[NewsPoster]

T-Mobile has unveiled a new promotional price plan, one which is taking aim directly at AT&T. In remarks against AT&T's "Best-Ever Pricing for Families" marketing, T-Mobile CEO John Legere relayed details of a plan effectively providing four lines on the carrier's Simple Choice shared price plan, complete with 10GB of LTE service, for $100 per month.

Starting from July 30th until September 30th, the plan will include unlimited talk and text allowances, and unlimited data and text in over 120 countries for no extra charge. While it does offer 10GB per month for the group until 2016, it is split evenly among the four lines, but there are no overage fees as T-Mobile throttles the connection instead, tethering is included, and streaming music from select music services will not count towards any data allowance.

In Legere's blog post, he played up the price difference between its offer and other carriers, with AT&T's Mobile Share Value, Verizon's More Everything, and Sprint Framily charging approximately $160 per month for a similar offer. "It doesn't take a genius, right? That's $60 in your wallet every month for a family of four – or $1,440 over two years. What would your family or small business do with those savings?" asked the CEO.

T-Mobile is expected to issue its next quarterly financial report on July 31st. In the previous quarter, it claimed to have increased customer numbers by 2.4 million new subscribers, significantly outpacing the other major carriers, though for the period it endured a loss of $151 million.

[jdonahoe]

I wish this would scare Verizon.

[DiabloConQueso]

The problem that T-Mobile might be having is their coverage -- it pales in comparison to AT&T and Verizon, and is basically only really usable within the boundaries of major metropolitan areas.

Not sure how much of a factor that is for others, but it's a big one for me and the sole regret I have about leaving AT&T and allowing "lower prices" to entice me away. I would suggest anyone finding themselves ogling over T-Mobiles pricing and "unlimited data" plans to not forget to factor coverage into their final decision.

It sucks to switch and then find out how much good coverage really meant and how paying a little more might have been better. You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

[bjojade]

Yes, the coverage is EXTREMELY limited. While they claim that 96% of Americans are covered, that's just because the towers are where the population is heaviest. If you travel, the roads between locations may not have coverage. This can become a huge problem if you want your phone to work when traveling.

Also, their 'unlimited talk text and data' is only on their towers, which is a far more restricted area. Again, in larger cities, this is fine, but anywhere else, this isn't such a great deal. The detail of when you're on their partner network is omitted from the advertising. Their fine print indicates that on the unlimited plans, you get 50MB of roaming data. That'll get used up pretty quickly.

They also don't advertise that 3way calling is not part o their unlimited package. Lastly, since this is a no contract agreement, they can remove this promo at any time, and charge you higher rates. When you sign a contract with another carrier, you can generally be assured that your rates won't chance during the term of their contract.

[csimon2]

bjojade, do you speak from experience with TMobile's network? Or are just making a blind and inaccurate statement out of some misplaced loyalty towards a network provider (of all things). I had Tmo for about 8 years (2003-2011; though I have ATT now because my company pays the bill), and travel quite a bit every year. Of course, as you noted, Tmo's network in cities is pretty good. But here's the thing, Tmo also has the vast majority of travel routes covered as well. At least as far as major highways and interstates are concerned, I very rarely ever had a problem with Tmo. It was about on par with my experience with ATT's network (but probably not as good as Verizon's). Tmo may have some gaps in the more rural areas (towns with less than 10k residents), but outside of that, I at least found it to be quite reliable.