T-Mobile unveils budget-friendly $40/month plan, says more on the way

John Legere
This revolution isn't over yet

T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere is up to some Un-carrier shenanigans again.

In a blog post, the ever-exuberant Legere announced T-Mo's new $40/month Simple Starter plan.

The plan was made for customers who don't necessarily need a lot of data on their phones. As such the Simple Starter plan includes unlimited talk and text messaging, with only 500MB of 4G LTE data included.

Customers can start signing up for it beginning April 12, and a pre-paid option will hit the streets May 17.

Go ahead, go over

The big deal changer with the Simple Starter plan is that T-Mobile promised it will never charge for data overages. Instead, customers who have used up their 500MB allowance can simply choose to pay only when they want more data.

Legere took another opportunity to explain the difference between T-Mobile and other carriers, most pointedly AT&T.

"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," Legere said in a statement.

More Un-carrier to come

It's been a quiet few months since T-Mobile announced it would pick up the early termination fee bills for customers switching from competing networks.

Earlier this month, the magenta carrier announced its flattest Un-carrier move yet by getting rid of Advantage Program discounts for new customers.

It seemed like T-Mobile was all out of moves to reshape the American wireless scene, but now Legere has promised Simple Starter is just the start; there are two more days of Un-carrier announcements to come.

In an interview with CNET, the T-Mo CEO also promised "at least" one more Un-carrier event this year labeled Un-carrier 5.0, suggesting a much larger promotion or program is in the works than what's in store for the rest of this week.

  • Getting a new phone with that Simple Starter plan? The Samsung Galaxy S5 isn't too shabby.
Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.