T-Mobile announces Simply Prepaid, but why would anyone want it?
Today T-Mobile announced new prepaid plans that will launch on January 25, aimed at further cementing its position as a prepaid leader in the US. Called Simply Prepaid, the plans are designed to “focus on simplicity, fairness and value” while throwing out all the bells and whistles that distinguish T-Mobile as the Uncarrier.
The plans are fairly straightforward:
- $40 / month for unlimited data, talk and text + up to 1GB of 4G LTE
- $50 / month for unlimited data, talk and text + up to 3GB of 4G LTE
- $60 / month for unlimited data, talk and text + up to 5GB of 4G LTE
Unfortunately, they do not include Data Stash, Music Freedom, Simple Global, tethering, or any other Uncarrier/Simple Choice features that have been announced in recent months by T-Mobile. They don’t even include LTE at full speeds – instead, high speed data is throttled to 8Mbps, and then down to 128K for the rest of the account cycle.
This begs the question, why would anyone want this plan? These prices are actually $5 more expensive than Cricket Wireless, which offers better coverage on AT&T’s network, the same or better data buckets, and the same throttling.
MetroPCS also offers plans that start at $40 per month for unlimited data, talk and text with no throttling down to 8Mbps, and tethering is allowed.
All in all, these plans don’t seem very competitive, and I would expect to see something better from the Uncarrier. Perhaps T-Mobile is being sneaky and introducing the plans without any Uncarrier benefits, only so it can later swoop in and remove the throttling, add tethering, and add other Simple Choice features, all to make it look like a hero. If this is the case, I’d say that T-Mobile is being very, very carrier.
[T-Mobile]
