T-Mobile will be the first major U.S. carrier to drop cell phone contracts, with "Un-carrier" pricing and data rates starting with a $50 per month plan, the U.S. cell phone network announced at a press conference today.
Rallying against cell phone contracts, overage fees, and penalties, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said it will be "$1,000 less on T-Mobile over two years" than other carriers, promising to "unleash the wireless industry."
T-Mobile's plan for Simple Choice includes unlimited talk and text, and Web with 500MB of high-speed data for $50 per month. A second phone line costs $30 per month, and each additional line just $10 per month.
Additional data from T-Mobile costs $10 more per month for 2GB of high-speed data and $20 more per month for unlimited 4G data.
"No caps. No overages. Just simple value," said T-Mobile in its announcement.
T-Mobile plans vs AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint
As the fourth-place carrier, T-Mobile is attempting to reinvent itself to stay competitive with the four other major contract-based networks, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
T-Mobile said that it is canceling its membership in the carrier club during its New York City press conference today.
The company will still be supporting new phone on the T-Mobile network like the Samsung Galaxy S4, BlackBerry Z10, and HTC One.
Even more notable is that Apple's iPhone will finally come to T-Mobile, including the newer iPhone 5, starting April 12.
At the same time that its taking on its four bigger rivals, T-Mobile is trying to stay ahead of smaller, pre-paid carriers that have dropped cell phone subsidies and pricey contracts altogether.
However, Legere stressed that T-Mobile is not going pre-paid. It's just dropping the contracts while rolling out "record pace" LTE in major markets.
