Starting November 1st, if you buy a tablet from T-Mobile, you won’t need to pay an extra penny to get online using the carrier’s 4G data network. T-Mobile will offer customers 200MB of free data every month.
While that’s not a lot of data, the company says it’s enough to send 2500 email messages, stream music for 200 minutes, or upload 60 pictures.
If you need more data, you can always pay for a plan that gives you more. Prices will start at $10 per month. But the move could provide one less reason to buy a WiFi-only tablet.
While tablets with built-in 3G and 4G capabilities tend to cost more than their WiFi-only counterparts, the biggest cost tends to come over the course of a typical 2-year service plan.
T-Mobile’s new offer means that if you pay the $130 premium for an iPad with 4G data, you can use it occasionally on the go without signing up for a service contract at all. It’ll work out of the box. The same goes for other tablets available from T-Mobile including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 or Google Nexus 7 tablets.
Of course, because 200MB isn’t all that much data, it’s likely T-Mobile wants to get you hooked on the convenience of having internet access wherever you go so that you’ll consider signing up for a contract.
No money down
Want a new 4G tablet, but don’t want to spend a few hundred dollars on it all at once? T-Mobile will offer all of the tablets in its lineup for $0 down, with customers paying the balance in monthly payments over 2 years. You don’t need to pay for any data during that time unless you want more than 200MB.
The no money down offer is good for entry-level models such as an iPad mini or iPad Air with 16GB of storage. If you want a model with more storage, you may need to make an initial payment.
The company will also offer customers trade-in value if they turn in old tablets to get a new 4G capable model.
I’m around WiFi 99% of the time but would love to have VOIP working over LTE with. . . say, a Nexus 7 LTE as 200MB/month would suffice for my traveling needs. . . . Just for that rare call, which is very rare these days lol