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Microsoft expands the Xbox Game Pass family plan to six more countries
People in Chile, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa and Sweden can now sign up for the Xbox Game Pass Friends & Family plan.
Microsoft is testing a family plan for Xbox Game Pass
Folks in Ireland and Colombia can try it out now.
Spotify brings its Premium Duo plan to the US, UK and dozens more countries (updated)
Spotify has been testing Premium Duo since March of 2019.
T-Mobile family plans will include Quibi free for one year
Just yesterday, T-Mobile finally completed its Sprint merger. Today, it has more big news. When Quibi launches on April 6th, T-Mobile customers on the Magenta family plan will get a free year of the mobile-first video service. After a year of both free Netflix and free Quibi, those customers will be able to choose one service or the other.
Spotify's family plan now comes with a standalone kids' app
Spotify is expanding its family-plan offering with a new app designed for kids. The Spotify Kids app -- with a pared-back, easy-to-use interface -- comes with two silos of age-appropriate music: Audio for Younger Kids features singalongs, lullabies and content from licensed partners such as Disney and Nickelodeon, while Audio for Older Kids includes popular chart tracks and playlists that exclude explicit content. There's no specific age range for each -- it's up to parents to decide what's appropriate for their kids.
Verizon temporarily drops the 5G fee on its most expensive data plans
Verizon (Engadget's parent company) is shaking up its offerings. Today, it introduced four new unlimited plans -- Start, Play More, Do More and Get More -- which will replace the three current unlimited plans. Surprisingly, each new plan is $5 less expensive than its previous equivalent, and for a limited time, Verizon is waiving the $10-per-month 5G fee for the three top-tier options.
Amazon's Music Unlimited family plan comes to the UK
When Amazon launched its unlimited music streaming subscription in the UK, it offered access to over 40 million tracks, thousands of curated playlists and tight integration with its Echo speaker. The one thing it didn't provide was a dedicated family plan like those offered by Spotify and Apple Music. It took more than three weeks, but Amazon has today extended its subscription to include a Family option -- it costs £15 a month or £149 for a full year and allows up to six people to stream to their heart's content.
Tidal is the latest streaming service to offer a family plan
Following in the footsteps of Spotify, Rdio and, most recently, Apple Music, Tidal has announced a family plan of its own. With this new pricing scheme, Jay Z's music-streaming service will allow a primary account holder to have multiple people, up to four, under one roof. Tidal's discount is fairly simple: you get 50 percent off for each person added to your main subscription, including both the Premium and HiFi options -- which are $10 and $20 per month, respectively. A few weeks ago, Tidal also introduced student pricing, in an effort to match what competitors are offering. The real value to listeners, however, may ultimately come down to Tidal's exclusive content, as evidenced by the recent news from Prince and Weezy F. Baby.
Rdio slashes the cost of its family plans to match Spotify
Spotify and YouTube may currently be dominating the music streaming headlines, but Rdio isn't prepared to let them have things all their own way. Just as its Swedish rival begins to roll out its new Family plans, the streaming service that does still have access to Taylor Swift's back catalogue is cutting the price of its own. From today, Rdio's Family Plans have been lowered to £5 for each additional user; two listeners now only need to pay £14.99, three must cough up £19.99 and so on. If that looks a little familiar, it's because the company is now completely mirroring Spotify's multi-user subscription pricing. While Rdio has offered Family Plan upgrades since 2011, cost is key: the music provider won't want to give its users another incentive to jump across to its biggest competitor.
Sprint's new "Framily" plan lets you share your account with 10 friends, but still bills you separately
It's a scam thrifty cellular subscribers have been pulling for years: sharing a "family plan" with a group of non-biologically related peers to save a few bucks. It works, but it's kind of a headache - family plans arrive as one bill, and the ringleader needs to hassle their friends to pay their share of the bill. Tired of the nightmare? So is Sprint - the company has dropped all pretense for these plan-sharing schemers with its horribly named "Framily" plan, which allows up to 10 lines to be shared on a single account regardless of blood relation. The initial line of service costs $55 a month, but each additional user takes $5 off the price of every line on the plan until they reach a maximum discount of $30 per line, per month. A group of seven, for instance, can score unlimited talk, text and 1GB of data for $25 per line. Best of all, each line is billed individually, and allows each user to manage and customize their own plans without going through the central account holder. The new system will be available to new and existing Sprint customers on January 10th, although currently active lines can only be combined if they are already owned by the same person. If you can tolerate its moniker, Framily seems to be a good spin on the existing shared plan dynamic. Want more details? Check out Sprint's official announcement at the source below.
Cricket intros $40 per line family plan with unlimited talk, text and data, updates iPhone plans
Cricket's already firmly established itself as one of the more budget-minded carriers in the US, and it's now tweaking some of its plans a bit further in the hopes of attracting more customers. Leading those changes is a new family plan that will give you two lines for $40 apiece per month, each with unlimited talk, texting and data -- the catch, as is becoming increasingly common, is that the data gets throttled to a slower speed after 1GB. On top of that, the carrier has also now brought its iPhone plans in line with its Android offerings, giving folks the same options as that family plan for $50 a month. More demanding users can also opt for 2.5GB of unthrottled data for $60 or 5GB $70, both of which also add unlimited international messaging to the mix.
AT&T unveils Mobile Share, lets you add 10 devices to a single plan
We knew it was coming and even Ralph de la Vega himself publicly admitted that it was in the pipeline, but today AT&T has whipped the covers from its new shared data plans. Mobile Share will enable customers to use a single data allocation across all of their devices, with unlimited calls and text. You're entitled to use up to 10 devices on a single plan, of which at least one must be a smartphone. Users can pick how much data they expect to use each month, paying an additional levy to add the rest of their family's handsets (or just your own, if you're Steve Wozniak). Fortunately, tethering is included as part of the plans. The new plans will roll out in late August and will sit alongside the current individual and family offerings, with the company allowing current customers to make a switch without forcing them into a contract extension. AT&T also noted that those lucky customers that are still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan can stay on those plans, even if they upgrade to a new phone at the subsidized on-contract cost. We've got the pricing structure and PR for you for you after the break if you're sweaty-palmed in anticipation for the launch.
AT&T prepares internal systems for shared data, launch date still TBD
We've known AT&T's had shared data plans in the works for a healthy amount of time, as the GSM carrier let the cat out of the bag many seasons ago. And while Ralph de la Vega hasn't hid his company's aspirations from view, the network hasn't exactly been forthcoming about when the party is going to get started. If the above and below screenshots are any indication, however, AT&T has already added support for group data into Telegence, the internal system employees use to manage customer accounts. According to the memo seen above, Telegence has been tweaked to include a new group-level data feature node "in preparation for the launch of Shared Data." This verbiage seems to suggest the new plans are coming in the very near future, but the communication is quick to point out that the launch date has yet to be determined. Unfortunately, since the new adjustments aren't functional just yet, it could simply mean the company's beginning the first wave of crucial internal testing. Regardless, its presence in AT&T's systems is a great step forward, and a welcome one that's been a long time coming. The question is, will the new plans arrive before Verizon can push its version out to the masses? [Thanks, anonymous]
T-Mobile, Walmart do another kumbaya with contract-free unlimited family plan for 3G users
Remember that 4G plan that T-Mobile and Walmart started collaborating on last year? Well, the two companies are making yet another announcement, teaming up on an improved Family Mobile Plan with unlimited 3G talk, text and web. For those who like cheap dates with no long-term commitments, the news gets even better at $45 per month for the first line ($35 for each additional line) with no contract necessary. There is a bit of a catch as your data speed gets throttled after you exceed your cap -- 5GB if you sign up before March 16 and 250MB if you sign up after that. But, hey, that's still better than being charged overage fees. You also have to pay a one-time $25 Starter Kit fee for each line.
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 throws in up to three extra lines for free on family plans
It doesn't last forever, but T-Mobile's throwing big families a bone for the moment with a deal that makes the third, fourth, and fifth lines free on family plans (typically, only the first and second are offered at no additional charge). They're only free through 2012, but that gives you well over a year of cost-free bliss for your tykes' BlackBerrys; 200 minutes are included with each additional line and you can pay to upgrade them to unlimited if you're a "cool" parent. You are a cool parent, aren't you? Follow the break for T-Mobile's full press release.
T-Mobile's Motorola Charm to go for a big, fat zilch on family plan activations?
The poster here that we've received today kind of speaks for itself, we'd say. By all appearances, it seems that T-Mobile intends to continue its tradition of making family plans attractive with blowout handset pricing -- and the next model to get the free treatment will be Motorola's upcoming Charm featuring Android packed into a form factor that you rarely (well, never see) for the platform. Realistically, $100 is probably the high end of the reasonable range for something with the Charm's specs, but at $0, it's a downright bargain compared to the typical free-on-contract dumbphone fare. Now let's just extend this offer to non-family plans, T-Mobile -- and go ahead and make it permanent while you're at it. [Thanks, Justfinethanku]
Xbox Live family subscription plan available starting in November for $99
Microsoft's just dropped details on its new Xbox Live family subscription plan. Starting in November, it will offer the Gold Family Pack, enabling up to four users to have Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, for $99.99 a year. It'll also debut the Family Center, a new menu accessible from the dashboard for customizing account settings. We've certainly wished for something like this in the past, and the pricing sounds like a pretty good deal to us -- we'll be able to afford a new cap for our avatar, afterall! Full press release is below.
T-Mobile confirms free phone offer for family plans this Saturday
Yes, it's happening: T-Mobile is looking to drum up some serious foot traffic in T-Mobile stores ahead of Father's Day this weekend by making every single one of its phones free on Saturday only -- but naturally, there's a catch. You can only get in on the offer by switching to a family plan or adding another line to your existing family plans, so anyone flying solo is pretty much out of luck. Clearly, the idea is to get daddy that new HD2 or myTouch 3G Slide he wants without paying a dime out of pocket -- but what about the Galaxy S, hmm? Follow the break for T-Mobile's full press release.
MetroPCS sees huge influx of customers, intros GroupLINE
We'd already heard that right about now was a great time to be in the prepaid cell business, and that's being proven quite definitively by MetroPCS' Q1 subscriber results. We're told that the firm saw a net addition of 684,000 customers in the first three months of 2009, representing an astounding 51 percent increase year-over-year. While celebrating mightily, the company also saw fit to introduce a "one-call communication solution targeted at families and friends who are trying to save money in today's economy by 'cutting the cord' and replacing their landline telephones with wireless phones." Said "landline replacer" is called GroupLINE, which enables up to five MetroPCS Family Plan subscribers to receive calls on a shared GroupLINE number while still maintaining their individual mobile numbers -- all for just $5 per month. So, anyone looking to tighten the belt by going prepaid? Your options are getting good.[Via GigaOM]Read - MetroPCS resultsRead - GroupLINE launch
