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It’s time for yet another new plan from the folks over at T-Mobile.
T-Mobile has announced a brand new family plan called “Better Value”. At first, you might hear the words “new plan” and think “oh great, a price increase”. Well this time, there might actually be some value to be had, especially if you’re switching from a competitor.
There are a number of catches and restrictions, however. We’ve got access to a few internal documents with all the juicy details, so let’s dive right in.
The Better Value Plan
The new Better Value plan is highly focused on your actual plan price over time than it is other benefits like phone promos. For those that like to save over the long term, this is probably the plan to pick.
Pricing starts at $140 per month for 3 lines. Additional lines (up to 8) are an extra $30 per month, and more than that (up to 12 lines) are an additional $40 per month.
Better Value lines up pretty well with T-Mobile’s current “Experience Beyond” plan. In fact, for the most part, the actual plan benefits are the same or better than Beyond, all while keeping a price that more aligns with the cost of the Experience More plan.
One improvement with Better Value is that the new plan includes 30GB of Simple Global data. That’s double what you get on Beyond. Also, adding a Backup Home Internet line, which offers 130GB of data per month via one of T-Mobile’s home internet gateways, for just $10 per month. That’s half of what everyone else pays.
The only thing Better Value doesn’t have is yearly upgrade. That perk is excluded from the new plan (remember, they’re focusing on plan price here).
The plan also includes the things we’ve come to expect from T-Mobile nowadays, like free Netflix with ads, free Hulu with ads, and $9.99 off Apple TV (so +$3/mo currently).
New customers that sign up for the new plan can also snag iPhone 17 phones for free, no trade required, as long as they port a number in from a competitor on that line.
Eligibility
The new plan has some weirdness with who’s eligible, however.
The new plan requires a minimum of 3 lines. There is no single-line version of this plan. Both consumers and business plans (up to 12 lines) are eligible.
New customers who are coming from another carrier must port in at least 2 numbers. Those can be from anywhere, though, so that’s not too difficult of a criteria to meet.
As for existing customers, they must have at least a 5-year tenure on T-Mobile to be allowed to switch to this new plan. That’s quite a restriction, but it’s likely designed that way so that those on more recent expensive plans have to stick with what they got, while those on older cheaper plans are free to move to one that probably costs a bit more. Win-win for T-Mobile.
The Catches
Now for what you’ve been wondering: What’s the catch?
Well for those that follow T-Mobile promos, you’ll know that free lines and the insider discount are two of the more popular promos you can get. Unfortunately, those are absolutely not available in any way on Better Value.
New customers that sign up for Better Value cannot use an insider code, and they will never be eligible for free lines that may release in the future. There are also no segmented versions of this plan (like 55+, Military, First Responder), and no Work Perks discounts are available.
Existing customers that want to move to Better Value will lose their insider and free lines, if they have them, and those lines will become paid lines.
The plan also includes a 5-year price guarantee. That means you should expect some increases after that.
Finally, phone promos line up with Experience More values. That means that when a phone promo comes around, expect slightly less value out of your trade-in device than you’d see on Experience Beyond.
A Limited Time Deal
According to our internal documents, this plan is available only for a limited time, and isn’t a permanent offering. We don’t have any indication how long it’ll be available either.
Overall, our view is this: If you’re thinking of moving to T-Mobile from a competitor, and you only need 3 or 4 lines, this is the perfect time to port over. You basically get the perks of Experience Beyond at an Experience More price.
If you have less than 3 lines or want the option of adding free lines in the future, this might not be the best plan. Also, if you’re able to snag an insider code, Experience Beyond is probably still the way to go.
The new plan will be available starting Wednesday January 14th.
