T-Mobile has unveiled a new budget friendly plan for just $40 a month, dubbed the Simple Starter plan. The plan targets budget plans from AT&T and Verizon, who have rolled out low-cost monthly plans over the past few months as a reaction to T-Mobile’s UnCarrier moves. T-Mobile CEO John Legere is touting the Simple Starter plan as a great way for people to check out T-Mobile before committing to buying a new handset or picking a more expensive plan.
The Simple Starter plan will provide customers with unlimited talk, text and 500MB of data. That’s not a whole lot of data, and Legere assures us there will be no overage fees, unlike other major U.S. carriers. Simple Starter plan customers will receive a text alert when they are close to exhausting their data allotment, and will be given the option to purchase more data for a nominal fee. For an extra $5, 500MB can be purchased for the day and $10 gets customers 1GB which can be used within a week.
“We start today with an all-new Simple Starter plan, a $40 monthly price plan specifically designed to deliver a predictable, affordable solution to millions of value-conscious Americans – and to provide a desperately needed alternative to the high-risk, overage-intensive plans that the biggest carriers target directly at Americans looking for entry-level wireless service. With AT&T’s entry-level plans, for example, your costs immediately jump by increments of $20 when you slip over the threshold into massive overages — in what amounts to an obscene 44% price hike on those customers least able to absorb overages and bill shock.” – John Legere
The Simple Starter plan can be coupled with T-Mobile’s Jump device upgrade program, but can’t be bundled with a family plan. Customers who choose the Simple Starter plan will be eligible to have their ETF paid off by T-Mobile if they are locked into a contract with another carrier.