'n'w plus, not daily, so don't worry) unlimited access to T-Mobile wifi hotspots. You do not get unlimited access to "partner" hotspots, for example the Cloud or BT Openzone or BT Fon, rather you get an allowance that is time limited to use at such locations - the tech support guy could't tell me the exact amount, but it is at least 300 minutes so i was basically told to just regard it as a limit of 300 (you're use of t-mo hotpots is unlimited with no fair use policy). The use of hotspots does not detract from the fair use policy for your mobile internet

you can get your username and password by sending said text, or by calling up tech support who said they could give me a permanent one if i wanted

basically, the rule is only use t-mobile hotspots (which basically restricts you to airports and starbucks) and you should be fine

i opted not to bother upgrading to web 'n' walk plus as the nearest t-mobile hotspot to me is 15 miles away and the cloud cover me much better (and it would only cost another £1.99 overall once the extra fiver for w'n'w+ was added)

That's interesting, because I did ring up in the end and spoke to someone - and I was told that this wasn't available to me, and I would be billed pro-rata as it was only for customers who had Web 'n Walk Plus on a datacard (more like a 'perk' as they have no inclusive minutes or anything like that).

Are you on a datacard / usb dongle plan or is WnW part of your phone service? (I'd normally just tether my phone, and while HSDPA is usually fast enough, wifi would be nice so I don't have to tether the phone all the time if I need the web on the go).

[Guest fishd]

I've been on t-mobile with Web-n-walk Plus attached to my flex account for almost 16 months now.

In Feb or March I had read about the ability for new customers to get hotspot access included as part of the web-n-walk Plus package so rang customer services to see about getting it added to my account. I had read about it being for new customers only but thought I'd chance my arm.

The customer support rep couldn't have been nicer, once I explained that I'd read about hotspot access being free for customers with web-n-walk plus she said she would add it immediately. I have to text 'open' to the special number everytime I want to use it, but it always sends me the same username and password.

On my bill (it's a business account so YMMV), I get a charge for Hotspot access (£8.51 + VAT IIRC) and then a credit for the same amount.

Hope this helps,

Dave.