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T-Mobile lauches new individual and family plans right on schedule
As rumored, T-Mobile overhauled its individual and family plans today and simplified your options to just three tiers of voice service. Individuals can choose between 500, 1,000 or unlimited minutes, with unlimited text messaging adding $10 and data add-ons ranging from $10 for 200MB to $60 for 10GB. Family plans come in 1,000, 2,000 and unlimited minute varieties while the sharable data and text services cost twice as much as their individual counterparts. There are some odd restrictions, such as the inability to add texting or data to the mid-tier plans and no choice for unlimited voice service without SMS tacked on. We do, however, like the overage-free data options that simply drop to 2G speeds when you reach your plan's threshold instead of shocking you with huge fees at the end of the month. We can also confirm that restocking fees have been bumped from $10 regardless of device to $50 for smartphones, $75 for tablets, and $25 for USB modems and "basic phone devices." Check out the sources for all the details and fine print. Update: Just a few hours after debuting its new individual and family plans T-Mo unleash a pair of new no annual contract choices. $50 gets you unlimited voice, text, and 100MB of 4G or 3G data while $70 pushes the high-speed data cap to 5GB. And, just like the on-contract options, these are overage-free. PR is after the break. [Thanks, Neal]
T-Mobile plans could switch up on May 22, restock fees inflating like a balloon?
As it turns out, T-Mobile could be in need of a mobile makeover itself. Not even three weeks after the carrier announced it lost nearly half a million customers, it's reportedly ready to remodel its monthly rate plans on May 22. We've already heard that its prepaid choices may be getting some overhaul treatment this weekend, but fresh intel from TmoNews gives us the feeling that individual and family plans will probably be scooted around a bit as well. Since we're not even sure these changes will actually occur, we'll spare you the nitty-gritty details for now and go straight to the most interesting tidbits. Individual and family plans were simplified to three options each, but the middle one -- 1,000 minutes for individual and 2,000 family -- is a minutes-only choice with no text offered (read: upsell opportunity). The new data plans would be revamped as well, with monthly fees ranging from $10 for 200 MB up to $60 for 10 GB; data hogs needn't worry about overages, though, because these offerings would still technically be "unlimited" since speeds would just be throttled to 2G once the limit is met. Finally, saving the most shocking for last, whispers in T-Mobile's camp mention that restocking fees will be raised from $10 to a mind-blowing $50 for smartphones and $75 for tablets ($25 for a "phone-first" phone). At a time when retailers are doing away with restock fees completely, we find this move to be the most curious of all. If you're still at the edge of your seat looking for more details, don't hesitate to visit the source links to get the whole enchilada.
