T-Mobile has spent the years since its failed acquisition by AT&T building its LTE network and launching new phases of its “UnCarrier” initiative. Today, the provider that started the industry trend away from contracts and handset subsidies is also getting rid of mobile data plans. From here out, it will offer one postpaid option: unlimited voice, data, and text..
The change grew out of the Binge On zero-rating service that the company started last year, after seeing how much streaming video and music that customers were happy to gobble up when it didn’t count against their data allotment.
Under the new plans, the compression that comes with Binge On will be the default, and customers can pay an additional $25 per month if they want high-definition video streaming.
99% of customers that request Binge On have kept the service, since most people find that they don’t need high-definition video on a tiny smartphone screen.
Other upcharges will include 5 GB of mobile hotspot data for users who tether their phones for $15 per line per month, and unlimited calling to 30 countries for $15 per line per month. Roaming to countries that aren’t Andorra is already included.
The pricing for the plans is one line for $70 per month, two lines for a total of $120 per month, and additional lines for $20 each up through a total of 8 lines.
“Our postpaid business is family plans,” Legere noted, asserting that the real price per line is $40 per month, not $70, since that’s how most customers will sign up for these plans.
The company knows that most of its customers are on family plans, and the price point that you’ll likely hear advertised will be $40 per line, since that will be the price for a family with four smartphones.
That is different from “Dumb, Dumber, and Yellow,” as the leather jacket-clad CEO calls his competitors, which have been backing away from unlimited plans, charging customers extra or requiring them to sign up for satellite TV service if they want unlimited data.
“I can tell you what Sprint’s working on now,” Legere said in response to a reporter’s question that was not actually about Sprint. during this morning’s conference call. It’s whatever we’re working on now, just add six months. It’s called copy-paste.”
If you don’t like the compression of content that came with the Binge On zero-rating service, there’s a $25 charge that you can pay and get high-definition streaming.
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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