T-Mobile US (NYSE:TMUS) launched new prepaid plans under its "Simply Prepaid" banner starting at $40 per month. The new plans come several months after T-Mobile launched the "Simply Prepaid" retail store concept to combine multiple prepaid brands under one umbrella.
The T-Mobile prepaid plans will be available starting Jan. 25 online, in T-Mobile retail stores, Simply Prepaid dealer locations and all other authorized retailers. The plans include the following options:
- $40 per month for unlimited voice, texting and data and up to 1 GB of LTE data before throttling
- $50 per month for unlimited voice, texting and data and up to 3 GB of LTE data before throttling
- $60 per month for unlimited voice, texting and data and up to 5 GB of LTE data before throttling
It also appears that T-Mobile's $80/month prepaid plan with unlimited voice, text and LTE data will not be a Simply Prepaid plan, according to Wireless Week.
The new Simply Prepaid plans are $10 per month cheaper than T-Mobile's current no-contract Simple Choice plans, but there are also several caveats to the new plans. First, data speeds for the new plans are capped at 8 Mbps, and once a customer reaches their LTE data allotment their speeds will be throttled to 128 Kbps for the remainder of their billing cycle.
Further, Simply Prepaid customers will get benefits like free Wi-Fi calling, but they will not be able to have data tethering, won't get streaming music exempted from their data usage, won't have global roaming, and won't get T-Mobile's new Data Stash rollover data feature.
T-Mobile launched Simply Prepaid in June as a retail store for sale to independent wireless dealers. Simply Prepaid stores feature devices and plans from T-Mobile's prepaid service and T-Mobile's GoSmart Mobile brand, as well as from Univision Mobile and Ultra Mobile. Univision Mobile is a T-Mobile MVNO from Spanish-language broadcaster and media company Univision that launched in May to target the Hispanic market. Ultra Mobile is a T-Mobile MVNO that launched in 2012 with an emphasis on low-cost international calling.
Thus, the introduction of T-Mobile's new Simply Prepaid plans represents a kind of continuation of the brand that T-Mobile has been cultivating since the middle of 2014. In September the carrier said there was a "long list" of independent wireless dealers that had shown interest in signing up for the Simply Prepaid retail store package.
T-Mobile is hoping that the new brand, coupled with tis MetroPCS prepaid offering, will continue to power growth for the company. In 2014, T-Mobile added more than 1.2 million net prepaid customers (out of 8.3 million total wireless customer additions).
For more:
- see this release
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