T-Mobile Value Plans Offer Better Rates if You Prepay your Phone

T-Mobile announced some new Value Plans today for their customers. They will only fully details the plans on July 24th but until then they have given us a taste of what is coming. The idea is that they are offering up cheaper monthly rate plans for users who either pay for their device up front or break up the payments over 20 months with lower interest free payments. This is a model that is used in Europe and other countries but has never really caught on in the US.

It is a model that makes sense and will offer plans like unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data with 2 GB of high-speed data for $49.99 per line for two lines which is not bad. We will definitely be keeping an eye on this. It is great to see T-Mobile still innovating even though their acquisition by AT&T looms in the background. This is one of the main reasons I am afraid the AT&T-Mobile combo will not be good for customers.

Full press release below:T-Mobile Unveils Affordable And Worry-Free Unlimited Data Plans

New T-Mobile Value plans make the latest 4G smartphones
and wireless services affordable for all
BELLEVUE, Wash. — July 20, 2011 — T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced new Value plans, making it more affordable than ever to step up to data on America’s Largest 4G Network™. Featuring flexible pricing for unlimited data and available with affordable monthly payments on any of T-Mobile’s phones and mobile broadband devices, including the latest 4G smartphones and tablets, the new Value plans could save customers hundreds of dollars annually.
Slated to be available beginning on July 24, the new plans build on T-Mobile’s commitment of offering affordable, consumer-friendly plans in tune with the evolving needs of wireless customers. Available with a two-year agreement for new and existing customers, the Value plans offer single-line and multiline options with a range of price points for talk, unlimited text and unlimited data with 2 GB, 5 GB or 10 GB of high-speed data — with no data overage charges. Customers can choose from a variety of monthly plans and only pay for the high-speed data they need.

“T-Mobile is committed to making the always-on benefits of smartphones and tablets more accessible and worry-free for all Americans,” said John Clelland, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA. “Customers want to enjoy all that the mobile Web has to offer, but they don’t want to pay for more than they need or worry about bill shock. Our incredible value comes from the combination of our nationwide 4G network, exceptional device portfolio and affordable plans that offer unlimited data access without overages.”

With the new Value plans, customers are empowered to purchase any product in
T-Mobile’s innovative device lineup or bring their own device and have access to the company’s best pricing. With no overages on the new unlimited plans and flexible terms, customers can pick the wireless data plan that best fits their needs and choose how they want to pay for their device. Value plan customers who purchase a device can pay an upfront down payment on a new device and make low, interest-free payments for the full price of the product while still getting T-Mobile’s best available rates on monthly service.* T-Mobile will continue to offer its traditional plans under the new T-Mobile Classic plan brand, previously called Even More™ plans.

For example, T-Mobile’s new Value family plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data with 2 GB of high-speed data is just $49.99 per line for two lines. Even with the addition of purchasing two smartphones, such as the T-Mobile myTouch® 4G Slide, on T-Mobile’s Equipment Installment Plan, customers may yield savings of more than $800 annually. *

“Families are looking for ways to affordably include mobile data so the kids can communicate via social networking, watch YouTube and surf the Web without parents breaking the bank,” said Tole Hart, senior analyst with Yankee Group. “Plans that help them get more while paying less will get a lot of attention.”

T-Mobile also will offer a robust lineup of mobile broadband service options under both the new Value and Classic plans. For instance, customers could add an overage-free mobile broadband Value plan to their voice service for $19.99 per month with 2 GB of high-speed data for products, including laptop sticks, tablets and the T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot, which allows a family to share their 4G mobile connection with up to five Wi-Fi devices using a single mobile broadband connection.

T-Mobile’s new Value and Classic plans are expected to be available beginning July 24. In addition to the unlimited Value and Classic plans, T-Mobile also will introduce new Value plans for small business customers this summer with additional details available in the coming weeks.

T-Mobile continues to offer no annual contract plans with its Monthly4G plans, as well as Pay As You Go plans for as low as 10 cents per minute for voice calls. More information on T-Mobile’s service plans is available at http://www.t-mobile.com.

* Based on comparison of $99.98 Unlimited Value — Plus Plan (two lines), with a $15 per month smartphone payment per line, against comparable post-paid family plans for smartphones from Sprint, AT&T and Verizon Wireless; does not include taxes and fees. T-Mobile myTouch® 4G Slide is available for a down payment of $249.99, with 20 additional monthly payments of $15; O.A.C., 0 percent APR. Plan features and limitations may vary among carriers. Data as of July 2011.

T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network not available everywhere. See coverage details at http://www.t-mobile.com.

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Verizon Confirms Stingy Tiered Data Plans Starting on July 7th

We all knew this was coming but now the writing is really on the wall. A Verizon spokesperson confirmed to Fierce Wireless that they will be killing off their unlimited data plans starting July 7 in favor of usage based data tiers. They also confirmed the horrible data plan tiers that now shaft you with less data for your buck. Here is a quick snapshot of the plans with a comparison to AT&T:

Anybody else kind of dreading the direction this tiered data is taking? What’s next? Paying $30 for 200MB?

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Verizon’s Stingy New Data Plans Detailed Fully in Latest Leak

We have already heard rumors and confirmation from Verizon about their upcoming data tiers but it is all starting to get official now. The new plans go into effect on July 7th and in this case you really do get less GB for your buck. AndroidCentral scored a few data sheets along with an employee email about the new plans. Verizon is even throwing in an extra “Screw You” by changing the business discounts to only apply to the data plan on the primary line and are mostly only 20% despite what other discounts you may have on service.

What we do know now is that current unlimited plan customers will be grandfathered into their “Unlimited” 5GB plans even if you upgrade devices. If you sign up with a new plan or want to add unlimited data you still can until July 7th. After then if you create a new data plan or add another line with a data plan there will be no unlimited option.

If you needed any more reason to think that the AT&T and T-Mobile merger would be bad for competition and raise rates then look no further than this. At least AT&T cut $5 off their “unlimited” plans when they brought it down from 5GB to 2GB.

You can check out the full email sent to indirect resellers and analysis over at AndroidCentral

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Verizon Confirms the Death of Unlimited Data Plans in July

 

When we mentioned the rumored upcoming data plans from Verizon yesterday I was hoping it was wrong. Verizon has come out and confirmed once again that unlimited tiered data plans are out. While they didn’t come out and say the exact pricing they confirmed to AllThingsD that unlimited plans are being killed off starting next month. They promise to share more later but if the plans are anywhere near what was rumored then new Verizon customers are in for a miserly data budget or fatter bills. If you are on Verizon or plan to be and use a nice chunk of data you may want to consider getting one of the current unlimited plans ASAP.

I am really starting to hate these new data caps. First unlimited data became 5GB and now it is going down to 2GB for that same price. It makes you wonder if data is going to cost more or less as time goes on… As a reminder here are the rumored data plans compared to AT&T’s offerings

Img credit: Pw0nd

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Rumor: Verizon Data Tiers Coming With Prices Worse than AT&T

So you thought you had it bad with AT&T and their tiered data plans at 2GB for $25? According to a new rumor by Droid-Life users on Verizon are about to get it worse. According to that rumor Verizon will be changing its data tier to 2GB for $30 which is obviously $5 more than AT&T’s already stingy data plan tiers. If you want to get the same 5GB you get today you will have to pony up $50 a month or $80 for 10GB.

If you want tethering added to your data plan you can get an additional 2GB added to your plan for $20/month. That translates into 4GB for $50/month, 7GB for $70/month, and 12GB for $100/month. In other words Verizon is also charging an extra $5 more than AT&T for 4GB of data with tethering. On the other hand Verizon is charging $5 more for 5GB instead of 4GB for tethering. Tablet plans are priced at 2GB for $30 instead of the 1GB for $20 current plan. There is no difference between 3G and 4G devices in these tiers according to the rumor.

There is even a new email that is going to Verizon employees hinting that these structured data plans are coming without the details. Luckily current users will be grandfathered into their current plans but any hope of tiers getting cheaper anytime soon seems to be going out the window. Maybe that is good for the data sipping BlackBerrys and RIM. These new tiers are rumored to come once the unlimited data promotion on Verizon ends with these plans taking effect for new customers on July 7th.

This is all currently in rumor stage but this does sound like typical Verizon…

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