Plan pages and advertisement materials still make no mention of new tethering option
It seems as though some folks with T-Mobile prepaid plans are being given a free allotment of mobile hotspot usage, falling closer in line with the new UNcarrier postpaid plans. Although with its UNcarrier initiative T-Mobile relaxed its policies drastically on offering free mobile hotspot on postpaid plans, its prepaid offerings have still blocked tethering (either explicitly on the phone or with a browser redirect) and asked you to pay $15 monthly for the privilege of using your phone as a hotspot:
Some people using the T-Mobile My Account app on their phones with prepaid SIMs have started to notice a new line item of “Mobile Hotspot Usage” underneath their regular data usage — something that wasn’t previously shown on prepaid accounts. On our own $30 5GB prepaid plan we’re now seeing a 100MB balance for hotspot, and it does indeed only tick up when connecting to a hotspot and using data. Folks with the $70 unlimited prepaid plan are seeing a 2.5GB allotment for mobile hotspot.
Checking T-Mobile’s prepaid plan website we see no changes to the terms of the prepaid plans that would indicate the inclusion of mobile hotspot, nor do we see a separate Mobile Hotspot data usage counter on the account page of its website. We wouldn’t at all be surprised if T-Mobile started to bring over its tethering policies to the prepaid arena, and we surely hope that that’s the case here.
Using T-Mobile prepaid and have the option to tether without the $15 monthly add-on? Let us know if you’re seeing the switch on your own device.