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Mobile and Sprint Announce Unlimited Data (for Higher Prices)

Sprint Unlimited Freedom, however, will be available on August 19, with Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure stating that it is also the carrier’s plan to eventually have Sprint Unlimited Freedom as its only offering. This ” BingeOn” tradeoff is the default in current plans, and many users must not mind: Only.8% of subscribers opt out of it, T-Mobile Chief Technical Officer Neville Ray said ina conference call Thursday. There are a number of big drawbacks to that plan, but Sprint likes the sound of those drawbacks, so it has followed suit with a plan called Unlimited Freedom. Adding more phone lines lowers that price.

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One of the reasons why most people are drawn to the “unlimited data” offers of their service providers is because they want to have all the data in the world (of course not literally) to binge watch through Netflix, Hulu, etc.

With T-Mobile One, users will not only be able to access unlimited 4G LTE data but also unlimited texting and calling. This plan costs $70 for one line, with cheaper prices per line on a family plan after the first.

All this makes “T-Mobile One” look more like “T-Mobile Asterisk”. There’s no date for when the older plans won’t be available – a new customer could still get them after September 6 – but the new unlimited plan will eventually be T-Mobile’s “main offer”, spokeswoman Bethany Frey said.

In comparison, for Sprint Unlimited Freedom, video playback carries the same 480p resolution limitation, along with reducing music streams to a workable 500 kbps and a slow 2 Mbps for gaming. SoftBank, which owns more than 80 percent of Sprint after acquiring the majority stake in 2013, considered buying T-Mobile in 2014, before abandoning the effort when officials at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department signaled they were against a theoretical merger.

The $70 plan will take over all the other data rate plans, including the less expensive ones which are priced at $50-65 per month.

Both companies limit video playback to standard 480p, though T-Mobile offers an option of HD video for an extra $25 per month.

The era of telecommunication carriers charging you once you top the data limit is finally coming to a close.

T-Mobile will eliminate data-tiered plans altogether, opting for a one-for-all unlimited plan. You have to pay extra for those.

That’s why Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS) each have to take a chisel to their definitions of “unlimited”. A ninth line and beyond would cost $30 a month.

However, Claure pulled out the claws when talking about T-Mobile ONE and Legere in an interview with CNBC.

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Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom is cheaper than T-Mobile. A family of three would pay $140 to T-Mobile, but only $130 to Sprint.

T-Mobile's CEO John Legere