Since June 19, MinuteWatcher has been unable to contact T-Mobile's servers. Denying access prevents MinuteWatcher from informing T-Mobile customers about their latest cell phone use patterns. No contact means no service.

T-Mobile now includes the following text in their Terms of Use: "With respect to your access to the http://my.t-mobile.com site, T-Mobile hereby specifically reserves the right (a) to limit the number of times you may log in to this site within a certain period of time and/or (b) to restrict your use of automated scripts, plug-ins, and/or other third-party devices to obtain information (e.g., unbilled usage data) from this site."

These conditions serve primarily to prevent T-Mobile customers from proactively managing their cell phone bills and keeping their costs down.

For each subscriber, MinuteWatcher signs on to the T-Mobile server once a day and downloads the latest usage information. These daily status updates are used to generate a user friendly status and a billing-cycle forecast. MinuteWatcher sends out an email to its users, typically once or twice a week, so that they can stay informed, manage their usage, and save money.

MinuteWatcher hopes that T-Mobile will revise its approach and allow MinuteWatcher to continue to help their customers.