T-Mobile has been a force in tech news as of late, particularly for its commitment to customer service and customer savings. The nation’s fourth-largest carrier has been bold enough to eliminate its subsidy contracts this year, allowing consumers to pay the full cost for their handsets. AT&T and Verizon have both said that they are watching and want to see how successful T-Mobile’s experience becomes. AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega, however, seems more skeptical than Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam, who says that T-Mobile’s plan is “a great thing” and hopes to implement it at the nation’s second largest phone carrier if all goes as T-Mobile has planned.
Now, T-Mobile has gone and done it again! Labeled one of the nation’s most promising carriers, the Deutsche Telekom American carrier has decided to eliminate another barrier to consumer choice: throttled 4G data plans. This makes T-Mobile prepaid the first phone carrier in the United States to offer unlimited 4G to off-contract customers. Some customers are currently under a data-throttling contract, where 4G wireless is throttled after a certain amount of data is consumed each month. The new 4G wireless plan, however, would continue 4G wireless regardless of the data amount consumed. T-Mobile will offer its unlimited 4G plan for $70 a month, along with unlimited voice and texting.
For those who want a new smartphone with the new unlimited plan, T-Mobile offers you the LG Optimus L9 for $199. It comes with the following specs:
- Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich)
- Dual-core, 1Ghz processor
- 4.5-inch, qHD IPS display
- 1GB RAM
- 5 megapixel camera (rear-facing)
- 4GB internal memory storage plus a micro-SD card for an additional storage amount of 32GB
- 2,150mAh battery
- Wi-Fi calling
T-Mobile has another surprise in mind: on Tuesday at International CES, the company announced its plans to offer 200MB of free 4G each month with a two-year data agreement for Windows 8 laptops. After the 200MB of free data under T-Mobile’s freemium plan is consumed, customers can pay $10 per GB each month. Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are the first two manufacturers of Windows laptops that will take advantage of T-Mobile’s offer. Dell’s Inspiron 14z Ultrabook and HP’s Pavilion DM1 laptop will be the first Windows 8 laptops on the new service.
While T-Mobile does offer a “freemium” plan, the standard rate at which they intend to charge for cellular wireless on laptops ($10 per GB per month) is the same as what you will find at CDMA carriers such as US Cellular (though cellular connectivity is made available via smartphone Wi-Fi hotspot plans). This means that the deal may be a solid one for T-Mobile customers who already have a smartphone contract with the carrier. If you are a customer who has taken advantage of T-Mobile’s prepaid, unlimited agreement, you do not need cellular wireless – you already have it on your smartphone in the form of unlimited Wi-Fi hotspot service. If you are a contract customer and pay around $70-$90 a month with T-Mobile for your phone service, you do not need this plan either. The plan will work for those who do not care for a smartphone and do not have a smartphone contract.
The type of person to accept this new 2-year agreement is a person who wants to add cellular service to his or her computer while using voice services such as Google Voice, Fring, Viber, or even Skype Credit for their calling services. Skype credit offers 1000 minutes for $40 a month, a monthly Wi-Fi calling feature for those who do not want to rely on a cellular plan. Fring allows you to make affordable international calls and domestic calls to other numbers. Google Voice offers domestic calls in the US for free throughout the remainder of 2013, while Viber offers free Wi-Fi calling (“VOIP” or “voice over Internet protocol”) and Wi-Fi texting for those who join its service.
Not only does T-Mobile offer a plan that matches the data plans of other major carriers, it offers less “free” data per month than mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) such as FreedomPop, who offers its customers 500MB of free data each month before charging $10 per GB of added data. If FreedomPop allows its customers to have 0.5GB of free data, then T-Mobile provides 0.2GB of free data. The Deutsche Telekom American carrier may be better off at providing additional data for loyal customers than the current amount.
As demonstrated this week, T-Mobile is on the verge of setting the pace for the other phone carriers. While AT&T may not be sold on the company’s latest moves, Verizon (and Sprint) are watching. 2013 looks to be an exciting year for phone carriers.
More info on our T-Mobile Prepaid Reviews page