With the recent promo plan that I am on, the10 gb plan allows you to accrue 20 gb of data stash and then you buy more data if you need more than 10 gb monthly. I pay 10 dollars with 10 extra gb monthly and still have 20 gb data stash. If you want to have 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 etc gb every month, you just pay $10 per 10 gb of data. That extra data can be a one time only thing or it can be reoccurring. As TMO told me last August when I signed up for the plan and transferred my second account back to TMO after being gone for 8 years.. All tiered data can be tethered at LTE, including data stash . So if I buy 500 gb extra for just one month and I have 20 gb on data stash, I can tether 520 gb that month. With my original TMO unlimited, you were throttled st 5 gb of data, tethered or not.
The data that is slowed and still able to be tethered is if I have 10 gb a month and 20 gb in data stash, I can tether all of that 30 gb at LTE. If I go over the 30 gb and don't call and purchase 10 gb more for the month, all data, tethered or not is still free, but it is just slower data.
It would be almost impossible for people to tether all their 30 gb of data though. To be able to tether 30 gb of data, you would need the data pass for 10 gb data. The phone uses a certain amount of data even if you don't get on the internet. So if they have one 10 gb data pass, their tether limit is 20 gb. Just like their unlimited for the older plans, they can only tether 7 gb of data.
Now with this deal, I get 20 gb a month right now and that will be my limit for tethering. My sister doesn't have the 10 gb data pass, so her tether limit is her line data limit, 10 gb. Unlimited data is always going to have a tether limit, that is a trade off for unlimited data. It also stops people from canceling their cable or and using free streaming and/or cheap steaming packages and using their unlimited data as their "cable". I understand why that isn't allowed. I considered getting a 6th line on the plan, getting about 3 data passes and using my mom's log on for her Uverse because I can watch live TV for several channels and then all the channels have on demand available online. If I could have gotten more than 20 gb in my data stash I would have done that and saved myself a lot of money. I was going to cancel my internet also. I would have saved more than I spent and even had better internet, because my internet is slow, the only thing I really do on it and my computer, is stream Netflix and other things, and the slow internet will steam fine. I use my phone a lot and if I need something that requires it to be really fast, I tether it.
But with this, doesn't seem like they are too concerned about people getting off data stash. First, you can opt out if you are picked. Second if you participate, when March 1, 2019 rolls around, you are put back on your plan, which includes the data stash. Like that pic I posted, my plan is "10 gb per line, with data stash". So you go back to it. If you want to have more than 10 gb to tether, simply add a data pass before they change the plans on the 23rd and you have more to tether.
Unless I'm missing something big, it seems to me they are trying to get everyone on one of the two new plans over trying to get rid of data stash. They have been trying to get me to switch my plan to the new plan. One line uses no data because he has a dumb phone, three usually never go over 5 gb and one is always less than 2 gb and one is about 3 gb. Since I'm the only one that uses a lot of data, it is cheaper for me to just pay for a couple of $10 data passes on my line. I'm the only one that ever uses it. My niece used it for the first time, this month. I would think there is a good chance that many people don't use it and it isn't keeping them from buying extra data. I knew I would always be over 10 gb or close to it at minimum every month, so I just did the data pass every month so I didn't have to worry. Everyone else in my family never uses their stash so it isn't like the data stash is likely keeping most from buying more data than the 10 gb that comes with it. Since you can opt out and if you don't, you go back to your original plan and don't lose data stash, seems like marketing for the One Plan and a win for the customers.
Seems to me that the majority of people don't stream even 20 gb of data monthly much less 50 gb so this would be a great deal for them for almost years. I don't have any sources to back that up, but there are always a lot of people that have never tethered and then a lot that have just a few times. I think they really want to push the new plans a lot because it is really is a good marketing thing.. "Only TMO gives everyone LTE unlimited, no extra charge.." Seems like unless someone tethers 20 gb every month, this is a good deal and has a good chance to get people to switch to One. There is something very freeing about never having to worry about a data limit, even if you rarely or never reach that limit.