| The popularity of the T-Mobile sidekick threw the wireless service provider into the forefront of mobile communications in the U.S. As more and more celebrities flaunted their sidekick wireless phones, the wireless service provider became the 6th largest cellular phone company in the world. However it isn’t just the popularity of the T-Mobile cell phones that have attributed to the company’s success. They are also the recipient of 11 JD Powers and Associates awards for customer service, call quality, and overall customer satisfaction.
The basis of T-Mobile’s wireless service comes from the plans that they offer to their customers. Like other wireless providers, T-Mobile has an individual plan, a family plan, and a data plan. What they offer as a unique service is the MyFaves plan.
Their individual plan starts among the cheapest offered. At $29.99 a month the customer receives 300 minutes and free weekends. For $10 more a month, a customer can have 1,000 minutes and free nights and weekends. At the top of their individual plans, $129.99 buys 5000 minutes and free nights and weekends.
The family plans, called Family Time, starts with a basic plan that offers 700 minutes for $59.99 and two lines. The ultra plan provides 3,000 minutes a month for $129.99 and also provides two lines. Up to three additional lines can be purchased for $9.99 a month each. Like other providers, the whenever minutes, as T-Mobile refers to them, are shared among the various lines on the plan. For example, if there are three lines on the basic plan, all three lines share the 700 minutes each month.
All wireless providers have a feature that makes them unique amongst the others T-Mobile is no exception. The MyFaves feature can be added to either the Family Time plans or the individual plans for approximately $10 a month extra (although some basic plans do not include free nights or weekends). The way MyFaves works is that each phone line with this feature can choose five phone numbers from any domestic landline or cellular provider and make calls for free to this number regardless of the time or day of the week. These numbers can be changed once per month.
Another service unique to T-Mobile is the Kid Connect service. For $19.99 a month, parents can offer a phone for their children. The basic plan offers unlimited in network calling and 100 whenever minutes. Once the minutes are used up, the service does not allow for any out of network calls to be made unless the parent refills the minutes. Minutes can also be traded for text messaging.
Just as the sidekick made T-Mobile famous in the U.S., other T-Mobile phones offer data services that rival the sidekick. The T-Mobile Pearl and the T-Mobile Dash are smart phones much like the sidekick in that they allow for a variety of data communications like Internet access, e-mail, and instant messaging. In addition to the data features, these phones can also be added to a MyFaves plan to take advantage of this program.
The T-Mobile Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung phones are also offered alongside the various T-Mobile cell phone plans.
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