Forget Verizon—wireless carrier T-Mobile has beaten everyone in the US to the punch with shared family data plans. The company announced its new pricing structures Monday morning, not just for family plans but also individual plans, thereby eliminating its unlimited data plan option for new customers.
The new plans offer individuals the choice of 500, 1,000, or unlimited voice minutes and unlimited texting for an extra $10. A 200MB data plan will cost an extra $10 per month—$5 less than AT&T—though you can also purchase 2GB of data for $20, 5GB for $30, or 10GB for $60. Similarly, "families" (or anyone with more than one device on the same cell network) now have the option of sharing 1,000, 2,000 or unlimited minutes with unlimited shared texts costing an extra $20. All data plans, when shared under the family plan, cost twice as much as they are under the individual plans.
So, under the new pricing system, an individual might be able to get unlimited talk, text, and 10GB of data for $119.99 per month, while a family with those same specs (but shared among multiple devices) would get it for $219.99. Even a step down to the 5GB tier is pretty good, though—the family plan version would cost $159.99. As someone who currently pays AT&T something around $165/month for a family plan with two iPhones that share a dinky number of minutes, each getting an un-sharable allowance of 1,500 texts and 2GB of data, those plans look mighty attractive to me.
For those who regularly risk coming a little too close to their monthly data quotas, T-Mobile has also rolled out a new safety net: no overage charges. If you end up crossing your data limit for the month, the carrier will simply drop you to a 2G connection, where you get to suffer with slow data speeds until you pony up for a higher cap or until your billing cycle is up. It's the lesser of the two evils when it comes to dealing with data hogs—intentional or otherwise—and we wish other carriers would follow suit with this option.
In the US, AT&T was the first to break the barrier and ditch its unlimited 3G data plans in favor of tiered offerings. Verizon has yet to convert its own data plans to tiers, but has been talking a big game about doing so for some time now and allegedly plans to flip the switch this summer. By the time summer is over, Sprint may be the only major carrier left that still offers an unlimited data plan, but even they have indicated that it is not against implementing caps if necessary.
The truth is that unlimited 3G data is almost extinct in the US, and 4G/LTE/WiMAX isn't far behind (Verizon already caps its LTE network use at 5GB or 10GB, depending on what you pay for). At this point, the cell carriers are simply attempting to compete on price, and as usual, T-Mobile is offering some of the best.
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