T-Mobile US offers $5, 2 GB premium
T-Mobile US continued to add fuel to the ongoing pricing war among domestic wireless operators, announcing updates to its Simple Starter plan.
The carrier said the offering will now include the option to increase capped data from 500 megabytes to two gigabytes for a $5 fee. The plan with that option will now run $45 per month and include unlimited voice calling and messaging. The plan will be available beginning Sept. 3.
T-Mobile US initially announced the Simple Starter plan last April, with the offering launching in May. The plan differed from the carrier’s more traditional Simple Choice plan in that it had a hard cap on data use instead of throttling data speeds once a customer reached their data allotment. Customers are able to purchase additional LTE data priced at $5 for an additional 500 MB good for one day or 1 GB of data for $10 that is good for one week.
For its single-line plans, the new Simple Starter option comes in $5 less than the entry-level Simple Choice plan, which offers just 1 GB of LTE data before speeds are chopped down to 2G speeds.
T-Mobile US last week announced plans to offer a year of unlimited LTE data to Simple Choice customers who bring in a new customer from another carrier. Customers who take advantage of the plan will get unlimited LTE at no additional charge, as will the new subscribers they recruit. The offer begins this week, and will also be extended to Simple Choice customers who already have unlimited LTE data, who will get a $10 monthly credit for 12 months if they bring in someone new.
The move by T-Mobile US followed one from Sprint in which the carrier updated its multi-line offering, and was followed by a single-line change from Sprint in which the carrier is offering unlimited voice calling, messaging and data for $60 per month. Sprint’s moves were triggered by a shakeup in its management with former Brightstar CEO Marcello Claure replacing long-time CEO Dan Hesse.
Not to be outdone, AT&T Mobility late last week announced plans to offer a $100 credit to T-Mobile US or MetroPCS customers to switch to its Cricket prepaid service. AT&T Mobility earlier this year closed on its acquisition of Leap Wireless and its Cricket brand.
Showing the seriousness in which carriers have been taking this latest round of cuts, Verizon Wireless earlier this month also entered the latest round of price changes with a new promotional single-line offering that prices a single line of service with unlimited voice calling, text messaging and 2 GB of data for $60 per month for subsidized devices or $50 per month for customers that select its Edge installment plan. Customers can add more data priced at $15 per gigabyte.
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