Hi all,
I called t-mobile about upgrading to an 8900 and was told that when I extend my contract to get a discount on the phone, I would also need to change my BIS plan to their new $24.99 plan. I really don't want to do this. I was told the only way to grandfather my old data plan is to buy the phone without extending the contract.

This is contrary to what I was led to believe from chatting with people on this forum. Has anyone been able to extend their contract to get a phone discount while still grandfathering their old data plan?

TMobile ties their phone subsidy to the appropriate data plan for BBs. In order to get a phone at the subsidized rate you have to agree to have said plan on your account for 2 years.

In order to keep your current grandfather status you will have to pay full retail for your new phone.

That's a bit of a bummer. I wanted to get a discount on the phone, but if I don't agree to a contract extension, I have no leverage. Really don't want to pay retail!!!

wow, that is a bummer. I'm on the $19.99 BIS plan with the $14.99 unlimited msg plan.

I guess it comes out to the same as their $34.99 plan. Reason I haven't switched to the $34.99 plan and drop my old BIS and unlimited txt? In hopes on day they have an unlimited txt promo?

But this upgrade thing is bad news. GRRRR.

I was able to upgrade my BB with T-Mobile last November and they grandfathered in my old $15 SunCom BIS plan.

And a month ago you could do it on AT&T but no more.

By the way....as of this morning even the TMO website requires a data plan on BBs and it no longer allows you to select the full retail price to get the phone without a data plan. So, it appears that even though it went up without the fanfare of AT&Ts policy change, TMO has now changed their policy to be more in line with the other 3 carriers and are requiring data plans even on full retail and customer owned BBs. A poster on Crackberry contacted several stores and an exec. officer and was informed that even if he brought in his own BB he would have to put a data plan on the account to have a BB on it.

Wirelessly posted (Tmo's cheapest BB customer)

Just wondering: say you purchase your own instead of through Tmob and assuming you had some sort of contract with them before, how would they now know that you have a BB? Seems like just a simple transfer of the SIM card and they would be none the wiser. I'm sure if they really wanted to, they could check their systems to see what sort of phone you're running, but doesn't seem like they would want to spent their time going through all that.

They do have a system that sweeps the network and detects the IMEI of phones in their database, that's how they are able to display the device you are using on your online account. It is also said that AT&T and TMO are sharing their database so you can't go from one to the other with an unlocked device. HOWEVER, currently, unbranded devices like those purchased from Horizon Wireless Online do not have their IMEIs released to the carriers and are therefore CURRENTLY not detectable by the sweeps and only appear as unknown device on the network. The percentage of people using unbranded is probably small enough that they are not likely to pursue them, but it could be as simple as a block in the network requiring those with unbranded devices to call in and give their IMEI to use the network. They do have sections in their TOS that make this completely legal so if they want to push it they can.

Wirelessly posted (Tmo's cheapest BB customer)

Ah ok thank you for sharing that. Very informative.