T-Mobile USA put a few whispers to rest and officially unveiled a new mobile data plan, its 10 GB webConnect plan, which has no overage charges. The blog TMoNews previously reported that changes to T-Mobile's data plans were coming.
The 10 GB plan costs $85 per month and needs to be paired with a two-year contract. The nation's No. 4 carrier said that if customers go over 10 GB, their data speeds will be slowed down until their next billing cycle.
Ahead of the unveiling of the 10 GB plan, TMoNews reported that existing T-Mobile customers who paired a voice plan with the new data option could get a 20 percent discount on the data pricing. A T-Mobile spokeswoman confirmed to FierceWireless that existing voice customers will be able to get the new 10 GB plan for $68 per month. The spokeswoman noted that existing T-Mobile customers have been receiving the discounted rate of 20 percent off when they sign up for a mobile broadband plan as part of a limited-time promotional offer.
T-Mobile dropped is data cap and instituted throttling last year on its 5 GB plan, which costs $50. The company also offers a 200 MB webConnect plan, which has overages of $0.10 per MB of data.
While carriers routinely refresh their data plans, the change comes at a sensitive time for T-Mobile, which lost 318,000 postpaid subscribers in the fourth quarter. The company has embarked on a massive turnaround plan, and part of that involves highlighting T-Mobile's "challenger" image as well as the company's HSPA+ network.
The new 10 GB plan compares favorably to the pricing offered by T-Mobile's larger competitors. Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) charges $80 for 10 GB of data on both its EV-DO and LTE networks, with a $10/GB overage charge. AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) charges $60 for 5 GB of data for its 3G Laptop Connect Cards, with a $0.05/MB overage charge. Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) also charges $60 for 5 GB on its EV-DO mobile broadband plan, with a $0.05/MB overage charge. However, Sprint's 4G service, which runs on Clearwire's (NASDAQ:CLWR) mobile WiMAX network, has no cap, although Clearwire throttles users' data speeds when they consume excessive amounts of data during peak traffic hours.
For more:
- see this T-Mobile page
- see this T-Mobile page with more details
- see this TMoNews post
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