T-Mobile Joins The Price War With A New Unlimited Offer

T-Mobile polled customers and found that 40% of you worry about going over your monthly data allowance. In an effort to solve that problem, and draw attention away from rivals recent aggressive moves, the company has rolled out cheaper unlimited plans. And unlike Sprint’s new “half price” offer that in many ways is less than meets the eye, T-Mobile’s deal is pretty straightforward: $100 a month gets you 2 lines of unlimited data, voice and texting. For each additional line up to a total of 10, you’ll pay $40 apiece. For lighter users, the company also resurrected a plan that costs $100 for 4 lines, giving each 2.5GB through the end of next year. The plan then reverts to 1GB per user. But unlike with other carriers, T-Mobile merely slows your service when you hit your cap rather than charging you extra. With high-end and low-end offers, the usual questions remain: Should you jump at the new deals?

Unlimited sounds great, why wouldn’t I want this?

There are probably two main reasons why this deal wouldn’t appeal to you. First, T-Mobile’s service is often less than spectacular, especially outside of urban areas. If you live and travel in areas in where T-Mobile has good, reliable coverage this reason won’t turn you off. Otherwise, it might end the conversation before it starts. Second, most people simply don’t need this much data. Average usage is typically below 2GB per user each month. Right now, Sprint will give you 20GB to share for up to 10 lines (after Dec. 2015 the price will go up). That 20GB will cover all but the most data-hungry users, especially because the pool is shared. In a month where you use less, someone else in your family can use more. That tends to balance out.


Another downside with T-Mobile is that if you want a discounted phone, like a $199 iPhone 6 or inexpensive Galaxy S5, that’s not an option. T-Mobile only offers phones on installment plans where you pay full price.

T-Mobile has a handy comparison chart showing its new offering vs. the competition. But it's more than a bit misleading.
T-Mobile has a handy comparison chart showing its new offering vs. the competition. But it’s more than a bit misleading.

OK, but still…Unlimited! I mean, that’s awesome.

Well, let’s compare. T-Mobile likes to talk about AT&T a lot. For the $180 it would cost to get a 4-line unlimited plan with T-Mobile, you could very nearly get 30GB with AT&T assuming you had all 4 phones on AT&T Next, the installment plan there. (The total would be $130 + $15 + $15 + $15+ $15 = $190.) Certainly, if you want to sit around watching Netflix on your phablet all day, the T-Mobile deal will be better; you can quite literally run through the data allocation on AT&T. But for most folks, that’d make you quite an outlier. I have 9 lines on my plan and we can run comfortably in 30GB without worrying about monitoring anyone’s usage.

If you’re regularly using 7+ GB per month per person, the unlimited plan from T-Mobile is well worth considering. If you want to future proof your needs, it’s worth it too. Otherwise, you can probably go smaller and do just fine. Verizon will sell you 10GB for $140 with 4 lines on Verizon Edge for example.
Well, what about that 4-line plan from T-Mobile? $100 for 4 people sounds great!

Sprint agrees with you, which is why their deal is better than T-Mobile’s. It offers 20GB for those 4 people through the end of next year. True, the price goes up after that but consider what happens with the T-Mobile deal then, too: The data per person goes down to a paltry 1GB of high-speed 4G. Because T-Mobile doesn’t offer pooling on this plan, you don’t get to share the “10GB” you get in 2015, each person gets 2.5GB, use it or lose it. It’s not a bad deal, but it’s not a good one either.

Verizon’s aforementioned $140 version of the same plan includes 10GB, 4 lines and the rate is good for as long as you keep the plan. While it is $40 more each month, that’s a pooled plan, allowing you to share the data, and includes Verizon’s generally better network.

But T-Mobile has some special features, right?

Yes, they do and some of them are great. If you travel internationally — which admittedly few do — T-Mobile lets you roam for free on your plan. The other carriers charge onerous roaming fees. T-Mobile only gives you 3G when you do this, but the deal is still outstanding compared to everyone else. Also, you get something called WiFi calling on T-Mobile which lets you place calls over hotspots (most especially in your house). This can help with spotty cellular coverage where you live.

So people are going to flock to T-Mobile?

Probably not. With all the recent moves by Sprint, AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile needed to get the attention back on itself. After all, none of this free for all would be happening without it. And using the lure of unlimited will attract some small subset of customers who absolutely must have those kinds of plans. (Of course, some have managed to retain them on Verizon and AT&T by staying away from discounted phones the past few years.) The cheaper T-Mobile plan is unlikely to attract new customers right now given what Sprint has to offer, but it might keep some prospective T-Mobile defectors from leaving. It’s been a great year to be a wireless customer in the U.S. — for a change.