Do you fly? If so, you need to take a strong look at the new update to the T-Mobile One Plus plan, a variant of a plan which was launched in September. For $15/month over the standard $70 T-Mobile One plan, you get unlimited Gogo inflight use of your phone or tablet—a drop of $10 from what that used to cost.
T-Mobile One Plus was originally a $25 supplement designed to address complaints about its "unlimited" One plan downgrading video quality and not allowing unlimited hotspot use. But it also accumulated some travel-related benefits, which are now available (along with the higher video quality) in the cheaper $15 add-on.
All existing T-Mobile plans allow for unlimited low-speed data (at 128kbps) abroad. The One Plus supplement bumps that up to 256kbps. That's fine, but in my experience, it's not going to make a huge difference. The bonus that really grabs me is the unlimited Gogo, because Gogo is really expensive. Although the T-Mobile Gogo supplement is US-only, even within the US, Gogo's multi-airline plan costs $59.95/month.
The trick, of course, is that the T-Mobile free Gogo doesn't allow you to use it on your laptop. You have to be on your phone. But you can get around that if you have an LTE-enabled tablet, which would count as a phone. No other carrier has anything like this Gogo deal.
The new $15 deal also includes T-Mobile's voicemail-to-text function and HD rather than 480p streaming video, although you have to go into your T-Mobile account and turn the HD on every day you want to use it. Clearly, T-Mobile is hoping you don't, so it can continue to save bandwidth by transmitting compressed video.
There's still a $25 option, as well. It's confusingly called "T-Mobile One Plus International," although the $15 plan also has international features and the $25 plan doesn't improve roaming. What do you get for $25 instead of $15, now? You get "unlimited" hotspot use, although they nonetheless reserve the right to slow you down if you go over 28GB in a crowded area; and unlimited outbound calling to a range of international destinations from the US. So, if hotspot is important to you, you have to stick with the $25 supplement.
So the T-Mobile One plan is now three plans. The basic plan costs $70 for unlimited data, 14GB hotspot, 480p video on your device. If you want HD video, that costs $3 per day. Then there's an $85 plan adding the HD video, Gogo, and doubling the international data speeds. Finally, a $95 plan comes with unlimited hotspot and the outbound international calling from the US.
It isn't quite the one simple plan T-Mobile originally promised, but there are great options in here for travelers.