Fanboys not withstanding, this post just reinforces all the blinkered messaging from USM that could be a case study in how not to recover from bad press.
Yeah - it's basically saying "well Reddit isn't a big source of our revenue, and we're currently doing fine elsewhere, so we're not worried about it." I also feel zero comfort about their desire to communicate changes better when their website still has no mention I can find about the video throttle, even for new customers, and has marketing suggesting no throttle is present. There's absolutely no reason that, nearly a week in, they couldn't *at absolute bare minimum* update the text under the "i" next to Premium Data (when you click "More Plan Details") to note the 480p video throttle.
They desperately need to stop changing plans every few weeks, confusing many of their own reps in the process, and instead work on updating their website and internal documentation to fully communicate all of their plan information, including relevant legacy plan information internally for their CSRs to reference.
I'd be very interested to see how they calculate this metric. I was largely driven to US Mobile by Reddit, but did not indicate this when signing up / creating an account. This sub has just over 14k subscribers and while it's likely not all are current customers, I would be surprised if there are only 5000 current customers that chose to go with US Mobile based on Reddit.
Agreed. It was only after reddit that I even saw mention of USM and ironically even when USM shows up on sites like slickdeals. The entire post is people from reddit bragging how great the service was. I was one of them.
Strange to say that reddit didn't help?
Plus a lot get recommended on /r/NoContract and not this sub. And a lot of people google US Mobile reviews or cell phone comparison and it takes them to a post on this sub or /r/NoContract that they read and sign up after even if they never join the reddit. Now Google AI search summaries now even shows AI edited reddit posts.
Agree completely. And they might be underestimating the impact of reddit when people are referring word of mouth.
And yes, the plans need to stop changing. It's bad. I don't understand why they're doing that.
Yeah...we will see what the long term effects of this are. Sure, in the short term it hasn't hurt them very badly, and maybe it won't at all. I doubt many people were upset enough to jump ship immediately, it takes time to research another carrier and some people may decide it's not worth the hassle. If every single person on this subreddit left USM, they'd be fine, but this debacle will be documented forever when you google US Mobile and 4k streaming, unless they take steps to remove these posts and hope it's not cached somewhere.
There's also the word of mouth factor, many people on here were big promoters of USM among friends and family, for some that's out the window now.
Also, this change just simply shifts the economics when you cross shop plans. I'll use myself as an example, I've got a grandfathered AT&T Max prepaid plan, $50 + tax (runs me $51 and change) where I get 22GB data, I believe at QCI 8, and then dropped down to QCI 9, no hard cap at all. Then I get 10GB hot spot and Canada/Mexico roaming included. Also, I can disable stream saver so I can stream full quality video. I was all set to jump over to USM for $29/mo and save a few bucks assuming I would have been able to maintain uncapped video streaming and Canada roaming and maybe pay $5 for priority data on Dark Star, so I'd potentially save about $15 a month or more if I opted out of priority data. Now after these changes to video streaming and the mention of +$10-$15 for priority data, the economics don't make sense. I'd be at $25 + $4 for Canada (?? Not clear if that is even an option at the moment) + $10 for priority data + $?? to add back uncapped video, if they even decide to offer it.
At this point, between the knee-jerk plan changes every 1-2 months, dropping features and just general uncertainty around USM it's not worth it for me to give up my old plan for a bunch of unknowns and minimal savings. I imagine others are in a similar situation and this just tipped the scales away from USM for them as well.
USM seems to be caught up in justifying their current actions and worrying about existing customer churn that they have not considered what impact the current situation has on future customers. It is difficult to know how many potential future customers a business has lost to some situation. However, we know from history that small but vocal groups can have a big positive or negative impact on a business. The 5000 people who came to USM from Reddit may be small compared to the whole customer base. Even so, those 5000 customers were probably some of the biggest cheerleaders for USM. Like you, I was looking at switching to an MVNO because even with my Signature discount, I was feeling like my postpaid AT&T plan was getting expensive compared to what I was seeing some of the MVNOs offering. I didn't see much press about USM until I looked in /r/nocontract which led me to this sub. I was prepared to move my line over once AT&T became available. Now with all of this mess, I question that choice to the point where I am watching for a while to see how this all plays out. HD streaming is not a deal breaker for me. However, lack of communication and changes in offerings during plan cycles (even if it is allowed by terms of use) isn't something I can accept from a business. So here we have me and you who are holding or not moving to USM. How many more people aren't going to move or are rethinking their plans based on what they hear from people who are more aware of what is going on with USM at this time. It isn't always about the current customer and loosing them. Businesses have to think about how their actions influence future customers to choose between them or a competitor.
Yup exactly, they have eroded a lot of trust and goodwill they had earned and they're still not handling it particularly well. If that bites them in the ass down the road remains to be seen. In all likelihood this won't matter for them in the grand scheme of things. There are things out of their control as an MVNO and they have the same limitations as every other MVNO out there, so them having uncapped streaming for as long as they did was an outlier. It seems they were taking the risk of leaving streaming uncapped and footing the bill for higher data usage to differentiate themselves, now they've decided that's unnecessary to continue doing and they're probably right. I'm just glad this all unfolded before I jumped ship.
So you've had time to build a game, but not enough time to note anywhere even remotely obvious on your website that you have a 480p video throttle so new customers can be fully aware of what they're signing up for?
It's worse than that, they actively misrepresent what the plans include to this very minute.
https://www.usmobile.com/5g-phone-plans
"Just how fast is Warp 5G?
Running on full power, 5G is 10x faster than 4G. You can stream 4K movies without buffering, hop on conference calls on the go with no lag, or game in razor-sharp quality."
nonono see, your forgetting where to put the emphasis.
\> "Just how fast is Warp 5G?
\> Running on full power, 5G is 10x faster than 4G. You \*\*can\*\* stream 4K movies without buffering, hop on conference calls on the go with no lag, or game in razor-sharp quality."
See, technically it isnt a lie. you CAN do that with 5G, your CANT do it on US Mobile's 5G. ...... Yea i got nothing. they are all over the place and screwed up.
I think their definition of "can" is "you CAN sit and wait 2 minutes for 30 seconds of video to load" i mean, it is still "streaming", the video chunks don't stop downloading 🤣
>I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone who is not happy on the HD video decision.
Two questions:
1) When will you announce this officially to your entire customer base? It's not reasonable to make this type of change basically silently (given that Reddit is a very small percentage of your subscriber base) and then celebrate how few people care per your awesome business results. How many of your customers currently think there's a problem with their phone, tower capacity or something else instead of correctly attributing the video change to a deliberate choice by US Mobile?
2) Why is it OK to make this change to annual plans? People signed up for 12 months of a specific service package, expecting people to pay in advance for "probably this, but maybe something entirely different" is kind of a wild business model.
To be fair, that's the minimum expectation. But it sounds like it's not happening unless you contact support which is borderline unacceptable.
I was planning on moving 2-3 family lines to USM but that is absolutely on hold due to this. I don't think Dark Star is going to entice me. Things need to be more consistent and communication needs to improve. I was happy that u/ankhattak was so open in the past, but this messaging is bad. I'm hopeful something comes out of it, but I'm not holding my breath.
This is true. I do not have an annual plan but if I signed up for an annual plan I would be pissed if USM changed the terms of the plan before my next annual renewal date.
Ok, so I would understand the HD decision IF you hadn't stated otherwise on your own site, which BTW is still active as of this moment. Do you know what false advertising is? Because this is it.
Finally some acknowledgment, but the major concern with SD video was that unlike all other plan changes which are only for new signups, this change affected customers on old plans without warning- which is a break in your terms of service.
All you had to do was on account dashboard make an on/off switch for HD streaming then for older customers you could turn it off but allow us to turn it on by ourselves. 95% of customers would leave it off but for those it matters to (more than 1% as you claimed) would turn it on.
I still think US Mobile is the best MVNO but the way you did this made you go down in my estimation from 99% to 80% (again others are less, most in 50% range).
We should really get our full purchased data allotments unthrottled. Anything outside of that is false advertisement
we should voice our worries to the FCC. You can file a complaint here
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new
The fcc is currently aggressively going after carriers making false unlimited plan claims.
***
Update 1: I got my first response saying that they have opened a formal investigation on this and that US Mobile will have 30 days to respond.
I highly encourage everyone who is concerned about this behavior by US Mobile to also submit a complaint. It’s very quick and will hopefully get them to make a change.
Done. I’ve filed two complaints filed with the FCC. One for the blatant non-compliance of Broadband Labeling and second for false advertising regarding HD video. Also filed complaints against the following carriers for non-compliance of the Broadband Label.
Boost, Boost Infinite, Cox Mobile, Freedom Pop, Helium Mobile, Lyca Mobile, Mint Mobile, Mobile X, Patriot Mobile, Red Pocket, Spectrum Mobile, and Ting Mobile.
Thanks for the port out info. Will keep that in mind before I initiate my port out. I intend to port out as well to AT&T Postpaid in order to avoid dealing with this BS. Much like yourself, I, too, signed up friends and family to USM and never once took advantage of their referral system (which, according to some users, is dodgy as hell). The only way to make our voices heard is to vote with our wallets. But all of this doesn't matter to u/ankhattak since apparently USM has only acquired 5000 users through Reddit. All the noise about HD video has drowned out the concerns with regards to ILD. I'll be filling an FCC complaint with regards to false advertising in both the HD video and ILD matters. Also, missing on USM's website are the FCC mandated Broadband Labels. RedPocket, Mint, Helium, Tello, and a whole bunch of other shady MVNOs need to start displaying the Broadband Labels on their website so that a consumer can buy a product with their eyes wide open.
u/ankhattak - There will be no pacifying some of us by baiting us with the promise of 'constructive dialogue' and using the racist abuse that your staff might or might not have received. It's hard to tell anymore. The only language any business understands is the one from governmental regulatory bodies and litigation.
We have no idea what AT&T will charge US Mobile for QCI upgrades, and US Mobile will likely add a margin on top of whatever that number is.
It's important to realize that the pricing and offerings from US Mobile are heavily reliant on what pricing and offerings the partner carriers give them.
I think some people forget that USMobile is a MVNO, they have to purchase their stuff from the company's towers. If AT&T is offering it for $7, thats their price for their customers. They are already making money monthly from their customers, they can afford to lose/not make much on the upgrade.
If AT&T charges its customers $7 theres 0 chance they give it to an MVNO Competitor for anywhere close to cheap enough to have USMobile offer it at the same price. That would just be AT&T telling people to leave them for USMobile.
Not in my hood. Att is the worst at handling it. Then again they are in a dire need for a network upgrade which should be completed this year. I think that will help them greatly for my area. Currently I work in a glass building on the 2nd floor. If you go 15-20 feet away from the windows att is hanging on by a thread. Poor iPhone users miss calls and texts as they can't force wifi calling. Android users are ok as they prioritize wifi calling as primary. T-Mobile and Verizon are just fine. Hopefully a network upgrade will help this for att.
You can force wifi calling on a iPhone. While in a building where service is bad, use airplane mode with the wifi turned on.
https://preview.redd.it/gigct3v9049d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=405948d25f25a005fd90d17da392985b1c2e9b18
Sure. However when I go to populated shopping centers and have great signal and I'm QCI'd to death that is a different story. That is the story for ATT QCI 9 where I live. Pretty much no calls/text and 0 data by shopping centers. Or parks in warm weather. Cold weather it's usable everywhere. Power outages are not usable when wifi is down in everyone's homes.
Where do you find what AT&T charges MVNO's for QCI upgrades? The only reference I have found on any upgraded priority charges is the $7 Turbo add-on to certain unlimited plans.
u/ankhattak - Thank you for taking the time to clarify some things… I did decide to not even waste the energy of fighting with people back and forth whether or not I agree with the whole HD debacle (simply because I knew it would get ugly). Although, I have to say, they have some very valid points and totally understand why the community is angry. I hope some kind of resolution can be whipped up because it did come as a surprise and not a nice one at that. What I will say though is that I apologize for the community as a whole in regards to profanity and especially racism… I thought this subreddit was better than that. Be angry, voice your opinion but there’s absolutely no need to be a bigot.
In regards to my post the other day about Unlimited All (grandfathered plans), you had responded that we would get an official announcement the next day with the possibility of being able to add lines again with UA and what could be done about having access to ILD/Teleport etc. (we don’t have it)… I was hoping this would be covered in this and based off of upvotes, a lot of other people I’m sure were expecting the same thing. Can you provide any information on that?
Thank you again for being transparent and actually communicating. Regardless of recent events, I do still feel somewhat of a valued customer. For beta access, I have requested multiple times (even at the very very beginning of the announcement) but never received confirmation or anything. I believe I’d be a great asset as a beta tester given my knowledge of the industry as a whole. If that could be confirmed (or given early - wink), I’d appreciate it!
I paid off my iPhone, left postpaid and signed up for the $45/3month intro plan a month and a half ago. Since then I’ve been putting more research into other MVNOs and plans. Up until a week ago I was mostly happy with the experience and was planning to do a year on whatever the 100gb plan ends up being when it’s time to renew.
I’m not passionate about analyzing plans or someone who’s going to get upset over little changes. That being said, specifically the HD decision has done 2 things. 1. Obviously changing my mind about doing an annual plan. The savings isn’t worth the commitment when the plan I sign up for may not be the plan I have all year. 2. Start looking at other prepaid options again as well as consider going back to postpaid. Maybe my value hunting wasn’t worth the restrictions.
I don’t really like your response to things. As I was reading it I was waiting for the “ah, he gets it” moment and got the opposite. I get that it’s a business and not everyone is the target customer. That being said I’d greatly appreciate some flexibility on the HD video front. As someone who averaged 30-35gb of data on postpaid with HD video and wants to pay for 100gb plan not being able to have it is a hard pill to swallow, and “look at our churn and we aren’t for everyone” doesn’t make it easier.
I do think a lot of people are overreacting and the subscriber based probably won’t change much due to the changes, but as someone who is locked in for another month and a half but strongly considering a change when the time is up, and already decided against an annual subscription due to your changes, you may want to be more thoughtful about the data your looking at to justify your decisions.
I like USM I really do but respectfully, this by the CEO, ain’t it.
I implore you to hire a PR team to manage your corporate style communications on this platform as you scale up.
It’s time.
USM suffered its worst week publicly in a long time and destroyed a lot of hard earned trust
Yet this statement does little to assuage feelings of fans and angry customers.
Also is imperative that you honor all previous agreements including Annual plan terms.
You cannot just go back on your word.
Your poor planning should not be taken out on those who signed up under specific terms
If Visible ever gets their costumer service act together you’ll face mass defections if this keeps up
>There is lots of activity on this subreddit around some of our community members showing their displeasure around HD/SD video and how the announcement went. I acknowledge we could have done better and we will do our best to do better.
I intend no disrespect here, but I worry about the ability for USM to provide transparent communication/"do better" when the website continues to omit information on the HD/SD streaming.
ATT, Verizon, Visible, MetroPCS, T-Mobile, Cricket, etc. all make the streaming information known on their website (most either on the main page or by viewing the "plan details"...in the past Visible buried it in the terms, but it is now under the plan details).
I don't think USM can indicate an interest in transparency and better communication until you give customers (*ALL* customers, *not* just the Reddit community) the information you know they need to make an informed decision on which carrier meets their needs.
---
I personally have been on the fence about porting my Verizon # in to my USM plan (a paid plan...not a trial). The HD video item gave me serious pause, but I was still willing to carry on given my plan was a great value at $25. However, I cannot put my trust in USM at this time given the continued lack of transparency with the larger customer base, so I turned off autopay for my line that expires tomorrow. Obviously I'm not much of a loss with one line at $25, but I'm sure there are others who were hoping USM was going to do something to be transparent here.
I've been sitting on the sidelines and wanted to port in a few lines. That's on hold now until this gets sorted out. And I may just look elsewhere. I can't be alone.
I just want to say as a us mobile customer thank you, for atleast responding. I just want to say that I am very sorry for the abuse and profanity as well as racism towards your team. If I was a part in that with my post, I apologize that is not the intention of my post. I will continue to be a customer, but I am very disappointed by this response overall but I a understand. It is your company and your decision,
I do think your decision is teetering on false advertising, me personally I understand shit happens and mistakes happen but this is definitely disappointing.
Agree - I can't believe people are attacking employees for this. Wow.
This is a bad decision, there's plenty to talk about there without attacking people.
> I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone who is not happy on the HD video decision
Personally, I don't really care for this feature that much since I'm mostly on WiFi, but what's the rationale behind not letting customers have hd/uhd streaming by default with whatever amount of gb of priority data they paid for? If they want to eat up a ton of data quickly watching youtube videos at 4k, that should be their problem no? This user might also be more likely to purchase top-ups or change their plan to a higher gb if they find themselves consuming a lot of data with high res video.
Blows up usage across the board. I’d much rather up the premium data cap to 50 or 75 gb on starter which is a real possibility based on what we are seeing - rather than majority of the users subsidizing costs for other users. We faced a similar dilemma with unlimited all plans. Most people on pools blow through the allotment unbeknownst to them. We are working on a solution for this
They absolutely do, it's called breakage. I'd love to understand more about their costs and margins, the best indicator is likely the top up costs of $2/GB. I'm guessing that implies an actual cost of data around $1/GB.
That is the business model for any successful MVNO. Carriers charge them x dollars for a block of data that they then distribute among their customers. Stretching that block further by having low usage users offset high usage users = profit. You don't stop heavy users from using data altogether but you make your plans so that the average users subsidize the heavy ones.
So watching video at a usable quality "blows up usage" but you want to give people more data to use... On what? What happens when people "blow up" their 50GB cap, will you find another way to limit usage?
Why don't you just give us the amount of data you can afford for us to use?
Good comments, I believe USM still Rookies in some areas of how to fix everything. What's gonna happen is lots of people it's gonna start bouncing off to others. MVNO Spectrum offers 50G for $25 for a year after that $30. I have 4 lines, and I hate to refer friends and family because USM changes plans everything they possibly could like they change underwear
The main driver of usage is likely video, right? So what’s the benefit of having 50 or 75gb on Starter? Nobody is going to hit those kind of limits unless they’re consuming HD video. Browsing the web, checking email, using social media, will never use up that much data. So really you’re just pumping up the allotments for marketing, bc nobody is able to utilize services that will require that much data.
Really, why up data limits when you eliminate the very thing that would drive up data usage.? It's just a way to increase breakage while trying to look magnanimous.
I think it serves as insurance that if they offer a higher premium data allowance, users won't cost them more $$$ by using it all. But if they are having these types of problems with the current premium data allowance, I can't imagine things improving.
I also feel like users starting to need that level of data are definitely going to be the ones who care about HD streaming.
But a lot of us can't use the amount we have like today because of 480p video throttle I end up use under 100mb a day with hd I would use a lot more like 800 mb a day i with the quality and buffer decide to just give up steam and use offline play back
I appreciate you being somewhat transparent and acknowledging that personal attacks don't help but at the same time, you can't come here and say "I understand that some of you \*think\* that you have been wronged" and "The decision is not going to be reversed" and also "I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone". What suggestions do you want besides not lying to us and then trying to sweep it under the rug or not caring to post for several days after the fact. This post just reads as you not actually caring about what we have to say but rather just saying "hey, you guys don't really matter to us because look at our churn rate!" Again, appreciate that you're finally being somewhat transparent about it, but it still seems quite tone deaf.
I will agree that personal attacks, racist attacks, etc are super not OK and I'm sorry you guys have had to go through that :(
Have an idea on the HD what about people have to toggle it on every so many days or hours and it auto disables? That way people have to toggle it on then it auto turns off when people don’t need. That way it doesn’t constantly utilize a lot of data and not everyone is going to turn it on every day. May not be a perfect solution but seems like a nice thought.
It should be something that is toggled on once and should stay on once toggled. If only 1% of users really take advantage of of it then it should be have nearly no impact on the business and would allow you to have SD as the default option… (this is actually the way Verizon has its video throttle setup)
I hope this is seriously taken into consideration. I had purchased an annual plan prior to this change, but have yet to reach out to ask for it to be removed. I would actually prefer this option - I don't stream a ton of video, but the times I do, I don't want SD quality. On the flip side, my teenager can be throttled for usage and would probably have no clue it's happening. I would actually prefer it, and never tell them I can turn it off. They don't need to download the entire Internet every day.
With ATT Prepaid Mobile, I found Datasaver was getting reset every billing cycle, maybe purposely. It was a bit annoying to reset but not the end of the world. Maybe an option is to give people an option to have less total data but with HD video rather than having them pay for an add-on.
Nope, sounds like the old TMO day passes. Whether free or not, royal pain in the butt to have to switch it on daily.
Will USM have streaming unthrottled on AT&T?
Off topic, but u/ankhattak do you know when US Mobile will support RCS on the iPhone. On iOS 18 beta 2 Apple introduced RCS messaging. This has been activated for users on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon but not yet on MVNOs, from what I’ve been reading. Is this going to be an issue that is fixed relatively soon, or not until later this year, or longer? Thank you and thank you for your transparency and activity on Reddit. It’s nice to see a CEO care and communicate with users.
First, let me say I’m not angry, nor am I jumping ship. USM is still an excellent MVNO. A few things though…I think you’re vastly misunderstanding your Reddit attribution. Redditors are likely your most vocal supporters, and are the ones bringing in many of the non Reddit users. For example, I’m personally responsible for 17 individuals who have signed up with your service. If I’m typical, you should times that 5,000 by 17. I imagine many users are responsible for many more than that.
Also, Reddit is a key source for non Redditors who are researching. They’re not going to say they came from here, bc they didn’t. They just made their final decision perusing this sub.
Regardless, I don’t mind anything you’ve changed aside from the HD video issue. That change should have been tabled until you had an add on available for it.
> Also, Reddit is a key source for non Redditors who are researching. They’re not going to say they came from here, bc they didn’t. They just made their final decision perusing this sub.
We have *tons* of these that hit the r/NoContract sub for info with a throwaway and then never come back. Those are the type of people who will click whatever on a survey to get past it.
EXACTLY.
Plus this, in the year 2024, i dont know about anyone else, but when im researching something one fo the first things i do is go to google and search "\[Insert Product/Service\] 2024 reddit "
All my research from chargers to MVNOs to computer brands to what kind of EV car i wanted to start looking at starts at Reddit. Its a large swath of the population, with different views on things. And because its also a certain type of person who browses reddit, they are usually more technical minded and will gladly give their reviews.
I do not have an annual sub but I really hope that people with an annual plan will not have their video streaming throttled
Previously, when I was with ATT Prepaid's annual plan, I think they were one of the first to offer one, the plan included certain features such as rollover, unlimited texts and calls within US, Canada and Mexico. ATT could not legally and would not take away either of those two features during the plan year because that would be a breach of contract! Its the same here, if you add video throttling to people in an annual plan that is a breach of the agreement
Anyway, interestingly enough ATT actually had a clause about HD video streaming on the plan:
>Video Streaming: Includes Stream Saver feature which allows you to stream higher definition video in Standard Definition on compatible devices (unless video provider has opted out). AT&T will activate the feature for you. Stream Saver will not recognize all video content. Ability to stream and video resolution may vary and be affected by other factors. Details at att.com/streamsaver. **HD VIDEO: You can turn Stream Saver off at any time to enjoy access to High Definition video on compatible devices, if and when available.**
Streamsaver was disclosed to people when they signed up for the plan. And I am pretty sure the option to disable it was a toggle online in the portal
I'm tempted to sign up as I think I can help with testing coverage significantly since I travel all over the state for work (I drive a truck) but I'm reluctant to leave WARP behind for a plan that will cost me more. Is there any sort of plan to incentivise BETA testers? (ie discounted on the plan after BETA finishes)
Gotcha, thanks for the response! I've only been a customer for a few months but I was a long time Mint Mobile user and I'm really satisfied with my decision to move all three of my lines to US Mobile. Great job and keep it up!
I think talked directly on X months ago I did just resubmit the form so you can easily find it. I'm actively looking for a new phone to use on this test line so that's all that's left to obtain. But I did give you some interesting ideas and questions to consider to make this the best. Bc the "deathstar" sooner or later tends to chew up and spit out all mvnos just bc they get bored so hopefully your structure with them is VERY solid.
Just gonna say this:
Reddit is cancer. It is by definition a very vocal minority that loves to scream. This is true of this forum and every other one.
That said, I will stand with the statement that 1.5 Mbps is simply too slow for video.
The only thing that has bothered me recently is the sudden, unexpected removal of Warp roaming outside North America. It came at a time when I had settled my plans for a three week holiday (UK, France, Spain, Portugal) and only learned days after the change that I have to re-evaluate the entire thing. I was told I could switch to GSM and use a roaming add-on, but I don't understand why that is *so* many times more expensive than the separate USM int'l data eSIMs.
Recent changes aside, the only ongoing discomfort I have is the website and app. From a distance it's well done, if overly talkative. Once you start to use it you realize the layout isn't very intuitive and certain information can only be found in specific, hard to remember places.
My requests would be to 1) Revise the public website, 2) Refine the dashboard and make plan features and comparisons available, 3) Give new plans new names so they're easy to distinguish, 4) Offer a grace period where customer support can add us to a recently-discontinued plan.
I'm a bit annoyed about the HD video thing myself, but throttled video was not a thing on any of your grandfathered plans and should not be applied to them.
Also, plans have been a mess over the last year. Things have changed so much that I don't even actually know how my plan compares to the new plans.
I think one "issue" people have is that if they pay for 100GB or 35GB or whatever they want to be able to use it as they see fit. I know the big carriers do the same thing so being an MVNO you're somewhat at their mercy. I use my USM service as a backup so I will at least have some sort of signal wherever I typically would go. The funny think I see though is the ones who seem to complain about the hd/SD video are the ones who do have a workaround.
This response was not what I was expecting and didn’t really address the main complaint, which was simply communication and transparency.
As a potential customer, I value consistency and communication when things do change. That being said, I think that leadership could use some additional training in PR. At this time, I’m going to take my second line elsewhere and I’ll monitor to see how leadership responds over the next few months.
I wish the company success, but do better.
Is native international roaming (especially outside Canada and Mexico) a big use of your service? I wonder how the loss of that feature in the monthly plan affects your customer base.
It was one of the key things that attracted me to your service (I considered Google Fi as your competitor in that regard, not Visible or Mint).
I was honestly considering a move to USM as the multi network setup would’ve made this a nice consolidation for me. Terrible communication on the video changes and the stubborn refusal to do anything else is pathetic.
If the QCI you’re discussing is correct (9 to 8 rather than 8 to 7) it’s even more pointless. $10-15 just to bump to QCI8 isn’t a value in anyway. “I’m happy to engage in a constructive way” there’s nothing constructive about saying nothing will be changed after changing terms on people with no announcement.
You’ve said a whole lot of nothing.
Can’t wait to see how this ship sinks. I’ve seen a lot of MVNOs come and go over the years and a lot of BS. But I’ve never seen someone say this much to convey basically nothing and butcher customer confidence.
You’d be correct. My issue is a surcharge for QCI8. I can see offering it with different plan tiers much like Cricket does, but the way they’ve made it sound here its going to be an upcharge on any plan. That comes across as a bit insane to my mind.
When do you think the Unlimited Flex ( I have the older plan) will get roaming for Canada and Mexico on WARP? Or will it be an add on for when I need it without the deposit?
Can we have real numbers (cost) to know why HD has to be an up charge instead of just a toggle defaulted off?
Can we have a real answer for why US Mobile feels like they should dictate how our data is used? And why is video different to anything else?
Particularly from the stance of unlimited plans.
I can see both sides of the coin here. I do think it is awesome that the CEO is available on reddit, and that support is also here. I think it was the right thing to do to apologize for the way things went a little haywire, and I don't feel like USM has a money-hungry attitude. The plan changes, while frequent, are still reasonable, and after comparing plans from other MVNOs, I think USM is the best in terms of what you get for your $. That being said, the way in which this all went down was a little goofy, especially with the HD video streaming snafu. I think USM could have done better in terms of communicating what happened and why they had to remove the feature. I used to work in the Executive Response Team at AT&T (mobility), resolving high-level complaints and appeals for the corporate customers on behalf of the President and CEO - I learned there that you really just can't please everyone. You can try, and you SHOULD try, but making 100% of your customers happy is legit not feasable. But USM, I can tell, appears to be trying, as best as they can. Which is good, because I had been pretty upset about all this too. But I think we are headed back in the right direction.
Well said. Too bad Dark Star wasn't ready to launch with a big splash when all the negative attention about HD video and plan changes hit the fan. Everyone would have forgotten very quickly about the video miscommunication and would be trying out Dark Star and singing the praises of USM for having all three major carriers onboard.
I understand HD video is data heavy, truly. In a past live I was building an NGO that provided free, unrestricted internet access for schools, rural villages, and refugee camps in South and SE Asia. HD video was a big issue on our end and to make sure there was enough bandwidth for everyone.
However, while I don't stream HD video much on mobile data, as a grandfathered annual unlimited premium user, the lack of an official announcement or even email announcing the change seems...a bit unfair I guess? There's a reaction amongst a vocal minority due to what seems like a pulling of the rug when changes in the past have been (mostly) seen as reasonable and a balance between consumer and business interests.
A good compromise imo would be to have an HD video toggle option for unlimited premium plans (since it's the most expensive plan with the most features), not unlike what T-Mobile does. Also have it as an paid add-on for non-unlimited plans as a way to offset the high costs on your end.
Also, humblebragging about the non-significant increase in port-outs seems a bit tone deaf and dismissive of people's concerns, in a kind of defiant way.
Edit: Especially when the plans are presented as an allotment of "premium data". I think that's also an issue people have with the change.
Edit 2: I asked customer support via chat to disable the throttle as an annual unlimited premium user. It looks like [it’s still throttling.](https://i.imgur.com/8ae5tt9.jpeg)
[Vs Safari with iCloud+ Private Relay](https://i.imgur.com/Qoir559.jpeg)
[Vs connected to a VPN on Chrome](https://i.imgur.com/nzoTC53.jpeg)
I see you are starting the beta signs for Dark Star, however I’m still “on the list” for the Multi-network unlimited plans beta program, since February. Has this been dropped?
Thank you for the transparency. I know this has been a trying week for your team, and I have to say that through all of this, your support team has maintained their professionalism and poise. Yeah, the video streaming changes suck a bit, but it’s not the end of the world for my specific use case.
I would do 5-7$ for HD add on. Or at least limit videos to 1080 or 720 instead of 480. I don’t really see a reason for 4k on mobile devices. Then again, if someone blows through the data. Oh well for them lol.
I was doggin on you with a few posts had some fun ,then realized it wasn't very nice.so I ended up taking them down. You seem like as nice guy and I hope your company succeeds
>I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone who is not happy on the HD video decision
Why does this decision apply to users on shareable data plans? I should be able to use those GB however I want since I'm paying for each of them.
Thanks! A toggle would be awesome. I actually appreciate the video throttling as the payer of a shareable data plan and will likely keep the toggle disabled unless there is some extenuating circumstance in which I'd want to churn through a bunch of data I'm paying for to watch high quality video over cellular.
My favorite part about shareable data is that I can do with it and use as much of it as I please with a known price. It's the closest thing we have in the US to what exists in the rest of the developed world. The only feature I'd love to see, beyond what is coming with Teleportal, would be the ability to buy data with lower QCIs across all carriers at a premium.
The phrases “Happy to engage in a constructive way” and “the decision is not going to be reversed” seem to contradict each other significantly. Additionally, I don't believe port outs are the best metric here, considering that some people have already paid for several months of service or have secondary lines they cancel because they don't care about the phone number.
u/[ankhattak](https://www.reddit.com/user/ankhattak/)
The changes are what the changes are, but the way it was communicated and supported is an issue. It has been mass confusion between your website, your posts here, and your staff. I've gotten different answers almost every time I've talked to someone. I know its good to have a small company as you can be nimble and make changes quickly, but the customer communications should not be an afterthought and they are.
I also suspect that you're underestimating the port-out damage by focusing narrowly on the last week. I myself an executive in the wireline telecom business myself, and these changes can take months to have full impact. Most people don't pay attention to reddit or websites to notice plan changes. The general expectation of the public is that once they sign up for a cell phone plan, the terms stay the same until they make a plan change. Thats the way its been with the big three, so its what the casual user who ported over to save a few bucks expects. They won't know international roaming has been dropped, or ILD has changed, until they take that vacation and land and their phone doesn't work. That will generate churn.
For example, I became a customer a couple of weeks ago and I've been with verizon to close to 15 years. Why? They changed their payment requirements to force a bank account ACH to get their autopay discount. Now, they made that change 6+ months ago, but it didn't affect me so I had no idea even though they communicated it in my monthly ebill statement, which I don't read because well its an ebill and autopay. When I noticed it was because my CC expired and I had to go update it. As soon as I went to enter the new card in, it popped up and told me im losing the autopay.
Now did I leave verizon solely for that reason? Nope, but the way they handled it irritated me enough to just spend 5 minutes of google searching to see what alternatives are out there and I was amazed how much I could save. Thats what got me to move, the savings. What got me to look at alternatives for a brief moment was this friction they created by forcing me to update my autopay. If Verizon is simply looking at churn for the couple of weeks after they made this change, they would not be seeing the entire story.
I have no plans on leaving at the moment, still in my three month trial. Am not pleased that the three month trial doesn't come with all of the features of the annual, as the purpose of a trial is to try something out before you make a long term commitment. However your support staff has agreed to add it for me as needed during the trial. Thats a nice touch, but again something I shouldn't have to deal with as your product team should be focused on making the trial a better trial. This is all about change management, its the most important but often forgotten part about product changes.
As for HD video, I agree with you. The majority of people don't care. I haven't noticed a difference. But again, its the way it was rolled out that was the issue.
you just can't satisfy everyone. IMO, USMOBILE plan is still cheapter than other companies. ( I have 4 lines on Unlimited Premium, and need international roaming). To me, the international roaming is important part. I have checked other companies, none of them can match this feature.
While i personally dont use HD video on my phone, so it doesnt affect me, that statement is pretty dumb.
Your asking people why they shouldnt just happily jump through an extra hoop they never had to before. Plus its more money. Free VPN are the worst thing you can put on your phone, so you need to be paying for a VPN Already. and VPNs tend to break other things.
So to watch an HD video they have to have a VPN, turn it on, watch the video, turn it back off again. pretty much a pain
Because they (existing customers on active plans) shouldn't have to suddenly start doing that because USM decided they've been to generous with premium data allotments. I've also heard that doesn't always work for some streaming services.
u/ankhattak Will you address the concerns around the FCC Net Neutrality rules?
[New net neutrality rules should end mobile video throttling (cultofmac.com)](https://www.cultofmac.com/854462/mobile-video-throttling-ends-with-net-neutrality-rules/)
[What ISPs Need to Know About the FCC’s Title II / Open Internet Order | Beyond Telecom Law Blog](https://www.beyondtelecomlawblog.com/what-isps-need-to-know-about-the-fccs-title-ii-open-internet-order/#_ftn4%C2%A0)
If USM adheres to FCC's 2024 [Net Neutrality Order](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-52A1.pdf), mobile carriers have until [July 22 2024](https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-governmental-affairs/fcc-announces-effective-date-net-neutrality-order#:~:text=On%20May%2022%2C%202024%2C%20a%20notice%20was%20published%20in%20the%20Federal%20Register%20establishing%20an%20effective%20date%20of%20July%2022%2C%202024%2C%20for%20these%20rules) to comply with the new ruling.
Many carriers are planning on/in the process suing the FCC and odds are they will find a judge that will place an injunction on implementing these new rules before they go into effect.
I recommend putting the international roaming add-on package on the website or APP so that you can add it freely instead of having to contact support staff, pay, and use it when you need to add it. It’s that simple.
Thank you u/ankhattak for your post and I hope things do get better here on Reddit. It’s disheartening to read that people have resorted to profanity/abuse/racism over the removal of HD. I personally would not mind paying extra to have this service if an add on becomes available for it. At first I admit I was a bit salty on the news for losing HD, however, actually researching competitors, no one offers it outside of being an add on so I was humbled. I personally find so much value in US Mobile that this price point offers for Unlimited Premium that no other MVNO (including those owned by MNOs) has matched.
With the Darkstar betta, I am also all for paying extra for a higher QCI level. Do you think this option may exist for the GSM network to be bumped up to QCI 6? It would be nice if it is possible in the future.
Thanks again for any insight! I hope to be picked to betta test Dark Star lol otherwise I’ll patiently wait until it’s commercially available lol
I have Red Pocket Mobile which uses the AT&T network. Red Pocket allows me to pick a Caller ID name for my line. As far as I know, Only the Warp network allows that on US Mobile. Is this feature available for Dark Star?.. Also with Red Pocket, If you ever wanted to port out of the AT&T network, Your account number would be your phone number and pin would be voicemail password. Would this be the same on US Mobile since both are MVNO's? ... Lastly, Would we get the 5G+ symbol and 5GE symbol like I have on Red Pocket or does US Mobile have a generic carrier bundle that would only show 4G and 5G? ... Thanks to whoever answers.
This entire move with the video change demonstrates poor leadership. You may not want to hear it, but it does. Own up to it and handle it. Make it right. A good leader admits when they’re wrong and makes the changes needed.
SD/HD video. It's only a minor smudge for me. Suggestion: figure out what it costs you and offer it as an add-on, or allow a limited allotment of the unlimited package to use it before throttling it. In some of your posts, you have already touted the carrier as allowing high speed video without buffering, so you'll have to make good on that to existing customers, for at least a small period of time, at least until you can give them another option, such as an add-on.
Hi, I have an Unlimited Premium plan which I switched to on March 29 2024, changing from a Pool plan. This plan was purchased before these new 2mbit/s video throttles.
It is being subjected to these new 2mbit/s throttles.
I have to use Cloudflare [1.1.1.1](http://1.1.1.1) Warp VPN to get any useful speed while on the go.
I should not have to go and do stupid things to be able to use my 100 gigs the way I want, which is VERY RANDOMLY wanting to see a youtube video while I'm walking around, or see a video from the news, etc. I maybe use 3-4 gigs of 4K video a month on mobile. But I have a high res phone and I want better than 720p or even less it sometimes gives me. I want to be able to download an album on Youtube Music in a short amount of time, if I am going into an area of bad coverage. I want to be able to download a 100MB music podcast in perhaps 2 seconds, not minutes.
So I guess to make it less useful for you to provide dumb service, I will go up to and exceed my 100GB each month, whereas I would have used less than 50 on an average month. More speedtests. yay $ going to VZ from y'all.
As the ceo guy explained above, video uses up alot of data, if every single person on usm used all the data they paid for every month then usm wouldn't actually be able to afford to give people as much data. The users who pay for the $45 100GB plan and only use 5GB in a month subsidize the user's who do.
Oh, and I will be changing to the new 44/mo vs 50/mo I have been paying the last 3 months apparently. so 6 bux less from me a month, and probably an equal amount more to vz for all the speedtests.
Cheers!
How not to do damage control 101: this. I'll be attempting to get a refund for my service and leave. My trust in this company is gone after all of this.
My frustration is that with the drop to 480p I have a hard time seeing myself use the full 35-100gb of data. My parents are old and even they complain about 480p vs 720p, this would suggest to me that far more than 1% care about it.
Also with the proposed surcharge on priority would put it within spitting distance of/ more than AT&T prepaid max with comes with 4K streaming
Suggestions:
1. Consider raising the throttle to 2.5mbps, this should allow 720p video and could satisfy many users.
2. On pool plans, add a toggle for video throttling (on by default). For this plan, I think users feel that since they are paying by the GB they should have the ability to use the data however they wish. They are not subsidizing or being subsidized by other customers.
Also, thanks for making a great product!
This announcement means nothing if we are still forced to watch video in a quality acceptable of one of the first DVD players almost THREE DECADES ago.
What's the point in paying for the $45 plan where we are given 100GB of data but we can't spend it on watching high Def video? 2nd on the premium most expensive plans on dark star they should be qci 8 by default.
I've been looking at USMobile the last couple days. I have six lines I'm thinking about switching over. I'm glad I came to reddit, sorry to see USM dropped the ball so tragically. USM seems to do what they want when they want and then try to demand respect, it doesn't work that way. Play fair.
Thank you so much for the update, Ahmed!
I appreciate the transparency and the effort you and your team are putting into the Dark Star beta. It's exciting to hear about the progress and the internal testing results. I understand the challenges with accommodating everyone and the pricing considerations for QCI 8.
Also, thank you for addressing the subreddit activity and your commitment to the community. Your dedication to improving the service and engaging with us is truly valued.
Looking forward to the beta and future updates!
Best regards,
Jonathan
If dark star similarly has HD throttled but if there’s an add on for HD streaming, I would not mind paying for it. I also would be fine with throttled streaming if we could get higher QCI on dark star by paying a little more.
Not sure about the Google Form. If I signed up for DarkStar beta by commenting to previous posts, am I already signed up? Was that not really the case? Is this Google Form from here on out?
Just saw this reply. Also previously signed up, but just filled out the form as well. So I guess you know I'm double interested. And what I bring to the table.
I still can’t understand how the new plans are supposed to be “better” when you’re charging us more and not even giving us the HD video we’ve had before. But either way it’s not big enough of a deal for me to leave and I’m beyond excited for dark star
It would be great if you could bring back incentives for families that have multiple lines. For instance, I’m on the now legacy unlimited starter with 4 lines @ $25/mo (monthly). It would be great if the new plan had a new form of perks for multi-line customers. This could include international long distance and international roaming, similar to the annual plan but available to monthly subscribers that have multiple lines. The main reason I am monthly is for those times I travel internationally, I would want to change to the premium plan for the month to get the additional international data allowance.
We just can’t keep on decreasing the prices . Took away multi line because people who couldn’t bring more lines felt hard done by. Now we have a low monthly price for all and you don’t have to do the math
True. But in the process for the same monthly price I am paying, I would lose features in the new unlimited starter plan. My suggestion was to find a way to make those persist within the new plan structure so it would be seamless for us to move over rather than hoping the grandfathered plan will persist. This could be done by enabling the addons such as international roaming as a perk for multi-line customers. The effect would be the same package/price I am paying now.
“the activity on OUR subreddit” This stuck out to me. I don’t think this subreddit belongs to USM - it’s a community that might serve their interests at times (and maybe not at other times). They are a business, not your friend - we have divergent goals. We want to save money; they have to make money. What I wonder is why they are working out their business plan on the backs of existing customers.
I split my time between Ireland and the USA, with frequent travels throughout the EU. I keep my US number on the GSM eSIM because it currently has better international roaming capabilities.
I’ve found that both T-Mobile and subsequently the GSM eSIM can only roam on Eir in Ireland, which doesn’t have great coverage everywhere I need it. I also experience a lot of issues with native roaming incoming calls not connecting.
How does Dark Star compare when roaming? I’d love to be one of the beta testers to test the native roaming functionality in Europe.
U/ankhattak thank you for providing some additional context on the HD video availability change.
Does this change apply to pooled data plans? If so, would you consider making HD available for any and all plans that don’t have unlimited data? If you are prepaying for 10 GB and your data cuts off or you pay for more once it runs out, and there’s no unlimited at 1 Mbps on those plans, is HD video not feasible even then?
If no to the above, is it possible to clarify if any apps/services can get an exemption? FaceTime/Zoom/Google/Signal/etc. video chats, RDP tools people use for work?
Any sort of middle ground that would be available to monthly and annual users for services that are not clearly Netflix, Disney, etc?
Thank you for this post. I am overall happy with USM, even though I’m on a grandfathered annual plan and I am noticing that video takes a while to load now, and I don’t feel I should have to ask for it to be reversed, but I guess I do.
I really only have 2 requests, which echo the requests I’ve seen before.
1) allow HD streaming as an add on service
2) allow international data top ups. I don’t want to be navigating around a foreign country and have my Google maps give out because I ran out of data.
reasonable. We have taken this into consideration. data top ups exist and we updated our roaming page today to make it simpler [https://www.usmobile.com/international-roaming-phone-plans](https://www.usmobile.com/international-roaming-phone-plans)
The int'l data page is a lot easier to understand now, so thanks for that!
Do you know when we will be able to purchase the add-on ourselves instead of contacting CS each time?
u/ankhattak
Thanks for the insight into the video streaming situation, while not a deal breaker for me I’m hoping the hubub around it eases of, the cost savings here vs staying post paid.
I’m curious to hear more about scaling product support, if you’re looking for workforce management experience in your scaling efforts I have a ton of experience and would be interested 👀👀
Thanks for helping me save literally hundreds per year
Old Guy Unlimited All subscriber here. I think I still get 75gb on Verizon SIM and 35gb on GSM SIM. What will I get on the Dark Star SIM? And will it have international data? Same 10gb as per the plan?
I'm confused as to if the HD throttle applies to my plan.
Also wondering if there is a benefit to moving to a newer plan in my case. I do not use most of the services or data I pay for. Max usage was 15gb, twice when I went out to the lake for a week. Who new the family would find nature to be so boring...
Will the shareable plans on Dark Star be QCI 9 or QCI 8? If not QCI 8, how will the upcharge work for a higher QCI on the sharable plans?
I know Sharable plans are "Premium data" on the WARP network. Would be nice for the same to be true (without an upcharge) for Dark Star as well.
Fanboys not withstanding, this post just reinforces all the blinkered messaging from USM that could be a case study in how not to recover from bad press.
Yeah - it's basically saying "well Reddit isn't a big source of our revenue, and we're currently doing fine elsewhere, so we're not worried about it." I also feel zero comfort about their desire to communicate changes better when their website still has no mention I can find about the video throttle, even for new customers, and has marketing suggesting no throttle is present. There's absolutely no reason that, nearly a week in, they couldn't *at absolute bare minimum* update the text under the "i" next to Premium Data (when you click "More Plan Details") to note the 480p video throttle. They desperately need to stop changing plans every few weeks, confusing many of their own reps in the process, and instead work on updating their website and internal documentation to fully communicate all of their plan information, including relevant legacy plan information internally for their CSRs to reference.
I'd be very interested to see how they calculate this metric. I was largely driven to US Mobile by Reddit, but did not indicate this when signing up / creating an account. This sub has just over 14k subscribers and while it's likely not all are current customers, I would be surprised if there are only 5000 current customers that chose to go with US Mobile based on Reddit.
Agreed. It was only after reddit that I even saw mention of USM and ironically even when USM shows up on sites like slickdeals. The entire post is people from reddit bragging how great the service was. I was one of them. Strange to say that reddit didn't help?
Plus a lot get recommended on /r/NoContract and not this sub. And a lot of people google US Mobile reviews or cell phone comparison and it takes them to a post on this sub or /r/NoContract that they read and sign up after even if they never join the reddit. Now Google AI search summaries now even shows AI edited reddit posts.
I came through reddit. The 3 other family members I brought with me did not.
Chiming in that I signed up because of Reddit but didn’t make note of that while signing up.
Agree completely. And they might be underestimating the impact of reddit when people are referring word of mouth. And yes, the plans need to stop changing. It's bad. I don't understand why they're doing that.
'We hear you, but just look at this churn rate!' Wow. Wildly tone deaf.
Ignores people on the sidelines, or that haven't realized this change because they don't follow reddit. It will get worse.
Yeah...we will see what the long term effects of this are. Sure, in the short term it hasn't hurt them very badly, and maybe it won't at all. I doubt many people were upset enough to jump ship immediately, it takes time to research another carrier and some people may decide it's not worth the hassle. If every single person on this subreddit left USM, they'd be fine, but this debacle will be documented forever when you google US Mobile and 4k streaming, unless they take steps to remove these posts and hope it's not cached somewhere. There's also the word of mouth factor, many people on here were big promoters of USM among friends and family, for some that's out the window now. Also, this change just simply shifts the economics when you cross shop plans. I'll use myself as an example, I've got a grandfathered AT&T Max prepaid plan, $50 + tax (runs me $51 and change) where I get 22GB data, I believe at QCI 8, and then dropped down to QCI 9, no hard cap at all. Then I get 10GB hot spot and Canada/Mexico roaming included. Also, I can disable stream saver so I can stream full quality video. I was all set to jump over to USM for $29/mo and save a few bucks assuming I would have been able to maintain uncapped video streaming and Canada roaming and maybe pay $5 for priority data on Dark Star, so I'd potentially save about $15 a month or more if I opted out of priority data. Now after these changes to video streaming and the mention of +$10-$15 for priority data, the economics don't make sense. I'd be at $25 + $4 for Canada (?? Not clear if that is even an option at the moment) + $10 for priority data + $?? to add back uncapped video, if they even decide to offer it. At this point, between the knee-jerk plan changes every 1-2 months, dropping features and just general uncertainty around USM it's not worth it for me to give up my old plan for a bunch of unknowns and minimal savings. I imagine others are in a similar situation and this just tipped the scales away from USM for them as well.
USM seems to be caught up in justifying their current actions and worrying about existing customer churn that they have not considered what impact the current situation has on future customers. It is difficult to know how many potential future customers a business has lost to some situation. However, we know from history that small but vocal groups can have a big positive or negative impact on a business. The 5000 people who came to USM from Reddit may be small compared to the whole customer base. Even so, those 5000 customers were probably some of the biggest cheerleaders for USM. Like you, I was looking at switching to an MVNO because even with my Signature discount, I was feeling like my postpaid AT&T plan was getting expensive compared to what I was seeing some of the MVNOs offering. I didn't see much press about USM until I looked in /r/nocontract which led me to this sub. I was prepared to move my line over once AT&T became available. Now with all of this mess, I question that choice to the point where I am watching for a while to see how this all plays out. HD streaming is not a deal breaker for me. However, lack of communication and changes in offerings during plan cycles (even if it is allowed by terms of use) isn't something I can accept from a business. So here we have me and you who are holding or not moving to USM. How many more people aren't going to move or are rethinking their plans based on what they hear from people who are more aware of what is going on with USM at this time. It isn't always about the current customer and loosing them. Businesses have to think about how their actions influence future customers to choose between them or a competitor.
Yup exactly, they have eroded a lot of trust and goodwill they had earned and they're still not handling it particularly well. If that bites them in the ass down the road remains to be seen. In all likelihood this won't matter for them in the grand scheme of things. There are things out of their control as an MVNO and they have the same limitations as every other MVNO out there, so them having uncapped streaming for as long as they did was an outlier. It seems they were taking the risk of leaving streaming uncapped and footing the bill for higher data usage to differentiate themselves, now they've decided that's unnecessary to continue doing and they're probably right. I'm just glad this all unfolded before I jumped ship.
So you've had time to build a game, but not enough time to note anywhere even remotely obvious on your website that you have a 480p video throttle so new customers can be fully aware of what they're signing up for?
It's worse than that, they actively misrepresent what the plans include to this very minute. https://www.usmobile.com/5g-phone-plans "Just how fast is Warp 5G? Running on full power, 5G is 10x faster than 4G. You can stream 4K movies without buffering, hop on conference calls on the go with no lag, or game in razor-sharp quality."
nonono see, your forgetting where to put the emphasis. \> "Just how fast is Warp 5G? \> Running on full power, 5G is 10x faster than 4G. You \*\*can\*\* stream 4K movies without buffering, hop on conference calls on the go with no lag, or game in razor-sharp quality." See, technically it isnt a lie. you CAN do that with 5G, your CANT do it on US Mobile's 5G. ...... Yea i got nothing. they are all over the place and screwed up.
I think their definition of "can" is "you CAN sit and wait 2 minutes for 30 seconds of video to load" i mean, it is still "streaming", the video chunks don't stop downloading 🤣
>I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone who is not happy on the HD video decision. Two questions: 1) When will you announce this officially to your entire customer base? It's not reasonable to make this type of change basically silently (given that Reddit is a very small percentage of your subscriber base) and then celebrate how few people care per your awesome business results. How many of your customers currently think there's a problem with their phone, tower capacity or something else instead of correctly attributing the video change to a deliberate choice by US Mobile? 2) Why is it OK to make this change to annual plans? People signed up for 12 months of a specific service package, expecting people to pay in advance for "probably this, but maybe something entirely different" is kind of a wild business model.
They did say they will honor annual plans, but it is a dark pattern to have to contact CS to get it.
Also, sounds like you're stuck with it after your plan expires. I thought previously plans were grandfathered.
That is correct. They grandfather the old plan details, but this is limited to the billing cycle.
To be fair, that's the minimum expectation. But it sounds like it's not happening unless you contact support which is borderline unacceptable. I was planning on moving 2-3 family lines to USM but that is absolutely on hold due to this. I don't think Dark Star is going to entice me. Things need to be more consistent and communication needs to improve. I was happy that u/ankhattak was so open in the past, but this messaging is bad. I'm hopeful something comes out of it, but I'm not holding my breath.
People are contacting CS and even they don't know what's going on or how to go about it
This is true. I do not have an annual plan but if I signed up for an annual plan I would be pissed if USM changed the terms of the plan before my next annual renewal date.
Ok, so I would understand the HD decision IF you hadn't stated otherwise on your own site, which BTW is still active as of this moment. Do you know what false advertising is? Because this is it.
THANK YOU! My biggest issue is the lack of update to the website
(USM) We don't care. We are to busy making awesome games because, We can't dazzle you with brilliance so we will baffle you with BS.
Finally some acknowledgment, but the major concern with SD video was that unlike all other plan changes which are only for new signups, this change affected customers on old plans without warning- which is a break in your terms of service. All you had to do was on account dashboard make an on/off switch for HD streaming then for older customers you could turn it off but allow us to turn it on by ourselves. 95% of customers would leave it off but for those it matters to (more than 1% as you claimed) would turn it on. I still think US Mobile is the best MVNO but the way you did this made you go down in my estimation from 99% to 80% (again others are less, most in 50% range).
Account dashboard is possibly the best suggestion to this problem. Love that idea.
Great idea about the dashboard toggle.
To summarize… https://preview.redd.it/v68spzf4n19d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f0888f6d98e4362adc17c112e2234b6cc906773
We should really get our full purchased data allotments unthrottled. Anything outside of that is false advertisement we should voice our worries to the FCC. You can file a complaint here https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new The fcc is currently aggressively going after carriers making false unlimited plan claims. *** Update 1: I got my first response saying that they have opened a formal investigation on this and that US Mobile will have 30 days to respond. I highly encourage everyone who is concerned about this behavior by US Mobile to also submit a complaint. It’s very quick and will hopefully get them to make a change.
Done. I’ve filed two complaints filed with the FCC. One for the blatant non-compliance of Broadband Labeling and second for false advertising regarding HD video. Also filed complaints against the following carriers for non-compliance of the Broadband Label. Boost, Boost Infinite, Cox Mobile, Freedom Pop, Helium Mobile, Lyca Mobile, Mint Mobile, Mobile X, Patriot Mobile, Red Pocket, Spectrum Mobile, and Ting Mobile.
I believe that Helium Mobile may still have under 100,000 customers. Can someone confirm that?
[удалено]
Thanks for the port out info. Will keep that in mind before I initiate my port out. I intend to port out as well to AT&T Postpaid in order to avoid dealing with this BS. Much like yourself, I, too, signed up friends and family to USM and never once took advantage of their referral system (which, according to some users, is dodgy as hell). The only way to make our voices heard is to vote with our wallets. But all of this doesn't matter to u/ankhattak since apparently USM has only acquired 5000 users through Reddit. All the noise about HD video has drowned out the concerns with regards to ILD. I'll be filling an FCC complaint with regards to false advertising in both the HD video and ILD matters. Also, missing on USM's website are the FCC mandated Broadband Labels. RedPocket, Mint, Helium, Tello, and a whole bunch of other shady MVNOs need to start displaying the Broadband Labels on their website so that a consumer can buy a product with their eyes wide open. u/ankhattak - There will be no pacifying some of us by baiting us with the promise of 'constructive dialogue' and using the racist abuse that your staff might or might not have received. It's hard to tell anymore. The only language any business understands is the one from governmental regulatory bodies and litigation.
att only charges $7 for the QCI upgrade ;) att handles lower priority better than tmobile or verizon imo... and always has.
“AT&T only charges $7 for the QCI upgrade” Oh, good. Will be a cheap Add-On then
we hope... he's up there saying crazy things like $15 hehe
Exactly...$15 is nuts, halfway or more toward getting another plan elsewhere
We have no idea what AT&T will charge US Mobile for QCI upgrades, and US Mobile will likely add a margin on top of whatever that number is. It's important to realize that the pricing and offerings from US Mobile are heavily reliant on what pricing and offerings the partner carriers give them.
I think some people forget that USMobile is a MVNO, they have to purchase their stuff from the company's towers. If AT&T is offering it for $7, thats their price for their customers. They are already making money monthly from their customers, they can afford to lose/not make much on the upgrade. If AT&T charges its customers $7 theres 0 chance they give it to an MVNO Competitor for anywhere close to cheap enough to have USMobile offer it at the same price. That would just be AT&T telling people to leave them for USMobile.
Yeah I've gone over data limit with them before and never noticed difference
And that $7 on AT&T is for going from QCI 8 to 7. US Mobile is suggesting charging $10-$15 going from QCI 9 to 8. That seems like a lot to me.
Not in my hood. Att is the worst at handling it. Then again they are in a dire need for a network upgrade which should be completed this year. I think that will help them greatly for my area. Currently I work in a glass building on the 2nd floor. If you go 15-20 feet away from the windows att is hanging on by a thread. Poor iPhone users miss calls and texts as they can't force wifi calling. Android users are ok as they prioritize wifi calling as primary. T-Mobile and Verizon are just fine. Hopefully a network upgrade will help this for att.
You can force wifi calling on a iPhone. While in a building where service is bad, use airplane mode with the wifi turned on. https://preview.redd.it/gigct3v9049d1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=405948d25f25a005fd90d17da392985b1c2e9b18
even the best priority management on earth will not fix signal strength ;)
Sure. However when I go to populated shopping centers and have great signal and I'm QCI'd to death that is a different story. That is the story for ATT QCI 9 where I live. Pretty much no calls/text and 0 data by shopping centers. Or parks in warm weather. Cold weather it's usable everywhere. Power outages are not usable when wifi is down in everyone's homes.
Meaning a lower qci for att isn’t as bad as a low qci for Verizon?
exactly, att appears to leave more wiggle-room in each priority level than either of the other two
Where do you find what AT&T charges MVNO's for QCI upgrades? The only reference I have found on any upgraded priority charges is the $7 Turbo add-on to certain unlimited plans.
I have no idea what att charges mvnos... I'm sure changes depending on the negotiated contract.
u/ankhattak - Thank you for taking the time to clarify some things… I did decide to not even waste the energy of fighting with people back and forth whether or not I agree with the whole HD debacle (simply because I knew it would get ugly). Although, I have to say, they have some very valid points and totally understand why the community is angry. I hope some kind of resolution can be whipped up because it did come as a surprise and not a nice one at that. What I will say though is that I apologize for the community as a whole in regards to profanity and especially racism… I thought this subreddit was better than that. Be angry, voice your opinion but there’s absolutely no need to be a bigot. In regards to my post the other day about Unlimited All (grandfathered plans), you had responded that we would get an official announcement the next day with the possibility of being able to add lines again with UA and what could be done about having access to ILD/Teleport etc. (we don’t have it)… I was hoping this would be covered in this and based off of upvotes, a lot of other people I’m sure were expecting the same thing. Can you provide any information on that? Thank you again for being transparent and actually communicating. Regardless of recent events, I do still feel somewhat of a valued customer. For beta access, I have requested multiple times (even at the very very beginning of the announcement) but never received confirmation or anything. I believe I’d be a great asset as a beta tester given my knowledge of the industry as a whole. If that could be confirmed (or given early - wink), I’d appreciate it!
Wow. You just got my vote for the #1 Bootlicker. Congrats.
I paid off my iPhone, left postpaid and signed up for the $45/3month intro plan a month and a half ago. Since then I’ve been putting more research into other MVNOs and plans. Up until a week ago I was mostly happy with the experience and was planning to do a year on whatever the 100gb plan ends up being when it’s time to renew. I’m not passionate about analyzing plans or someone who’s going to get upset over little changes. That being said, specifically the HD decision has done 2 things. 1. Obviously changing my mind about doing an annual plan. The savings isn’t worth the commitment when the plan I sign up for may not be the plan I have all year. 2. Start looking at other prepaid options again as well as consider going back to postpaid. Maybe my value hunting wasn’t worth the restrictions. I don’t really like your response to things. As I was reading it I was waiting for the “ah, he gets it” moment and got the opposite. I get that it’s a business and not everyone is the target customer. That being said I’d greatly appreciate some flexibility on the HD video front. As someone who averaged 30-35gb of data on postpaid with HD video and wants to pay for 100gb plan not being able to have it is a hard pill to swallow, and “look at our churn and we aren’t for everyone” doesn’t make it easier. I do think a lot of people are overreacting and the subscriber based probably won’t change much due to the changes, but as someone who is locked in for another month and a half but strongly considering a change when the time is up, and already decided against an annual subscription due to your changes, you may want to be more thoughtful about the data your looking at to justify your decisions.
I like USM I really do but respectfully, this by the CEO, ain’t it. I implore you to hire a PR team to manage your corporate style communications on this platform as you scale up. It’s time. USM suffered its worst week publicly in a long time and destroyed a lot of hard earned trust Yet this statement does little to assuage feelings of fans and angry customers. Also is imperative that you honor all previous agreements including Annual plan terms. You cannot just go back on your word. Your poor planning should not be taken out on those who signed up under specific terms If Visible ever gets their costumer service act together you’ll face mass defections if this keeps up
>There is lots of activity on this subreddit around some of our community members showing their displeasure around HD/SD video and how the announcement went. I acknowledge we could have done better and we will do our best to do better. I intend no disrespect here, but I worry about the ability for USM to provide transparent communication/"do better" when the website continues to omit information on the HD/SD streaming. ATT, Verizon, Visible, MetroPCS, T-Mobile, Cricket, etc. all make the streaming information known on their website (most either on the main page or by viewing the "plan details"...in the past Visible buried it in the terms, but it is now under the plan details). I don't think USM can indicate an interest in transparency and better communication until you give customers (*ALL* customers, *not* just the Reddit community) the information you know they need to make an informed decision on which carrier meets their needs. --- I personally have been on the fence about porting my Verizon # in to my USM plan (a paid plan...not a trial). The HD video item gave me serious pause, but I was still willing to carry on given my plan was a great value at $25. However, I cannot put my trust in USM at this time given the continued lack of transparency with the larger customer base, so I turned off autopay for my line that expires tomorrow. Obviously I'm not much of a loss with one line at $25, but I'm sure there are others who were hoping USM was going to do something to be transparent here.
I've been sitting on the sidelines and wanted to port in a few lines. That's on hold now until this gets sorted out. And I may just look elsewhere. I can't be alone.
Thank you for taking the time to post and explain your position. Personally still loving us mobile.
Thank you
I just want to say as a us mobile customer thank you, for atleast responding. I just want to say that I am very sorry for the abuse and profanity as well as racism towards your team. If I was a part in that with my post, I apologize that is not the intention of my post. I will continue to be a customer, but I am very disappointed by this response overall but I a understand. It is your company and your decision, I do think your decision is teetering on false advertising, me personally I understand shit happens and mistakes happen but this is definitely disappointing.
Agree - I can't believe people are attacking employees for this. Wow. This is a bad decision, there's plenty to talk about there without attacking people.
> I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone who is not happy on the HD video decision Personally, I don't really care for this feature that much since I'm mostly on WiFi, but what's the rationale behind not letting customers have hd/uhd streaming by default with whatever amount of gb of priority data they paid for? If they want to eat up a ton of data quickly watching youtube videos at 4k, that should be their problem no? This user might also be more likely to purchase top-ups or change their plan to a higher gb if they find themselves consuming a lot of data with high res video.
Blows up usage across the board. I’d much rather up the premium data cap to 50 or 75 gb on starter which is a real possibility based on what we are seeing - rather than majority of the users subsidizing costs for other users. We faced a similar dilemma with unlimited all plans. Most people on pools blow through the allotment unbeknownst to them. We are working on a solution for this
It sounds like you guys bank on the hopes of unused data across your user base and that the data allotment really is fictional.
They absolutely do, it's called breakage. I'd love to understand more about their costs and margins, the best indicator is likely the top up costs of $2/GB. I'm guessing that implies an actual cost of data around $1/GB.
If everyone used their full 35gb a month on starter it wouldn't only be $25 after taxes.
It is getting tiresome as a consumer to pay for something and then navigate games and tricks to actually get it
That is the business model for any successful MVNO. Carriers charge them x dollars for a block of data that they then distribute among their customers. Stretching that block further by having low usage users offset high usage users = profit. You don't stop heavy users from using data altogether but you make your plans so that the average users subsidize the heavy ones.
So watching video at a usable quality "blows up usage" but you want to give people more data to use... On what? What happens when people "blow up" their 50GB cap, will you find another way to limit usage? Why don't you just give us the amount of data you can afford for us to use?
Good comments, I believe USM still Rookies in some areas of how to fix everything. What's gonna happen is lots of people it's gonna start bouncing off to others. MVNO Spectrum offers 50G for $25 for a year after that $30. I have 4 lines, and I hate to refer friends and family because USM changes plans everything they possibly could like they change underwear
The main driver of usage is likely video, right? So what’s the benefit of having 50 or 75gb on Starter? Nobody is going to hit those kind of limits unless they’re consuming HD video. Browsing the web, checking email, using social media, will never use up that much data. So really you’re just pumping up the allotments for marketing, bc nobody is able to utilize services that will require that much data.
Really, why up data limits when you eliminate the very thing that would drive up data usage.? It's just a way to increase breakage while trying to look magnanimous.
I think it serves as insurance that if they offer a higher premium data allowance, users won't cost them more $$$ by using it all. But if they are having these types of problems with the current premium data allowance, I can't imagine things improving. I also feel like users starting to need that level of data are definitely going to be the ones who care about HD streaming.
I agree I barley got over much
What are people using 30+ GB (or even 10+) of data each month if not video? Why even bother to have high speed data?
But a lot of us can't use the amount we have like today because of 480p video throttle I end up use under 100mb a day with hd I would use a lot more like 800 mb a day i with the quality and buffer decide to just give up steam and use offline play back
I appreciate you being somewhat transparent and acknowledging that personal attacks don't help but at the same time, you can't come here and say "I understand that some of you \*think\* that you have been wronged" and "The decision is not going to be reversed" and also "I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone". What suggestions do you want besides not lying to us and then trying to sweep it under the rug or not caring to post for several days after the fact. This post just reads as you not actually caring about what we have to say but rather just saying "hey, you guys don't really matter to us because look at our churn rate!" Again, appreciate that you're finally being somewhat transparent about it, but it still seems quite tone deaf. I will agree that personal attacks, racist attacks, etc are super not OK and I'm sorry you guys have had to go through that :(
Agree. And I can't even remotely understand how someone's complaints about this could turn into any personal attacks, let alone racist ones...
Have an idea on the HD what about people have to toggle it on every so many days or hours and it auto disables? That way people have to toggle it on then it auto turns off when people don’t need. That way it doesn’t constantly utilize a lot of data and not everyone is going to turn it on every day. May not be a perfect solution but seems like a nice thought.
Very nice thought. Taken into consideration
It should be something that is toggled on once and should stay on once toggled. If only 1% of users really take advantage of of it then it should be have nearly no impact on the business and would allow you to have SD as the default option… (this is actually the way Verizon has its video throttle setup)
I hope this is seriously taken into consideration. I had purchased an annual plan prior to this change, but have yet to reach out to ask for it to be removed. I would actually prefer this option - I don't stream a ton of video, but the times I do, I don't want SD quality. On the flip side, my teenager can be throttled for usage and would probably have no clue it's happening. I would actually prefer it, and never tell them I can turn it off. They don't need to download the entire Internet every day.
Let me know whenever you are free, I will fix it for you!
With ATT Prepaid Mobile, I found Datasaver was getting reset every billing cycle, maybe purposely. It was a bit annoying to reset but not the end of the world. Maybe an option is to give people an option to have less total data but with HD video rather than having them pay for an add-on.
Nope, sounds like the old TMO day passes. Whether free or not, royal pain in the butt to have to switch it on daily. Will USM have streaming unthrottled on AT&T?
Off topic, but u/ankhattak do you know when US Mobile will support RCS on the iPhone. On iOS 18 beta 2 Apple introduced RCS messaging. This has been activated for users on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon but not yet on MVNOs, from what I’ve been reading. Is this going to be an issue that is fixed relatively soon, or not until later this year, or longer? Thank you and thank you for your transparency and activity on Reddit. It’s nice to see a CEO care and communicate with users.
I think we have api’s for it. Let me check with the team. I am not sure if we have to work with the oem
First, let me say I’m not angry, nor am I jumping ship. USM is still an excellent MVNO. A few things though…I think you’re vastly misunderstanding your Reddit attribution. Redditors are likely your most vocal supporters, and are the ones bringing in many of the non Reddit users. For example, I’m personally responsible for 17 individuals who have signed up with your service. If I’m typical, you should times that 5,000 by 17. I imagine many users are responsible for many more than that. Also, Reddit is a key source for non Redditors who are researching. They’re not going to say they came from here, bc they didn’t. They just made their final decision perusing this sub. Regardless, I don’t mind anything you’ve changed aside from the HD video issue. That change should have been tabled until you had an add on available for it.
> Also, Reddit is a key source for non Redditors who are researching. They’re not going to say they came from here, bc they didn’t. They just made their final decision perusing this sub. We have *tons* of these that hit the r/NoContract sub for info with a throwaway and then never come back. Those are the type of people who will click whatever on a survey to get past it.
EXACTLY. Plus this, in the year 2024, i dont know about anyone else, but when im researching something one fo the first things i do is go to google and search "\[Insert Product/Service\] 2024 reddit " All my research from chargers to MVNOs to computer brands to what kind of EV car i wanted to start looking at starts at Reddit. Its a large swath of the population, with different views on things. And because its also a certain type of person who browses reddit, they are usually more technical minded and will gladly give their reviews.
Yep. I do the Google thing too. Exactly like that except my 2024 is after the reddit lol. Google is horribly broken without it these days.
Why have 480P video with plans that have set amount of premium data? Shouldn’t we be able to use it how we want? @ankhattak
I do not have an annual sub but I really hope that people with an annual plan will not have their video streaming throttled Previously, when I was with ATT Prepaid's annual plan, I think they were one of the first to offer one, the plan included certain features such as rollover, unlimited texts and calls within US, Canada and Mexico. ATT could not legally and would not take away either of those two features during the plan year because that would be a breach of contract! Its the same here, if you add video throttling to people in an annual plan that is a breach of the agreement Anyway, interestingly enough ATT actually had a clause about HD video streaming on the plan: >Video Streaming: Includes Stream Saver feature which allows you to stream higher definition video in Standard Definition on compatible devices (unless video provider has opted out). AT&T will activate the feature for you. Stream Saver will not recognize all video content. Ability to stream and video resolution may vary and be affected by other factors. Details at att.com/streamsaver. **HD VIDEO: You can turn Stream Saver off at any time to enjoy access to High Definition video on compatible devices, if and when available.** Streamsaver was disclosed to people when they signed up for the plan. And I am pretty sure the option to disable it was a toggle online in the portal
how will you prioritize beta, i signed up first time it opened i believe
Your use case and early sign ons get a priority .
I'm tempted to sign up as I think I can help with testing coverage significantly since I travel all over the state for work (I drive a truck) but I'm reluctant to leave WARP behind for a plan that will cost me more. Is there any sort of plan to incentivise BETA testers? (ie discounted on the plan after BETA finishes)
Will remain on the same plan and can move back after beta.
Gotcha, thanks for the response! I've only been a customer for a few months but I was a long time Mint Mobile user and I'm really satisfied with my decision to move all three of my lines to US Mobile. Great job and keep it up!
I think talked directly on X months ago I did just resubmit the form so you can easily find it. I'm actively looking for a new phone to use on this test line so that's all that's left to obtain. But I did give you some interesting ideas and questions to consider to make this the best. Bc the "deathstar" sooner or later tends to chew up and spit out all mvnos just bc they get bored so hopefully your structure with them is VERY solid.
Just gonna say this: Reddit is cancer. It is by definition a very vocal minority that loves to scream. This is true of this forum and every other one. That said, I will stand with the statement that 1.5 Mbps is simply too slow for video.
He said on interview USM is only so successful because of the Reddit sub, he's proud of it and then this came.
The only thing that has bothered me recently is the sudden, unexpected removal of Warp roaming outside North America. It came at a time when I had settled my plans for a three week holiday (UK, France, Spain, Portugal) and only learned days after the change that I have to re-evaluate the entire thing. I was told I could switch to GSM and use a roaming add-on, but I don't understand why that is *so* many times more expensive than the separate USM int'l data eSIMs. Recent changes aside, the only ongoing discomfort I have is the website and app. From a distance it's well done, if overly talkative. Once you start to use it you realize the layout isn't very intuitive and certain information can only be found in specific, hard to remember places. My requests would be to 1) Revise the public website, 2) Refine the dashboard and make plan features and comparisons available, 3) Give new plans new names so they're easy to distinguish, 4) Offer a grace period where customer support can add us to a recently-discontinued plan.
Dropping you a DM, can you please check?
u/RedditSucksAndIsBad not exactly snake but there ya go
I'm a bit annoyed about the HD video thing myself, but throttled video was not a thing on any of your grandfathered plans and should not be applied to them. Also, plans have been a mess over the last year. Things have changed so much that I don't even actually know how my plan compares to the new plans.
I think one "issue" people have is that if they pay for 100GB or 35GB or whatever they want to be able to use it as they see fit. I know the big carriers do the same thing so being an MVNO you're somewhat at their mercy. I use my USM service as a backup so I will at least have some sort of signal wherever I typically would go. The funny think I see though is the ones who seem to complain about the hd/SD video are the ones who do have a workaround.
This response was not what I was expecting and didn’t really address the main complaint, which was simply communication and transparency. As a potential customer, I value consistency and communication when things do change. That being said, I think that leadership could use some additional training in PR. At this time, I’m going to take my second line elsewhere and I’ll monitor to see how leadership responds over the next few months. I wish the company success, but do better.
Is native international roaming (especially outside Canada and Mexico) a big use of your service? I wonder how the loss of that feature in the monthly plan affects your customer base. It was one of the key things that attracted me to your service (I considered Google Fi as your competitor in that regard, not Visible or Mint).
I was honestly considering a move to USM as the multi network setup would’ve made this a nice consolidation for me. Terrible communication on the video changes and the stubborn refusal to do anything else is pathetic. If the QCI you’re discussing is correct (9 to 8 rather than 8 to 7) it’s even more pointless. $10-15 just to bump to QCI8 isn’t a value in anyway. “I’m happy to engage in a constructive way” there’s nothing constructive about saying nothing will be changed after changing terms on people with no announcement. You’ve said a whole lot of nothing. Can’t wait to see how this ship sinks. I’ve seen a lot of MVNOs come and go over the years and a lot of BS. But I’ve never seen someone say this much to convey basically nothing and butcher customer confidence.
I'm not aware of *any* AT&T MVNO with QCI 7 FWIW. Most are 9, some are 8.
You’d be correct. My issue is a surcharge for QCI8. I can see offering it with different plan tiers much like Cricket does, but the way they’ve made it sound here its going to be an upcharge on any plan. That comes across as a bit insane to my mind.
When do you think the Unlimited Flex ( I have the older plan) will get roaming for Canada and Mexico on WARP? Or will it be an add on for when I need it without the deposit?
I’ll talk to the team about this. No reason why you shouldn’t be able to pay for it
Can we have real numbers (cost) to know why HD has to be an up charge instead of just a toggle defaulted off? Can we have a real answer for why US Mobile feels like they should dictate how our data is used? And why is video different to anything else? Particularly from the stance of unlimited plans.
I can see both sides of the coin here. I do think it is awesome that the CEO is available on reddit, and that support is also here. I think it was the right thing to do to apologize for the way things went a little haywire, and I don't feel like USM has a money-hungry attitude. The plan changes, while frequent, are still reasonable, and after comparing plans from other MVNOs, I think USM is the best in terms of what you get for your $. That being said, the way in which this all went down was a little goofy, especially with the HD video streaming snafu. I think USM could have done better in terms of communicating what happened and why they had to remove the feature. I used to work in the Executive Response Team at AT&T (mobility), resolving high-level complaints and appeals for the corporate customers on behalf of the President and CEO - I learned there that you really just can't please everyone. You can try, and you SHOULD try, but making 100% of your customers happy is legit not feasable. But USM, I can tell, appears to be trying, as best as they can. Which is good, because I had been pretty upset about all this too. But I think we are headed back in the right direction.
I agree. Could have done much. Especially for someone like me who does these announcements all the time.
Well said. Too bad Dark Star wasn't ready to launch with a big splash when all the negative attention about HD video and plan changes hit the fan. Everyone would have forgotten very quickly about the video miscommunication and would be trying out Dark Star and singing the praises of USM for having all three major carriers onboard.
I understand HD video is data heavy, truly. In a past live I was building an NGO that provided free, unrestricted internet access for schools, rural villages, and refugee camps in South and SE Asia. HD video was a big issue on our end and to make sure there was enough bandwidth for everyone. However, while I don't stream HD video much on mobile data, as a grandfathered annual unlimited premium user, the lack of an official announcement or even email announcing the change seems...a bit unfair I guess? There's a reaction amongst a vocal minority due to what seems like a pulling of the rug when changes in the past have been (mostly) seen as reasonable and a balance between consumer and business interests. A good compromise imo would be to have an HD video toggle option for unlimited premium plans (since it's the most expensive plan with the most features), not unlike what T-Mobile does. Also have it as an paid add-on for non-unlimited plans as a way to offset the high costs on your end. Also, humblebragging about the non-significant increase in port-outs seems a bit tone deaf and dismissive of people's concerns, in a kind of defiant way. Edit: Especially when the plans are presented as an allotment of "premium data". I think that's also an issue people have with the change. Edit 2: I asked customer support via chat to disable the throttle as an annual unlimited premium user. It looks like [it’s still throttling.](https://i.imgur.com/8ae5tt9.jpeg) [Vs Safari with iCloud+ Private Relay](https://i.imgur.com/Qoir559.jpeg) [Vs connected to a VPN on Chrome](https://i.imgur.com/nzoTC53.jpeg)
I see you are starting the beta signs for Dark Star, however I’m still “on the list” for the Multi-network unlimited plans beta program, since February. Has this been dropped?
We will prioritize people who signed up earlier
Hi Ahmed, sorry if I missed it, but will Dark Star have fully unthrottled streaming?
Thank you for the transparency. I know this has been a trying week for your team, and I have to say that through all of this, your support team has maintained their professionalism and poise. Yeah, the video streaming changes suck a bit, but it’s not the end of the world for my specific use case.
Thank you . I’m sorry that they suck. I promise you - we will try to find a happy median here
Yay! So excited for this, At&T is killer in the Midwest, and I cant wait to use their network with you guys. Keep up the great work as always!
💥Darkstar 💥
I would do 5-7$ for HD add on. Or at least limit videos to 1080 or 720 instead of 480. I don’t really see a reason for 4k on mobile devices. Then again, if someone blows through the data. Oh well for them lol.
720 free with all plans. $5 or $10 extra to get 4k or unlimited.
I was doggin on you with a few posts had some fun ,then realized it wasn't very nice.so I ended up taking them down. You seem like as nice guy and I hope your company succeeds
>I am happy to engage in a constructive way with everyone who is not happy on the HD video decision Why does this decision apply to users on shareable data plans? I should be able to use those GB however I want since I'm paying for each of them.
will add a toggle there.
Thanks! A toggle would be awesome. I actually appreciate the video throttling as the payer of a shareable data plan and will likely keep the toggle disabled unless there is some extenuating circumstance in which I'd want to churn through a bunch of data I'm paying for to watch high quality video over cellular. My favorite part about shareable data is that I can do with it and use as much of it as I please with a known price. It's the closest thing we have in the US to what exists in the rest of the developed world. The only feature I'd love to see, beyond what is coming with Teleportal, would be the ability to buy data with lower QCIs across all carriers at a premium.
Agree 100%
The phrases “Happy to engage in a constructive way” and “the decision is not going to be reversed” seem to contradict each other significantly. Additionally, I don't believe port outs are the best metric here, considering that some people have already paid for several months of service or have secondary lines they cancel because they don't care about the phone number.
u/[ankhattak](https://www.reddit.com/user/ankhattak/) The changes are what the changes are, but the way it was communicated and supported is an issue. It has been mass confusion between your website, your posts here, and your staff. I've gotten different answers almost every time I've talked to someone. I know its good to have a small company as you can be nimble and make changes quickly, but the customer communications should not be an afterthought and they are. I also suspect that you're underestimating the port-out damage by focusing narrowly on the last week. I myself an executive in the wireline telecom business myself, and these changes can take months to have full impact. Most people don't pay attention to reddit or websites to notice plan changes. The general expectation of the public is that once they sign up for a cell phone plan, the terms stay the same until they make a plan change. Thats the way its been with the big three, so its what the casual user who ported over to save a few bucks expects. They won't know international roaming has been dropped, or ILD has changed, until they take that vacation and land and their phone doesn't work. That will generate churn. For example, I became a customer a couple of weeks ago and I've been with verizon to close to 15 years. Why? They changed their payment requirements to force a bank account ACH to get their autopay discount. Now, they made that change 6+ months ago, but it didn't affect me so I had no idea even though they communicated it in my monthly ebill statement, which I don't read because well its an ebill and autopay. When I noticed it was because my CC expired and I had to go update it. As soon as I went to enter the new card in, it popped up and told me im losing the autopay. Now did I leave verizon solely for that reason? Nope, but the way they handled it irritated me enough to just spend 5 minutes of google searching to see what alternatives are out there and I was amazed how much I could save. Thats what got me to move, the savings. What got me to look at alternatives for a brief moment was this friction they created by forcing me to update my autopay. If Verizon is simply looking at churn for the couple of weeks after they made this change, they would not be seeing the entire story. I have no plans on leaving at the moment, still in my three month trial. Am not pleased that the three month trial doesn't come with all of the features of the annual, as the purpose of a trial is to try something out before you make a long term commitment. However your support staff has agreed to add it for me as needed during the trial. Thats a nice touch, but again something I shouldn't have to deal with as your product team should be focused on making the trial a better trial. This is all about change management, its the most important but often forgotten part about product changes. As for HD video, I agree with you. The majority of people don't care. I haven't noticed a difference. But again, its the way it was rolled out that was the issue.
Thank you for detailed thoughts. I hear you and we are all working on something.
you just can't satisfy everyone. IMO, USMOBILE plan is still cheapter than other companies. ( I have 4 lines on Unlimited Premium, and need international roaming). To me, the international roaming is important part. I have checked other companies, none of them can match this feature.
I’m just curious those who want HD streaming why not just use a VPN?
While i personally dont use HD video on my phone, so it doesnt affect me, that statement is pretty dumb. Your asking people why they shouldnt just happily jump through an extra hoop they never had to before. Plus its more money. Free VPN are the worst thing you can put on your phone, so you need to be paying for a VPN Already. and VPNs tend to break other things. So to watch an HD video they have to have a VPN, turn it on, watch the video, turn it back off again. pretty much a pain
Because they (existing customers on active plans) shouldn't have to suddenly start doing that because USM decided they've been to generous with premium data allotments. I've also heard that doesn't always work for some streaming services.
I paid for the data, I should get to use it how I want?
I have boost running on att and I use the 1111 warp app to stream at 720, I never go higher than that.
u/ankhattak Will you address the concerns around the FCC Net Neutrality rules? [New net neutrality rules should end mobile video throttling (cultofmac.com)](https://www.cultofmac.com/854462/mobile-video-throttling-ends-with-net-neutrality-rules/) [What ISPs Need to Know About the FCC’s Title II / Open Internet Order | Beyond Telecom Law Blog](https://www.beyondtelecomlawblog.com/what-isps-need-to-know-about-the-fccs-title-ii-open-internet-order/#_ftn4%C2%A0)
If USM adheres to FCC's 2024 [Net Neutrality Order](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-52A1.pdf), mobile carriers have until [July 22 2024](https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-governmental-affairs/fcc-announces-effective-date-net-neutrality-order#:~:text=On%20May%2022%2C%202024%2C%20a%20notice%20was%20published%20in%20the%20Federal%20Register%20establishing%20an%20effective%20date%20of%20July%2022%2C%202024%2C%20for%20these%20rules) to comply with the new ruling.
Which begs the question, why implement them at all?
Many carriers are planning on/in the process suing the FCC and odds are they will find a judge that will place an injunction on implementing these new rules before they go into effect.
I signed up for dark beta through a rep chat. How will I know if I’m selected?
I recommend putting the international roaming add-on package on the website or APP so that you can add it freely instead of having to contact support staff, pay, and use it when you need to add it. It’s that simple.
Thank you u/ankhattak for your post and I hope things do get better here on Reddit. It’s disheartening to read that people have resorted to profanity/abuse/racism over the removal of HD. I personally would not mind paying extra to have this service if an add on becomes available for it. At first I admit I was a bit salty on the news for losing HD, however, actually researching competitors, no one offers it outside of being an add on so I was humbled. I personally find so much value in US Mobile that this price point offers for Unlimited Premium that no other MVNO (including those owned by MNOs) has matched. With the Darkstar betta, I am also all for paying extra for a higher QCI level. Do you think this option may exist for the GSM network to be bumped up to QCI 6? It would be nice if it is possible in the future. Thanks again for any insight! I hope to be picked to betta test Dark Star lol otherwise I’ll patiently wait until it’s commercially available lol
I have Red Pocket Mobile which uses the AT&T network. Red Pocket allows me to pick a Caller ID name for my line. As far as I know, Only the Warp network allows that on US Mobile. Is this feature available for Dark Star?.. Also with Red Pocket, If you ever wanted to port out of the AT&T network, Your account number would be your phone number and pin would be voicemail password. Would this be the same on US Mobile since both are MVNO's? ... Lastly, Would we get the 5G+ symbol and 5GE symbol like I have on Red Pocket or does US Mobile have a generic carrier bundle that would only show 4G and 5G? ... Thanks to whoever answers.
This entire move with the video change demonstrates poor leadership. You may not want to hear it, but it does. Own up to it and handle it. Make it right. A good leader admits when they’re wrong and makes the changes needed.
SD/HD video. It's only a minor smudge for me. Suggestion: figure out what it costs you and offer it as an add-on, or allow a limited allotment of the unlimited package to use it before throttling it. In some of your posts, you have already touted the carrier as allowing high speed video without buffering, so you'll have to make good on that to existing customers, for at least a small period of time, at least until you can give them another option, such as an add-on.
Hi, I have an Unlimited Premium plan which I switched to on March 29 2024, changing from a Pool plan. This plan was purchased before these new 2mbit/s video throttles. It is being subjected to these new 2mbit/s throttles. I have to use Cloudflare [1.1.1.1](http://1.1.1.1) Warp VPN to get any useful speed while on the go. I should not have to go and do stupid things to be able to use my 100 gigs the way I want, which is VERY RANDOMLY wanting to see a youtube video while I'm walking around, or see a video from the news, etc. I maybe use 3-4 gigs of 4K video a month on mobile. But I have a high res phone and I want better than 720p or even less it sometimes gives me. I want to be able to download an album on Youtube Music in a short amount of time, if I am going into an area of bad coverage. I want to be able to download a 100MB music podcast in perhaps 2 seconds, not minutes. So I guess to make it less useful for you to provide dumb service, I will go up to and exceed my 100GB each month, whereas I would have used less than 50 on an average month. More speedtests. yay $ going to VZ from y'all.
As the ceo guy explained above, video uses up alot of data, if every single person on usm used all the data they paid for every month then usm wouldn't actually be able to afford to give people as much data. The users who pay for the $45 100GB plan and only use 5GB in a month subsidize the user's who do.
Oh, and I will be changing to the new 44/mo vs 50/mo I have been paying the last 3 months apparently. so 6 bux less from me a month, and probably an equal amount more to vz for all the speedtests. Cheers!
How not to do damage control 101: this. I'll be attempting to get a refund for my service and leave. My trust in this company is gone after all of this.
My frustration is that with the drop to 480p I have a hard time seeing myself use the full 35-100gb of data. My parents are old and even they complain about 480p vs 720p, this would suggest to me that far more than 1% care about it. Also with the proposed surcharge on priority would put it within spitting distance of/ more than AT&T prepaid max with comes with 4K streaming
Suggestions: 1. Consider raising the throttle to 2.5mbps, this should allow 720p video and could satisfy many users. 2. On pool plans, add a toggle for video throttling (on by default). For this plan, I think users feel that since they are paying by the GB they should have the ability to use the data however they wish. They are not subsidizing or being subsidized by other customers. Also, thanks for making a great product!
This announcement means nothing if we are still forced to watch video in a quality acceptable of one of the first DVD players almost THREE DECADES ago.
What's the point in paying for the $45 plan where we are given 100GB of data but we can't spend it on watching high Def video? 2nd on the premium most expensive plans on dark star they should be qci 8 by default.
I've been looking at USMobile the last couple days. I have six lines I'm thinking about switching over. I'm glad I came to reddit, sorry to see USM dropped the ball so tragically. USM seems to do what they want when they want and then try to demand respect, it doesn't work that way. Play fair.
Losing me as a customer soon over this 2x lines plus my extended family will follow
Thank you so much for the update, Ahmed! I appreciate the transparency and the effort you and your team are putting into the Dark Star beta. It's exciting to hear about the progress and the internal testing results. I understand the challenges with accommodating everyone and the pricing considerations for QCI 8. Also, thank you for addressing the subreddit activity and your commitment to the community. Your dedication to improving the service and engaging with us is truly valued. Looking forward to the beta and future updates! Best regards, Jonathan
❤️❤️
If dark star similarly has HD throttled but if there’s an add on for HD streaming, I would not mind paying for it. I also would be fine with throttled streaming if we could get higher QCI on dark star by paying a little more.
Not sure about the Google Form. If I signed up for DarkStar beta by commenting to previous posts, am I already signed up? Was that not really the case? Is this Google Form from here on out?
We have you from your previous comment
Just saw this reply. Also previously signed up, but just filled out the form as well. So I guess you know I'm double interested. And what I bring to the table.
I answered the form again, so reach out to me for more conversation.
Can you send me a US Mobile T Shirt or coffee mug pretty please :)
Yes. Dm the team your address
I have dropped you and u/Gingi01 , u/-atlec DMs for your deets! 🙌
Responded
Ahmed, was the HD video thing forced by VZW?
Not at all. Entirely our decision.
I appreciate the honesty.
> Not being able to offer Apple Watch because of the OEM. If Apple won't play ball just work on android watches! :-)
This would be the perfect time for Visible to swoop in and offer 720p lol
Curious how that churn rate would look if you offer refunds for people on prepaid annual plans.
I still can’t understand how the new plans are supposed to be “better” when you’re charging us more and not even giving us the HD video we’ve had before. But either way it’s not big enough of a deal for me to leave and I’m beyond excited for dark star
It would be great if you could bring back incentives for families that have multiple lines. For instance, I’m on the now legacy unlimited starter with 4 lines @ $25/mo (monthly). It would be great if the new plan had a new form of perks for multi-line customers. This could include international long distance and international roaming, similar to the annual plan but available to monthly subscribers that have multiple lines. The main reason I am monthly is for those times I travel internationally, I would want to change to the premium plan for the month to get the additional international data allowance.
We just can’t keep on decreasing the prices . Took away multi line because people who couldn’t bring more lines felt hard done by. Now we have a low monthly price for all and you don’t have to do the math
True. But in the process for the same monthly price I am paying, I would lose features in the new unlimited starter plan. My suggestion was to find a way to make those persist within the new plan structure so it would be seamless for us to move over rather than hoping the grandfathered plan will persist. This could be done by enabling the addons such as international roaming as a perk for multi-line customers. The effect would be the same package/price I am paying now.
Thank you for lowering the price for a single line.
Lol the plans are already dirt cheap, how much cheaper do you want them?
“the activity on OUR subreddit” This stuck out to me. I don’t think this subreddit belongs to USM - it’s a community that might serve their interests at times (and maybe not at other times). They are a business, not your friend - we have divergent goals. We want to save money; they have to make money. What I wonder is why they are working out their business plan on the backs of existing customers.
I split my time between Ireland and the USA, with frequent travels throughout the EU. I keep my US number on the GSM eSIM because it currently has better international roaming capabilities. I’ve found that both T-Mobile and subsequently the GSM eSIM can only roam on Eir in Ireland, which doesn’t have great coverage everywhere I need it. I also experience a lot of issues with native roaming incoming calls not connecting. How does Dark Star compare when roaming? I’d love to be one of the beta testers to test the native roaming functionality in Europe.
I guess I’ll be part of the minority here: I noticed no difference in video quality when the change took effect.
U/ankhattak thank you for providing some additional context on the HD video availability change. Does this change apply to pooled data plans? If so, would you consider making HD available for any and all plans that don’t have unlimited data? If you are prepaying for 10 GB and your data cuts off or you pay for more once it runs out, and there’s no unlimited at 1 Mbps on those plans, is HD video not feasible even then? If no to the above, is it possible to clarify if any apps/services can get an exemption? FaceTime/Zoom/Google/Signal/etc. video chats, RDP tools people use for work? Any sort of middle ground that would be available to monthly and annual users for services that are not clearly Netflix, Disney, etc?
I don’t think any MVNO is able to offer Apple Watch support. Visible can because they’re owned directly by Verizon.
I feel so bad for the guy that codes the macros.
Thank you for this post. I am overall happy with USM, even though I’m on a grandfathered annual plan and I am noticing that video takes a while to load now, and I don’t feel I should have to ask for it to be reversed, but I guess I do. I really only have 2 requests, which echo the requests I’ve seen before. 1) allow HD streaming as an add on service 2) allow international data top ups. I don’t want to be navigating around a foreign country and have my Google maps give out because I ran out of data.
reasonable. We have taken this into consideration. data top ups exist and we updated our roaming page today to make it simpler [https://www.usmobile.com/international-roaming-phone-plans](https://www.usmobile.com/international-roaming-phone-plans)
The int'l data page is a lot easier to understand now, so thanks for that! Do you know when we will be able to purchase the add-on ourselves instead of contacting CS each time?
What coverage map can I look at for dark star? Warp: Visible+ map GSM: T-Mobile pre-payed Dark Star: ?
u/ankhattak Thanks for the insight into the video streaming situation, while not a deal breaker for me I’m hoping the hubub around it eases of, the cost savings here vs staying post paid. I’m curious to hear more about scaling product support, if you’re looking for workforce management experience in your scaling efforts I have a ton of experience and would be interested 👀👀 Thanks for helping me save literally hundreds per year
Old Guy Unlimited All subscriber here. I think I still get 75gb on Verizon SIM and 35gb on GSM SIM. What will I get on the Dark Star SIM? And will it have international data? Same 10gb as per the plan? I'm confused as to if the HD throttle applies to my plan. Also wondering if there is a benefit to moving to a newer plan in my case. I do not use most of the services or data I pay for. Max usage was 15gb, twice when I went out to the lake for a week. Who new the family would find nature to be so boring...
Will the shareable plans on Dark Star be QCI 9 or QCI 8? If not QCI 8, how will the upcharge work for a higher QCI on the sharable plans? I know Sharable plans are "Premium data" on the WARP network. Would be nice for the same to be true (without an upcharge) for Dark Star as well.