MetroPCS aims to eliminate the stigma of prepaid phone service with a new name, new offers | Technology

For $ 10 more, Metro adds an Amazon Prime account to the package. Amazon Prime typically costs $ 119 for a year, which is about $ 10 a month, and Google One charges $ 19.99 a year or $ 1.99 a month for 100 gigabytes of storage.

This decision should help Metro not only attract customers who may have already neglected the brand, but also attract customers from some of T-Mobile's competitors, Keys said.

Metro has been operating on T-Mobile's network for over five years and now offers handsets from brands such as Samsung and Apple – two selling points that many consumers are unaware of, according to Keys. But he recognizes that the new branding strategy will need time to work.

"Nothing will happen overnight," Keys said. "You have to get the word out and go for the game from 36 to 60 months."

Since its inception in 1994, Metro's target market has been underserved markets, where the company offers prepaid service at a lower cost. While Metro is proud to serve these markets, other consumers have often associated the lowest cost with a lack of quality.

Surveys have shown that 7 out of 10 people located within 1.5 miles of a Metro store were not interested in its services. And of the 323 million people covered by the T-Mobile network, Metro serves only 5.5% of them.

"There was a belief that" prepaid "was something for the" other guys, "said Keys," There was a compromise somewhere for the lower price.It was …

Although Metro still has a lot to do, its expansion has accelerated considerably since its acquisition by T-Mobile in 2013. The company has extended its availability from 12 US cities to 30, its distribution of 4,500 stores to more than 10,000, and its customer base from 8.8 million to more than 18 million.

T-Mobile does not publish brand-specific revenue, but in its second quarter results, released in August, the company said its prepaid brands had generated $ 2.4 billion. This represents an increase of 3% over the same period last year. Metro is T-Mobile's flagship prepaid brand and there is also a T-Mobile prepaid brand.