T-Mobile introduces Simple Starter plan for budget users

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Published 9 Apr 2014

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T-Mobile is firing another shot across the bow of the wireless industry with a new plan aimed at the budget-conscious.

The Simple Starter plan, as it is called, costs $40 a month provides unlimited talk text 500MB of E data.

Calling the value plans from other carriers “bait switch” because they promise low fares but automatically charge users exorbitant data overage fees, T-Mobile proudly trumpets the fact that Simple Starter customers won’t be automatically charged for going over their data limit.

    There’s a catch, though. Most T-Mobile plans don’t cut you off when you run out of 4G E data, they just drop you back to the HS+ network, with slower speeds. The Simple Starter plan doesn’t quite work that way. en a customer runs through the 500MB of included E data, a message pops up prompting them to buy more data: either 500MB for the day ($5), or 1GB to be used over the next week ($10). So, while Simple Starter is not uncapped, it doesn’t l you into trouble with automatic overages. Simple Starter customers also don’t get the free international texting data offered to customers on Simple Choice plans (which start at $50 a month).

    The Simple Starter plan is indeed eligible for the program where users can get up to $650 per line by switching to T-Mobile (up to $300 to trade in their phone, $350 to pay off the early termination fee from their other carrier).

    This is the first of three days of announcements promised by T-Mobile.