T-Mobile is getting rid of its different plans and will offer just one that has unlimited data. Sprint also announced an unlimited-data plan.
T-Mobile is moving all its eggs into one, unlimited basket.
The Bellevue telecom announced Thursday it would do away with data-usage plans in favor of T-Mobile One, which offers unlimited talk, text and data for one price.
Customers can sign up for T-Mobile One for $70 a month for the first line, $50 for the second line and $20 per line after that, up to eight lines. That averages out to $40 each for a family of four.
Unlimited data is the most common request from customers, CEO John Legere said in a video announcing the news. The company has been asked about it more than 1 million times on social media, he said.
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Just hours after T-Mobile announced its new plan, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure took to Twitter to announce an unlimited-data plan. Sprint’s plan is similar to T-Mobile’s but starts at about $10 less per month.
AT&T and Verizon have yet to make all their plans unlimited, but the carriers have offered ways in the last month for subscribers to get rid of overage fees. AT&T will “throttle” customers’ data, making it move slower, after they reach their monthly limit.
Verizon will do the same thing, but customers need to opt-in to the program and those who subscribe to small data plans pay an additional fee.
T-Mobile’s plan has a few catches — all videos will be in standard definition unless the customer pays about $25 a month for high-def.
And the plan could mean a higher monthly bill for some. T-Mobile’s plans charge $50 per month for 2GB of data and $65 for 6GB. T-Mobile customers can keep their existing plan or switch to T-Mobile One.
“I declare that the era of a data plan is over,” Legere said in the video. “We are completely destroying the whole concept of a data plan.”
The new plan, T-Mobile One, is the Bellevue carrier’s 12th “Un-carrier” campaign, offering benefits partly designed to get customers to leave their carrier and join T-Mobile.
The company added 1.9 million customers during its second quarter and has more than 67 million subscribers.
Legere commonly attacks industry leaders Verizon and AT&T when announcing the campaigns, and Thursday’s talk was no different.
The two carriers won’t offer unlimited data, Legere said, because their network infrastructure is outdated and couldn’t support it.
T-Mobile One goes into effect Sept. 6.