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Five years after the acquisition of MetroPCS, T-Mobile has completely redesigned its prepaid brand to a more premium market. Metro by T-Mobile, as the company is now known, has announced two new unlimited data plans, but still prepaid, and has also increased the data limitations of some of its existing offerings.
The two new plans are $ 50 or $ 60 per month respectively, and both offer "unlimited" data offers similar to T-Mobile's One plan. The obvious benefit is that the plans are prepaid, which means there is no contract, no credit check and no obligation.
Both plans give you "unlimited" data, with the usual reserves. You'll exceed 35 GB of data in a month, and you'll experience a "downgrade", which means your data may be slower at peak times. These two plans also limit your video streaming to 480p, so you can not have a high definition frenzy on these plans, and there is no additional module for HD video. The $ 50 plan includes 5 GB of access point data, while the $ 60 plan includes 15 GB of access point data.
The biggest difference between the two plans is that the $ 60 per month agreement also allows you to get a free membership to Amazon Prime and Google One. Google One is a subscription service that allows you, among other things, to have a free storage of 100 GB on Google Drive. At $ 12.99 a month, it's valuable, and since many homes already subscribe, you can save money by getting your subscription through your phone plan. Sprint has announced an unlimited plan including Amazon Prime last month, but it is more expensive and postpaid, so they are not directly comparable.
Metro's non-unlimited packages also remain in place, with some changes. The $ 40 per month plan includes 10 GB of data, although you can not use any of these for a mobile access point. In particular, all plans now include taxes and fees, which is a first for the prepaid service sector.
The most pressing question regarding Metro's new image is timing. MetroPCS and Boost Mobile, owned by Sprint, are an important part of the prepaid market. The future of Sprint and T-Mobile is shrinking. T-Mobile told the FCC that the merger would not affect the fact that Metro and Boost are targeting different segments of the market, which does not seem entirely normal when you look at their physical sales locations and plans that they propose.
By suddenly switching from a cheap prepaid service to an increasingly expensive unlimited plan, Metro can now claim to go beyond the premium "prepaid" space, while Boost Mobile manages the lower segment of the market. It's a nifty argument; The only question is whether they will be able to persuade regulators that it's not just smoke and mirrors.
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