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T-Mobile details its no-contract Simple Choice plans: starting at $50/month for unlimited talk, text and 500MB unthrottled data
T-Mobile already let its new "UnCarrier" plans loose on its website without much fanfare this past weekend, but it's now finally talking a bit more about them at its big launch event in NYC. Dubbed Simple Choice, the new plans all of course do away with the traditional two-year contracts, and they all start with both unlimited talk and text. The differences come with the data options: the basic $50 a month plan will get you 500MB of high-speed data with rates throttled down to 2G speeds after you hit that limit. Heavier data users can opt for 2GB of unthrottled data for an extra $10 per month, while fully unlimited 4G data will set you back an extra $20 a month (or $70 total). A second line will run another $30 on top of that, with each additional line costing $10 apiece. Not surprisingly, the carrier is also making a big marketing push to promote its new approach. You see its first commercial after the break, and find a full breakdown of the plans at the source link below. Update: As Android Central notes, there's also some changes to the way T-Mobile is handling plans for tablets, hotspots and other devices. Basically, if you have a standalone device on its own account, your options start at $20 a month for 500MB of unthrottled data and go up to $80 for 12.5GB. If you're adding that device to your existing account, though, it simply counts as an extra line, costing the same $10 for 500MB or an extra $20 for unlimited data.
T-Mobile lights up LTE in seven markets nationwide
T-Mobile's LTE rollout has been a long time coming, but as of today that network is finally live. At an event in New York City, the carrier made its initial batch of LTE cities official -- seven markets in total. Now, subscribers in Baltimore, MD; Kansas City, KS; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; San Jose, CA and Washington D.C. will be among the first to take advantage of the UnCarrier's fully-fledged 4G network and its newly revised unlimited talk, text and data plans. As for New York City, a market many assumed would make this first LTE round, CEO John Legere says that's coming soon, mostly likely by early summer. Speeds on this new network, as we saw demoed just a little over a week ago, should range between 10 to 20Mbps down and 8 to 12 Mbps up -- at least, during this intro phase -- with a fallback onto HSPA+ when LTE isn't present. When T-Mobile gets around to repurposing that MetroPCS spectrum it's so close to acquiring, expect to see even more robust LTE speeds and wider coverage across its footprint. To kick off adoption of this nascent network, T-Mobile's offering up a pretty attractive portfolio of handsets and high-end ones, at that. So Magenta subs or prospective carrier-switchers looking to sign up for T-Mobile's LTE can choose from the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S 4, iPhone 5, Galaxy Note II and BlackBerry Z10 -- that latter two of which are currently available. And now that the UnCarrier's removed the contract chains we've all come to know and loathe, subscribers can opt to snag one of these handsets outright with an accompanying Simple Choice plan. If you're excited by all of this change or just want to see it laid out in the company's official terms, head past the break for official PR.
T-Mobile's Sonic 2.0 mobile hotspot revealed, brings LTE-powered WiFi to the masses
T-Mobile's UnCarrier announcement event is taking place a little later today, but some bits of news have started to leak out ahead of time. First was the BlackBerry Z10, and now comes an LTE mobile hotspot, the Sonic 2.0. It's T-Mo's first LTE mobile hotspot and can feed data to up to eight devices at a time. Not only that, it's compatible with both Mac OSX 10.8 and Windows 8, plus Microsofties get the added benefit of compatibility with the Win8 Carrier application so users can easily access real-time data usage info for every connected gadget. As for the hardware, the Sonic 2.0 has a 1.77-inch color LCD on the front, a 3,000 mAh battery, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and quadband LTE and 3G radios on board. There's also a MicroSD card slot for simple file sharing of up to 32GB cards. It'll be available by the end of the month, though we don't yet know how much it'll cost. Guess you'll have to tune into our liveblog to find out.
Live from T-Mobile's UnCarrier event!
It's time for T-Mobile to unveil its new set of UnCarrier plans -- and maybe more. Back in January, we heard the iPhone would be going magenta sometime in the next three months and... why, would you look at the time? It's been just over three months! Are you ready for Apple's latest and greatest to break down the walls of one more carrier, and for that carrier to turn everything we know about contracts and plan pricing on its head? You'd better be. Join us at the time below for some proper liveblog action live from the event here in New York City.
T-Mobile's 4G LTE goes live in Phoenix, San Jose
T-Mobile has started to roll out 4G services in the Phoenix and San Jose ahead of a press gathering today, according to our tipsters. Screen grabs show the service alive and kicking out speeds in the 20-30Mbps range, though we've yet to verify it for ourselves. The company already outed its "UnCarrier" plans on its site earlier featuring non-subsidized smartphones -- including LTE models -- along with unlimited voice, text and basic data plans. We should be able to color in the rest of the details later this morning. [Thanks Nick, Dustin]
T-Mobile takes its UnCarrier plans live earlier than expected
T-Mobile must not want to wait for a special event to lure customers through its doors: it just launched its revamped, decidedly UnCarrier-like plans a couple of days early. As became clearer this weekend, unlimited voice, text and basic data are now things you can take for granted on Magenta's network. It's only the cap on throttle-free data that determines how much you pay: rates sold through T-Mobile itself start at $50 for a basic 500MB of online use and climb in steady 2GB increments that each cost an extra $10 per month, up to a total of 12.5GB for $110. You can still get truly unlimited service if you want, for $70 -- although you'll have to bolt on a separate hotspot plan that the capped tiers get for free. Costs at resellers are expected to run slightly higher, but it's still clear that T-Mobile is aggressively courting those of us who see internet access as the very reason to have a smartphone in the first place.
The Daily Roundup for 03.22.2013
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
T-Mobile 'UnCarrier' plans possibly leaked, make unlimited talk and text a given (updated)
T-Mobile made much ado at CES of its desire to become the "UnCarrier," with steps away from subsidies and the usual complexities of smartphones. Thanks to tipsters, we have a better sense of what the provider meant. A memo suggests that T-Mobile is revamping plans in the near future to make unlimited talk and text a de facto part of the experience, where data would be the only changeable factor: on Classic tiers , the starter $60 plan would have 500MB of full-speed data with hotspot support built-in, while subscribers could upgrade their service in 2GB increments that cost between $10-20 dollars per month for individuals. You'd still have 'real' unlimited data on Classic from $90, with the hotspot as a bolt-on option. What we've seen doesn't specify a date or price, but T-Mobile happens to have an appropriately-themed event coming up on the 26th; we wouldn't be shocked if we heard more at that stage. [Thanks, anonymous] Update: We've done some digging, and this is the full sheet that made a quick stopover at TmoNews. The Classic plans may only be available at third-party stores, while T-Mobile's own stores would go only with contract-free Value rates that start at $50 and include the $70 unlimited plan we saw in January.
T-Mobile planning March 26th press event, hints at strategy change
It's been a slow news day for most of the tech industry, but it's been a helluva Monday for T-Mobile. First the carrier announced expansion plans for its fledgling LTE network, and said that the Galaxy Note II would be getting an over-the-air update allowing it to take advantage of T-Mo's new 4G speeds. Now, Big Magenta is planning a press event for March 26th in New York City, reports AllThingsD. As you can see, the invite promises the wireless operator will no longer be acting like one, which makes us think a splashy product launch isn't in the cards. Given the teaser, we have to wonder if T-Mo is finally ready to elaborate on its plan to offer Value plans only, under which customers pay for their phones outright in exchange for lower monthly fees (and no contracts, of course). If we were betting types, that's where we'd be putting our money, but it'll be another eight days before we know for sure.
