T-Mobile made waves earlier this month when it announced plans to shift to a single wireless plan, called T-Mobile One, offering unlimited data. However, that plan featured multiple add-ons that would have led to pricey phone bills for high-powered users. Monday, T-Mobile said it has made tweaks to the plan, streamlining the add-ons and speeding up hotspot data.
As originally announced, the new plan from the Bellevue, Wash.-based wireless company will charge $70/month for the first line, $50/month for the second, and $20/month for additional lines up to eight, if the customer has auto-pay enabled. That averages to $40/month for a family of four, the company notes. The plan includes unlimited talk, texting and 4G LTE smartphone data.
But to get things like HD video and high speed hotspot data, customers were previously looking at multiple charges adding up to about $40 a month. Under the new plan, announced today, T-Mobile is now offering a single add-on for $25 a month that includes unlimited 4G LTE hotspot data, unlimited HD video and doubled international data speeds.
T-Mobile also increased hotspot data speeds for customers without the premium add-on from 128kbps to 512kbps. Customers who don’t want to fork over the extra $25 a month but want some HD video can purchase 24-hour HD passes for $3 a day. The daily passes will debut in October.
The new plans will go into effect Thursday, Sept. 1, five days earlier than originally planned. For those not interested in T-Mobile One, the company said current customers can keep their existing plans as long as they want. T-Mobile said the changes are a result of customer feedback on the initial unlimited plan.
“Listening to customers is at the core of the Un-carrier,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the best way to run your company is to shut up, listen to your customers, and then do what they say! That simple formula has made T-Mobile the fastest growing wireless company in the U.S. for three years running.”
T-Mobile’s original plan was criticized by Verizon and Sprint for the extra charges in the fine print of the new unlimited plan. Spurred by the arrival of Legere as CEO in 2012, T-Mobile’s “Un-carrier” announcements over the past few years have helped the company add more than 1 million net customers for 13 straight quarters, or more than three years.
Separately this morning, Verizon launched its new LTE Advanced technology, promising 50 percent faster peak wireless data speeds, at no extra charge in hundreds of cities across the country.
