Suncom customers: your prayers have been answered

Yay. Good move from T-mobile. The Suncom network will provide them with native coverage in new areas so that is great to see.

 

Just for the record, funniest thread title I've seen in awhile.

 

I agree. Also, there have been a number of threads mentioning this story, so I guess this deal is like an early Christmas for Suncom customers...:lmao:

 

This would be great. I can't find anything on Phonescoop about it though and would like to read the article since I have a Sidekick that I play with and may consider moving TMobile from the Play category to the main phone category.

I am currently the add on phone to our VZW account and would really like to permanently ditch their paternaiistic presence from my cell phone experience. They extended my contract by a year for no apparent reason other than my wife's getting a renew every two on her line.

They even dropped my corporate discount and, when asked, I was told by their attitudinaly challenged CSR that there were "millions" of different discounts and she couldn't keep up with them all. VZW must have one heck of a training program for these people and, believe me, it works.

Anyway, I anyone has a pointer to the article about the TMobile-SunCom acquisition, I would love to read more about it.

 

Here is a more detailed article about the purchase of SunCom by T-Mobile.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,137257-c,cellphones/article.html

 

Thanks TNDan21.

From my perspective, this may be the jolt I need to actually get serious with TMobile.

 

A long awaited move! I applaud T-Mo for this.

 

Do you think they will invest in coverage expansion, or just leave it as is?

 

My guess is that T-Mobile will definitely expand the Suncom network, especially beef up weak areas within the former Suncom areas first, then expand to currently non-covered areas.

 

I'm sure they will expand, since they got what they wanted.
It may take some time though.

Some major areas that need coverage from SunCom include some well-known cities and highways in the Carolinas/GA,
such as Boone, Albemarle, Cheraw, Toccoa, I-73 & I-74 S of Asheboro and US-74 west of Shelby towards Lake Lure and E of Asheville.

One place close to me that needs major improvement on GSM coverage is Eastern Cherokee County, SC & Western York County, SC (between E of Gaffney & York/Rock Hill) especially along Hwy 5.

 

No coverage on US 74 east of Monroe for about 75 miles. This is the way to Myrtle Beach.

 

I wonder what is going to happen to some of those sweet plans Suncom has (like unlimited minutes in the territory)'... I know that TMobile can combat with some of this with their Myfaves or national coverage, though.

I'd think TMobile would beef up their new coverage area... they wouldn't want inherited, angry TMobile customers.

 

You mean all of the former SunCom area? 'Cause they're weak in all the major metros...

 

Yeah, that should be interesting, taking away the unlimited plans from people. I know there are a few , very few people that like to attack Suncom on this forum. But the people out there using those plans aren't going to be happy at all, and there are a lot of people that do.

I know some that uses 7,000 minutes a month, and T-Mobile has nothing like that at all. I use to be on one of those plans but now I'm not. But if I was and using minutes like I did one time, then I'd be mad about it also.

This thing about larger companies buying up all the smaller local one's will just end up with higher prices and less minutes. I understand that Suncom apparently doesn't work so good in certain areas, or on this forum anyway. Still, I have no problems in Myrtle Beach at all, and I don't see the advantage of T-Mobile. All I see is plans with higher prices and less minutes.

 

I will give SunCom credit, *if* they had acceptable coverage where you live/work, their plans are/were hard to beat.

Since the SunCom buyout in Virginia it seems like a lot of the customers passionate about unlimited minutes went to nTelos. While a surprising number just stayed on with Cingular/At&t. It will be interesting to see how T-Mo does in the future when they take over and wipe out all the Unlimited plans when people get new phones. Will most customers just sign on with T-Mo and take the MyFaves, or move onto Alltel's My Circle which will be the closest thing to unlimited in most of the Carolinas, or if Verizon and At&t will pick off a lot of customers. How I wish I had access to these internal stats.

 

Historically, T-Mobile has not made anyone change plans after a merger. You can keep it as long as you like.

 

What happens when you do something like a phone upgrade? Can you keep the plan or would you have to go to one of the plans currently offered by T-Mobile?

 

A customer can keep the same plan, if they are upgrading a phone. If they were off-contract at the time and upgraded the phone, they would then be under a new contract.

When I upgraded from the Get More plan to National Business Plan 600 (without upgrading the phone), I was off-contract and remain off-contract.

 

Good information, thanks for answering my question.

 

yeah I am glad I have this answer to:wink:

 

I'm glad to get the answer too. I would have otherwise thought TMo would require a change to a TMo plan with a new phone, or other types of account changes. It might be a good idea for current SunCom customers to get the plan they want now before the SunCom plans are a memory though.

 

A couple of questions:

*when will free mobile to mobile between T-Mo & Suncom take effect?

*I currently have the Suncom unplan roam restrict. Will I be able to keep this plan for as long as I like under T-Mo, and will I be able to use the ENTIRE T-Mo national network under the unplan, or will I be restricted to the current Suncom footprint?

*Will the current Suncom phone rewards program be ditched?

If I can keep the unplan (I have two shared lines on this plan), and use the entire T-Mo network without additional fees, I'm keeping what I have!

 

When T-mobile takes over their network in about mid-2008

I would hope that you'd stay on T-mobile's national network, but if your contract said "roam restrict on SunCom", then T-mobile will honor that contract and let you stay only in SunCom's former area.

Since Tmobile is taking them over, then I'd assume yes, so cash in now.

As long as you're under contract, your selected plan must be honored (usually),
there are sometimes exceptions,
(like if you were required to get a new phone because of a CDMA carrier buying a GSM carrier).
But I suggest upgrading to the national unplan before T-mobile snags SunCom.
And renew the two-year contract.

Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this......This info is AFAIK.

 

Well this is great news I hope this pans out to beneift alot of people there.

 

Well, can anyone out there confirm or deny any of this?

 

No one can confrim anything, since the merger is not closed. Once it is, the details will come out. However, based on recent mergers that involved T-mobile and their predecessors, the information above is reliable. As far as I know, T-Mobile has never made anyone change plans after a merger. If your current unplan restricts you to the Suncom network, that will likely continue as long as you continue to stay on that plan.

 

I was at Camp LeJeune NC this past weekend and T-Mobile is now being sold on the base. According to the person operating the kiosk, they will have 910 Area Codes to assign shortly but the plans and phones are now available.

 

Has any migration started yet, or have any areas within Suncom & T-Mobile been consolidated? I know we're still a bit aways from June, but some migration & consolidation should occur prior to that date, I would imagine.

 

nope, same old same old...Suncom i giving phones away though! Free flip phones about every 2 weeks on Tuesdays usually.