T-Mobile USA today announced a major makeover of its rate plans, with big changes to its individual, family and prepaid services.
The company changed the way it throttles speeds on its unlimited data plans.
Previously, the company would begin to slow down customers’ all-you-can-eat wireless service once they reached a 2 GB cap. Now, customers can choose to have that cap set at 200 MB, 2 GB, 5 GB or 10 GB.
T-Mobile began offering an $80 “unlimited” plan in April, which featured throttled speeds after customers used 2 GB of data.
Throttling users’ speeds is an alternative to cutting customers off entirely once they reach their monthly allotment of mobile data.
The company’s new unlimited talk and text plans start at about $70 per month for the 200 MB data cap and go up to about $120 for the 10 GB data cap. Feature phone users who don’t need a data plan can pay $60 for unlimited texts and voice minutes.
T-Mobile also tweaked its family plan. Family plan customers can get unlimited voice minutes, text messages and unlimited data capped at 2 GB for about $140 per month. The plan covers two lines; additional lines can be added for $30 per month, per line.
As with its individual plans, T-Mobile also has family plan options for customers who want just 200 MB of data before they reach their cap, as well as 5 GB and 10 GB plans.
Cole Brodman, T-Mobile’s chief marketing officer, said in a statement the new plans provide the “value and flexibility to meet the diverse desires of their entire family.”
T-Mobile also made some additions to its prepaid plans with two new no-contract plans.
The new $50 prepaid plan offers customers unlimited text messages and voice minutes, plus 100MB of high-speed data before T-Mobile dials down the speed of their wireless service. The other new prepaid plan comes with all-you-can eat voice and text, and 5 GB of high-speed data before customers hit their cap.