I don’t know if you’ve heard the latest or not, but T-Mobile is making a huge bid for market share in the wireless industry! They have recently announced a new shared plan that would allow two people on the same plan to have unlimited minutes, texts, and data for about $120 a month. I dont know about you, but that is about $60 less a month than I pay now, and I don’t even have unlimited minutes! The catch, is that they aren’t going to have massive upfront discounts on those massively expensive smartphones like we are all used to. However, they are going to allow you to finance the phones over a couple years, interest free. They will simply divide the cost by month. Even taking into account Verizon’s discount program, I think T-Mobile may be on to something here…as they will allow all of that without signing a long term contract! How’s that for putting your money where your mouth is?
The nail in the coffin for me was that I recently learned Verizon is going to force those of us with unlimited data plans to re-sign a new contract with limited data (that will most likely cost more than I pay now) if we choose to utilize the smartphone discounts they are so well known for. While I understand their want to capitalize on a loophole such as this, I am not willing to be on the receiving end of their higher cost structure. The perfect storm of these two events has led me to the decision that T-Mobile is at least worth giving a try, that is after my contract with Verizon is up this summer. I mean I don’t really have much to lose since they are allowing a contract free environment, and I can carry my same phone and phone number over them in order to test the waters. My thought is, if Verizon wants my business back, they need to earn it…no more automatic contract renewal as I have been the past 12 years!
The drawbacks you ask? Well, there is always at least one, and in this case it is the speed of the network. All of the mobile providers have 4G networks these days, just not in ALL areas. While VZW was a pioneer in my area for 4G connectivity, T-Mobile has been slower to reach our market. Still, does it matter how quickly my data loads if I am limited in using it? I’d much rather wait an additional 5 seconds per page load than to pay $50 or $60 more every month, that is if I stay within my restricted data limits.