Received text message regarding plan changes in July (2020)

Question

I received a text message from Boost Mobile earlier that my plan is changing next month and the link directed me to the 'Open Internet Information' page. I scanned the page/legalese, and it really didn't say anything specific to the change, so can someone answer in plain English what is going on? Is this a way of Boost telling me it's raising prices or something, or that my service will be slowed, or if I'm going to have to get a new phone in light of the transition to T-Mobile's network once Dish buys the company on July 1? What's going on?

AmyM25 · Answer

Hi! Thanks for contacting us. We are glad to help. The message is only referring to some policy and plans/services changes, but your plan will not go up, and you can continue to use the same device. ~AmyM25

AmyM25 · Answer

Hi! Thanks for contacting us. We are glad to help. The message is only referring to some policy and plans/services changes, but your plan will not go up, and you can continue to use the same device. ~AmyM25

WISHTHEN · Answer

Yes I had the same question...very difficult to figure out what if any plan/service changes apply to my account.

Joy1713 · Answer

Hey there @WISHTHEN. To help protect against the possibility that unlimited data plan customers that use high volumes of data may occupy an unreasonable share of network resources, Boost employs network prioritization, network traffic management or QoS on the Boost network. For customers on unlimited data handset plans on or after July 17, 2020, or customers who choose to upgrade their handsets or activate new lines of service on or after July 1, 2020, and are on unlimited data plans, that use more than 35GB of data during a single billing cycle (the QoS Threshold), Boost reserves the right to de-prioritize or to reduce the speed available to a customer down to 2G speeds for the remainder of that billing cycle. Affected unlimited data customers will continue to be able to enjoy unlimited amounts of data without the worry of overage charges.

~JoyP.

Royt · Answer

Hi, sweetbabyyy. Thanks for contacting us. The small percentage of Unlimited customers who use more than 35GB of data during a billing cycle, will have speeds reduced to 2G. See boostmobile.com/networkmanagement for details.If there’s anything else that we can do for you, let us know.

sweetbabyyy · Answer

so if i’m on unlimited data plan and i use more than 35GB boost will reduce my high speed to 2GBs or ??

maximuslyricus · Answer

That's pretty much standard across the industry for the value plans. To be honest, you'll probably never even use anywhere near that if you are on wifi most of the time. My family members and I each consistently use somewhere between 1 and 3 GBs per month.

zukiryder · Answer

As of today I can tell you exactly what will happen, you will get throttled. Also, the Add-on hotspot is no longer 'in addition to' your regular data.  The hotspot data is now just part of the overall total of 35GB.  So when you use your hotspot, it counts against your available 35GB total.  Not just the 30 GB of add-on hotspot data.   In other words, if you use all 30GB of your hotspot gaming or something else, then you only have 5 GB you can use surfing on your phone before you are shut off.  And I mean shut off - .11 Mb/s.  That's just barely faster than dialup from the 1990's.  Until this change, your hotspot data did not count against your 35 GB of unlimited data, as it was what boost called an Add-on.   Those days are now gone.  What's even worse, is they are still advertising the same old plans.

zukiryder · Answer

The short answer is Yes.  It happened to me today.  The other big thing they are not telling you is this - your Hotspot data is now counted as part of your total 35GB available allotment.  Yes, you heard me correct.  If you use 20 GB on your phone watching Youtube and then connect to you laptop with your hotspot and use 15GB, you WILL BE Throttled to 2G, or about .11 Mb/s.   Your data tracker will still show you have 15GB of hotspot data available but you won't be able to use it.  It happened to me today.  I still show that I have 25 GB of hotspot data remaining, and can't use it.  I spoke to a CSR for over an hour and he finally transferred me to a manager who confirmed this.  The add-on allotment is no longer separate from the other data.  I've had my plan for over 2 years and this is a huge change, especially since I live in rural America with no other options for internet.  He told me that the execs at T-Mobile didn't like those plans because it detracted from their own data plans, in other words Boost was giving too much to the customer.

billynye · Answer

I imagine most adults are not aware of exactly how terrible 2g-speeds actually are... Back in 1990, 2g-speeds actually were decent, the websites were designed for this type of data. Fast-forward 30-years, even trying to check your email is a pain, try facebook and you will be tortured by a spinning hour-glass and only basic images will load, unless you have all day to wait and see a high-quality image taken from a typical smartphone!

The absolute worst part of these strict changes is this is all happening DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, when people NEED to social-distance, work from home, school from home, entertainment from home, etc, etc, etc!

Dish has no worries about cutting-off their customers during these difficult times and I hope their customers have no worries of cutting off ties from this ridiculous change. It's a downgrade for sure, but a severe one especially due to the pandemic's change of lifestyle needed to be safe.

zukiryder · Answer

Your post is spot-on correct. I went into the Boost store yesterday and the manager knew about some changes, but told me that they were told it would have no impact on the customers. That changed after he spent an hour on the phone with location support. At one point, the rep asked him to take them off speaker because he didn't want me to here what he was saying. That's when the rep told the manager I was correct about the data cap of 35GB, but not to say anything. Needless to say, the manager was furious. I cancelled 5 lines. Others will do the same when they see what's happening.

GryohonT · Answer

Pure BS. Goodbye @BoostMobile

maximuslyricus · Answer

Yeah, I'm thinking about leaving too. The spotty signal has outlived its usefulness. It seems like it has gotten progressively worse over the last several months. I may try Visible Wireless (Hopefully I'm not on a congested Verizon tower while at home).

maximuslyricus · Answer

From what I've read about Visible, it's good if you're not on a congested tower. If you are, you may get deprioritized quite a bit (to the point where you may as well be on 2G). That being said, a Verizon tower is closest to me, as well as several towers in my general vicinity, so I'm going to try Visible. If that doesn't work, I'll step up to Spectrum Mobile or Cricket. I'm tired of Boost's spotty signal, and even when I get one, it's 3G most of the time and sometimes 2G according to an app I have. Charlie Ergen publicly said, 'The way they [Sprint] ran that business wouldn’t make sense for us. We certainly have some cleaning up to do there.' So maybe he doesn't care that his prepaid customers are leaving. This model isn't working for him, but his signal (New T-Mobile's) ain't working for me, so I'm going to take my three lines elsewhere. It's just a matter of time. I'll likely try Visible, but being that they are a cloud-based and Internet-based carrier with largely no phone support, so it's kind of like the wild wild West--you're on your own. I hope it works!

Sfin1025 · Answer

One thing they have done is changed their reduced data policy which was after 35G you would see a reduction in service DURING PEAK hours NOW IT IS A PERMINATE DEAL. I somehow ate 35G data in 7 days AFTER 35 G 9 days prior to that and couldn't understand what the hack was happening ...Now 2g is until next billing cycle.. and I do not understand how any human eats 35 g data in 7 days ..Im a 5 year customer and never had an issue until now..
But Visible wireless I guess is the new hotness true unlimited data no drop out..

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maximuslyricus

Received text message regarding plan changes in July (2020)

AmyM25

AmyM25

WISHTHEN

Joy1713

Boost_MasielQ

Royt

sweetbabyyy

maximuslyricus

zukiryder

zukiryder

billynye

zukiryder

GryohonT

maximuslyricus

maximuslyricus

Sfin1025