It’s been hinted at for a while that T-Mobile would be moving away from the traditional two-year contract business model. Now the company has fully unveiled its new plan – dubbed Simple Choice – at its UnCarrier event.
So, what can you expect from T-Mobile’s new Simple Choice plan? It’s actually very similar to how two-year contract plans work, just minus the contract. The consumer still gets a subsidized phone while paying a monthly fee. The only difference is that the remaining cost of the phone is paid off in small payments that are added onto your monthly bill. Once the phone is paid off, the fee comes off your monthly bill.
As for the pricing, the Simple Choice plan is very reasonable. For a single line, consumers get unlimited talk/text plus 500MB of data for $50 per month. For $10 more, consumers can upgrade to 2GB a month. At $20 more, consumers get unlimited 4G. Those on the 500MB or 2GB plans won’t have to worry about overage fees, however, as T-Mobile will only drop you down to 2G speeds if you go over.
For those with families, T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan charges $30 extra for a second line and $10 more for each extra line.
Of course, a plan is only as good as the phones being offered by the carrier. T-Mobile has that covered as the company offers very attractive prices for flagship devices like the Galaxy S III and the Galaxy Note 2. The carrier also plans to offer the Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One when those become available later this one.
On a final note, T-Mobile will finally offer the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 starting April 12. Apple’s latest flagship device will only be $99, plus $20 more a month for two years.
T-Mobile still has a long way to go before it can take on heavyweights like Verizon and AT&T, but this move will hopefully push the U.S.-based carriers to drop contracts in favor of more consumer friendly plans like T-Mobile’s Simple Choice.