It will also likely pressure other carriers to make similar moves, or at least offer more data for less money.
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T-Mobile One will be available starting September 6, when the Uncarrier will be phasing out certain Simple Choice plans with the apparent goal of T-Mobile One eventually becoming its only wireless postpaid plan.
“This is huge, this is historic, and this will change the industry forever”, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said. Verizon is the only one to charge for the feature, with a $5 fee to enable ‘Safety Mode’.
The plan starts at $70 per month for one phone line. These moves should push others players to respond, and follow T-Mobile’s relentless efforts to move the industry toward more customer-friendly practices. Many customers now pay $50 for 2GB of data, for example, so they’d pay an extra $20 a month, though they would also get a lot more data. Those who want HD-quality video pay an extra $25 a month. If you exceed 26 GB in a month, T-Mobile might throttle your speeds. With T-Mobile’s Simple Choice Plans, you got an allotment of high speed tethering before you got throttled to 2G speeds, which are virtually worthless on a PC or Mac.
The new pricing, announced separately by the companies Thursday, underscore an industrywide push to sign on heavy-spending – and heavy-using – data customers to monthly service plans as the USA wireless market matures.
T-Mobile is saying goodbye to data caps. Paid TV subscribers and whose monthly data usage ranges from 10 to 15 GB can benefit from this scheme, according to CNET. A family of three with 3 GB of data had to pay only $90 before; with ONE the bill would hit $140.
While T-Mobile will keep its existing data plans around, Legere said during a press conference the plan is to eventually retire them.
Sprint Does It Cheaper – Sprint’s new Unlimited Freedom plan launches on 19 August 2016, and unlike T-Mobile, it doesn’t appear as though Unlimited Freedom will be the only option going forward.
But both are very good deals that push the wireless market toward a place where data, minutes, and text become unlimited for everyone. Family plans will go unlimited at $40 per line. On Sprint, music streaming will be capped at 500kbps, while gaming will be limited to speeds of 2Mbps. There’s also no mention of worldwide roaming or other perks.
Sprint’s news about Unlimited Freedom came out just just hours after T-Mobile’s announcement yesterday. USA Today notes that T-Mobile’s own elimination of overage charges through an “Uncarrier” initiative inspired AT&T’s decision.
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However, compared to last year’s price points for the Sprint Family Share Pack, Unlimited Freedom is a price increase for families.
