T-Mobile is announcing some big changes. The company flipped the switch on its 4G LTE network in 7 cities, launched new service plans that don’t require customers to sign a long-term contract, and announced that T-Mobile customers will be able to buy and use an iPhone 5 on the network starting next month.
The 4G LTE network is available in Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, and Washington DC at launch, and T-Mobile plans to roll out the service in additional regions throughout the year. The company says it will be available to 200 million Americans by the end of 2013.
Customers will be able to pick up a range of phones supporting the network including the Samsung Galaxy S IV, HTC One, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, BlackBerry Z10, and iPhone 5. T-Mobile will also offer a Mobile Hotspot which you can use to connect a laptop, tablet, or other device to the LTE network over a WiFi connection.
T-Mobile calls its new service plan the “Simple Choice Plan,” suggesting that the contract-free plan is simpler than some of the alternatives. But it’s not exactly “one plan,” as the company’s press release suggests.
Instead, you can sign up for unlimited talk and text plus 500MB of high-speed data for $50 per month. Upgrade to 2GB of data and your plan will run $60 per month. Unlimited 4G data runs $70 per month.
Want to add an extra phone to your plan? That’ll be $30 per phone.
Mobile data plans for tablets and other devices run from $20 per month for 500MB of high speed data to $80 per month for 12GB.
If you go over your alottment of high speed data, you can still get online, but your service will be throttled to 2G speeds.
Don’t want to pay full price up-front for your mobile phone? You’ll also be able to buy a phone for a lower price and pay off the difference in monthly installments.
Since the plans are contract-free though, you’ll be able to upgrade devices any time you like. And if you don’t want to buy your device directly from T-Mobile, you can bring your own unlocked device… as long as it supports T-Mobile’s network.
I had T-mobile’s overage free data once. When I went over the allotted bandwidth cap, the reduced speed was so slow as to be unusable. Thanks, T-mobile, but no thanks.
They have true unlimited now, so if you are a heavy user and you have ATT or Verizon you’re missing out.
My understanding is that AT&T paid T-Mobile, in both money and spectrum, after the failed merger. It looks like T-Mo is using both the money and the spectrum to bring in the iPhone. Not a bad idea…