T-Mobile unleashes new unlimited plans
The company's new offerings help to streamline its choices--and keep it competitive as it awaits regulatory approval of its acquisition by AT&T.
T-Mobile announced several new plans today to help give its customers more choices based on their needs.
New and existing customers can now get their hands on a range of single-line and multiline unlimited plan options. The company's simplest smartphone-focused option, offering unlimited talk and text, as well as 200MB of data, costs $69.99 per month for a single line. The same plan for 5GB of data costs $89.99, while the 10GB option will set customers back $119.99. A 2GB plan with unlimited talking and texting was announced last month. Consumers who subscribe to that plan will pay $79.99 per month.
According to T-Mobile, one of its best values is the $139.99-per-month unlimited family plan with 2GB of data. The company said that the average consumer will save "$350 per person, per year on a two-line annual plan, compared with similar smartphone plans from AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint."
T-Mobile's decision to include AT&T in its comparison is an interesting choice on the company's part.
Earlier this year, AT&T announced plans to acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 billion from Deutsche Telekom. The companies are now undergoing a long and arduous regulatory-approval process to determine if the acquisition would be good or bad for competition in the mobile space. T-Mobile and AT&T hope to close their deal next year.
Until then, however, it's clear that T-Mobile views AT&T as a competitor, and it's unwilling to simply wait for the deal to be approved. In fact, a T-Mobile spokesperson said last month following the merger announcement that until the regulators approve the deal, the carrier must do everything it can to compete.
"Until this deal is closed, we remain an independent competitor to AT&T," the spokesperson told CNET. "There is no change in service for our customers, and we remain committed to ensuring that our customers have the best experience possible using T-Mobile USA products and services."
To further demonstrate that, T-Mobile also unveiled two new No Annual Contract options for month-to-month 4G customers. The new plans, which do not require a full-year contract, start at $50 per month for unlimited talk and texting, as well as 100MB of data on 4G speeds. The company's $70-per-month option boosts the allowable data to 5GB.
However, T-Mobile's ability to appeal to customers is becoming more of an issue for the company. Just last week, results from the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) indicated that T-Mobile was second-to-last in customer satisfaction in the mobile space. The carrier scored a 70 out of 100 this year, down 4.1 percent compared to 2010 figures.
AT&T placed last in the ACSI with a score of 66.