MetroPCS today announced expansion into 10 new markets.
The T-Mobile prepaid brand will be setting up shop in Chattanooga, TN; Chicago; Kansas City, MO; Minneapolis-St.Paul; Milwaukee, WI; Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, VA; Richmond-Petersburg, VA; Salt Lake City; St. Louis, MO; and Yakima-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick, WA.
MetroPCS said it’s now in 55 markets with more than 11,000 points of sale.
Along with the added markets, MetroPCS is raising the data caps for its “$40, Period” plan and the $50 option. The $40 plan is up to 1GB from 500MB and the $50 plan is up to 3GB from 2.5GB. The $60 unlimited plan remains as is.
The new data rates will kick in automatically for existing customers.
As MetroPCS grows T-Mobile has been busy migrating its customers over to GSM from the prepaid carrier’s CDMA network.
T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter recently said at an investor conference that MetroPCS’s CDMA network in Philadelphia will be the next to be shut down and that the entire CDMA shutdown should be complete by end of 2015.
During the transition, MetroPCS and T-Mobile will have to fend off new pricing plans and direct attacks from other prepaid players. Sprint’s Boost Mobile this week cut prices and doubled the data buckets for its plans. AT&T’s Cricket Wireless recently announced a $100 bill credit for customers who switch over from T-Mobile and MetroPCS.
