Free lines aren’t cutting it any longer.
The Mobile Report has learned that T-Mobile will announce a loyalty version of the standard Essentials plan on May 15.The plan will not be for everyone and will only be offered to those customers who reveal an intention to cancel lines or ditch T-Mobile. Not all the customers who threaten to leave will be eligible though.
The plan will be more affordable than Essentials and will carry over all its perks and introduce a new one as an incentive.
The loyalty plan is similar to AT&T’s Starter plan in a lot of ways, suggesting this rival has perhaps emerged as the biggest threat in recent times.
It will cost $65 a month for one line after the autopay discount and $120 for two lines. Every subsequent line will cost an additional $12. Unless you want only one line, the loyalty plan somehow provides worse value than the Essentials plan currently does. In fact, at the moment, there is an “Essentials 4 Line Offer” going on that lets you have four lines for $100/month. This promo will likely end when the new plan is announced.
The new plan will be saddled with restrictions. It won’t qualify for a third free line, Buy One, Get One (BOGO) free line, insider discount and other free line offers. The standard Essentials plan is usually not eligible for deals like these anyway, so it’s not that big of a deal. However, considering the rumored new plan is for customers on expensive and older plans such as Magenta Max, ONE Plus, and Go5G Plus — many of whom do get these perks — the value proposition is confusing.
Another thing to keep in mind is that customers on this plan will be able to activate 8 lines at most.
This plan will offer one incentive that might make it worth switching. The current Essential plan isn’t so great when it comes to phone upgrade offers but the new plan will offer higher trade-in values, potentially matching the Experience More plan in this regard.
Any current promotions and discounts on a customer account will carry over unchanged. However, the new plan will not include taxes and fees like most older plans.It looks like the only customers who will benefit by switching to the new rumored plan are the ones on old and expensive plans with no compelling perks.
