Earlier today, T-Mobile announced its new promotional family plan that gives users two lines for $100 with 10GB of data each, with additional lines costing $20. If you read any T-Mobile fan sites, or certain Reddit threads, you’d walk away with the impression that this is the end of unlimited data on T-Mobile, T-Mobile just can’t handle the spectrum crunch anymore, T-Mobile is a greedy money-hungry trickster…you get the idea.
At first glance, this plan looks much worse than T-Mobile’s old promotional offering, which gave consumers 2 lines of unlimited data for the same $100 per month. But if you stop there, you don’t get the full picture. There are many ways that this plan could beat T-Mobile’s old unlimited plan, depending on your particular usage. Let’s take a look.
- T-Mobile’s old plan only offered 7GB of tethering data each month, and unused tethering data doesn’t roll over. T-Mobile’s new plan offers 10GB of high speed data each month, all of which can be used for tethering, if you want. This data also does roll over, allowing you to accumulate up to 120GB of high speed tethering data each year, which you could use all at once if you wanted (and it’s available).
- T-Mobile’s old unlimited plan doesn’t include Mobile Without Borders, T-Mobile’s free high speed roaming option in Canada and Mexico. It doesn’t include free calls to those countries, either. To get this added, you’ll have to pay an additional $10/month. T-Mobile’s new plan does include this at no extra cost.
- T-Mobile’s old plan only lets you add lines for $40/month. T-Mobile’s new plan lets you add lines for $20/month – and the fourth line is free if you add it before Labor Day.
- T-Mobile has only guaranteed that T-Mobile customers can keep their unlimited plans for two years. T-Mobile has promised to lock in pricing on this plan for life.
Of course, the old plan is better if – and only if – you routinely use more than 10GB of phone data, and you always stay under 7GB of tethering data. However, if that doesn’t apply to you, you may want to give this one a second look. It’s not as bad as the rest of the internet is making it out to be.
The same goes for the old four line plan for $100 with 2.5GB of data for each line. If two or more lines on your family plan pay for extra data (making your plan $120 per month), this new plan makes sense for you. If even one person on your old plan pays for unlimited data ($130 per month), but uses less than 10GB of data, it again makes sense to go to this new plan.
What do you think? Will you be switching?
