Sprint is using the same concept to reduce the price of its new Unlimited Freedom plan. “In fact, most individuals we showed could not see any difference between optimized and premium-resolution streaming videos when viewing on mobile phone screens”. Existing customers can keep their plans, and they may want to think hard before switching to T-Mobile One.
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“We continue to believe T-Mobile’s strategy has and will be the most effective in the industry”, wrote Pacific Securities analyst Michael Bowen in a Thursday note, adding that the changes could be most detrimental for AT&T and Verizon. Despite the claims of simplicity, ONE has a lot of variables and additional charges. A family of four can get T-Mobile ONE for $40 per line.
T-Mobile’s new plan, dubbed T-Mobile ONE, is $70 a month for the first line, $50 for the second, and $20 for additional lines, up to eight lines. That’s a net increase of US$5 for individuals, though those prices come with at least 20 percent more data. A family of four would pay $160 a month. Even opening up data plans, right now, is a step forward, although sooner or later, mobile companies will need to ask themselves just how much they can really charge. Their new baby is called T-Mobile One, and is said to be 100% unlimited… all the time. AT&T and Verizon slow connections to 2G speeds for customers that exceed their data caps, making it hard to stream video. “Offering video at a lower quality is the only way carriers can continue to offer unlimited data”.
T-Mobile One will start at $70 for the first line. You have to pay another $15 per month if you want 5GB of monthly 4G LTE hotspot data. Then again, the current plans that both companies are offering for unlimited surfing are at $95, and $25 is a significant reduction.
T-Mobile is going to the extreme by dumping its tiered data plan model.
This certainly caused for a bit of commotion, and Sprint was right on the heels of T-Mobile to counter with a similar plan of their own – Unlimited Freedom. Sprint, meanwhile, already offered unlimited data with fewer strings attached. Adding lines 3-10 will cost an additional $30 per month per line. Sprint will be “streamlining” data used for video, music, and gaming, so that some content is capped.
Sprint similarly restricts video quality and also limits music streaming quality to 500kpbs and gaming to 2 mbps.
Taking its promotions one step further in June T-Mobile unveiled its “Stock Up” program in which it will offer one share of its stock to existing and new postpaid customers.
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Unlimited Freedom will be available beginning Friday, August 19.
