It’s a special kind of annoying when something you’ve been paying for a long time suddenly increases in price—and it’s also why initiatives like Price Lock are not only cool, but actually important if they’re upheld right.
Prepaid cell phone plans are a good way to save money, and T-Mobile’s own Prepaid division is amping up its offerings with a series of new plans that might save you money in the long run.
T-Mobile has announced a new slate of redesigned prepaid plans all with a 5-year “Price Guarantee”. Despite a history of raising prices on price-locked plans, at least this time around it’s likely the company will at least keep their promise since there’s an end date this time around.
The entry-level option, Starter Monthly, is priced at $40 per month with AutoPay enabled ($45 for the first month, plus taxes and fees). This plan includes unlimited talk and text, along with 15 GB of premium high-speed data, which can also be used for mobile hotspot access as a shared bucket with the main device data. The downside here is there seems to be no data after the 15 GB is used up.
It’s worth noting that “premium data” in this case refers to data that is not deprioritized on the network. On “unlimited data” plans, customers can still expect full or near-full speeds after premium data is used up if their area isn’t congested.
The mid-tier plan, Unlimited Monthly, is set at $45 per month with AutoPay ($50 for the first month). It offers unlimited talk, text, and 5G data, with the premium high-speed data allotment set at 50 GB per month. This one includes unlimited hotspot data, though speeds are restricted to 3G.
T-Mobile states that this mid-tier plan is priced lower than its predecessor and claims it offers at least $120 in annual savings for a single line compared to similar prepaid unlimited plans from AT&T and Verizon.
The most comprehensive of the new offerings is the Unlimited Plus Monthly plan, available for $60 per month with AutoPay ($65 for the first month). This plan provides unlimited talk, text, and 5G data, with the same 50 GB bucket of premium high-speed data as the Unlimited plan.
The difference compared to the mid-tier option, though, is that subscribers get 5 GB of separate high-speed mobile hotspot data, after which the speed is reduced to unlimited 3G. The plan also includes unlimited texting from the United States to over 215 countries and destinations, as well as unlimited talk and text while roaming in Canada and Mexico.
For all three of these plans, T-Mobile will maintain the price of the core services included—talk, text, and data—for at least the next five years.
Plus you’ll also get other stuff you typically wouldn’t get from MVNOs or other prepaid providers, like the “Smartphone Equality” program. This program allows prepaid customers to become eligible for the company’s top device financing deals (the ones we typically cover right after a device launch or during major shopping holidays) after maintaining a record of 12 consecutive on-time payments. You also get access to T-Mobile Tuesdays perks as well, which can be nice.
Make sure to check out all of these plans yourself starting on June 24th over on T-Mobile’s website.
