Pay $5 more, get four times the data with T-Mobile's revised Simple Starter plan

26.08.2014
If it's Monday, another wireless carrier must be upping the ante on one of its data plans to lure customers away from its rivals.

This time around, T-Mobile is turning up the heat on other carriers by upping the amount of data offered through its Simple Starter plan. On Monday, T-Mobile said customers will get 2GB of LTE data for $45 a month. That's a $5 hike from the Simple Starter plan T-Mobile unveiled in April, but it's also four times the 500MB of data T-Mobile used to give you.

The selling point here is data--smartphone customers are using more of it, and giving subscribers a roomier cap makes T-Mobile's entry-level offering more attractive than before. And T-Mobile is hyping the fact that its plan doesn't charge a fee if you go over that 2GB cap. "The old guard telecoms punish people for using more data on their networks with crazy overage charges and fees," John Legere, T-Mobile's president and CEO, said in a statement announcing the revised plan. (Under Simple Starter, T-Mobile simply turns off data once you've hit your ceiling; the company offers on-demand data passes if you end up needing more data.)

The revised Simple Starter plan launches on next Wednesday, September 3. T-Mobile called the $5 extra a month for additional data a "limited-time" offer. It's also optional--you can keep paying $40 for 500MB if you don't want to spend more.

Last month, T-Mobile announced a promotional offer for its family plan and dangled a year of free, unlimited LTE data last week as an incentive to get its customers to convince family and friends to switch to T-Mobile. Rival Sprint has been aggressive as well, after its long-rumored purchase of T-Mobile fell through: Sprint announced a $60-per-month unlimited plan and a new Family Share Plan in the last week. Verizon has also altered its offerings, recently with a $60-a-month single-line plan with 2GB of data.

(www.techhive.com)

Anthony Domanico