Not that great of a deal when you factor in the $27 phone fee for each line unless you paid full price upfront.
So that would bring it to $154/month + taxes which brings it to like $160 we'll say since you only pay taxes on the $100 part.
I'm currently paying $140 a month after taxes for two lines under contract and 13 GBs of data on Verizon. It's not unlimited but it's plenty. I have the 10 GB more everything plan with a 20% employee discount and a $16 discount for 12 months that I got for just asking. Plus 2GB of free data for 24 months and 1 GB free for 12.
Not a chance I'll pay $30 more a month for crappy coverage just so I can say I have unlimited data I'll never use.
T-Mobile isn't changing the game. They're just throwing out things we've never seen before. Crunch the numbers yourself and you'll see that they aren't doing anything incredible.
If T-Mobile really wanted to do something revolutionary they'd give 2 lines of 3 GB of data each for $60 a month. Instead they trot out the word unlimited and can charge $40 more just because it's unlimited data that people won't use.
Well for one, this is an UNLIMITED data plan and is marketed at those who WANT unlimited data. Verizon offers no such plan. A paltry 10GB shared isn't comparable. Assuming maybe 20GB is comparable, it blows away any of Verizon's pathetic data plan offerings. Not to mention there is no possibility of overages with T-Mobile. But then again what's truly comparable? 30GB, 40GB? It only gets worse for VZW as you increase the data since they don't offer a comparable plan.
You're also adding in discounts, which don't apply to every customer as well as some promotional bonus data you have which moves you to 13GB. Again not available on their site. For light data users, Verizon's share plans might be a great idea and by all means you should stay where you are in that case. For heavier users who require more data, Verizon doesn't offer a competitive plan and that's who this promotion is marketed towards. Super fast LTE that you can't use because of data caps, monitoring usage as if it's electricity or something. No thanks.
Total cost of ownership, T-Mobile beats Verizon on just about every plan offered on their website (sans special discounts or promotions a select few might have acquired). Really no way around it.
Where have you been the past few years? They've already changed the industry. VZW and AT&T have had to respond by reducing their prices and offering that same 0% financing to the point where their profits are declining. All thanks to T-Mobile.
I read an article elsewhere that said Verizon and AT&T are really feeling the pressure from low-cost carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint.
Why don't Verizon and AT&T just lower their prices?
Verizon has over 100 million subscriber lines.
If they offered 2 lines at $100 month... that would still be a couple BILLION dollars each month.
I suspect the reason they don't drop their prices is because they feel they have the better network and they can price accordingly.
But money is a HUGE factor with some consumers.
If they're really worried about the other guys... the gotta respond.
They've dropped their prices to a degree. That's why they're feeling pressure on the profits. They took an even greater hit with the iPhone 6/6+ launch by drastically overpaying for used older iPhones in order to draw in and retain customers.
I fully recognize that. The point being that the big carriers make it look like that is hidden. That's fine if they want to do that. I know what I'm getting into. I know what my money goes towards. I pay $160 a month for 10gb and as a result of that I get cheap phones that I can sell when they are old to pay for the new one in full.
T-Mobile doesn't include it and then hits people with that bomb later. So if you go ahead and do the math, this $100 deal isn't really that great. It's just a glorified prepaid plan with the option to pay a lot more with a phone payment. As long as people recognize that then that's fine.
The problem is that T-Mobile is comparing Apples and Oranges. They should be comparing themselves to StraightTalk and GoPhone. Not Verizon and ATT Postpaid. But we don't see that in their pretty little chart do we?
They are StraightTalk with 0% financing.
It seems you don't know the difference between prepaid and postpaid. Key words being pre- and post-. Just because the cost of the device is separated from the plan (the way it should be), does not equate to prepaid. So you can come off the high horse of comparing TMO to Straighttalk because they abandoned the archaic subsidy model (which VZW/AT&T also followed suit on). Last time I checked Straighttalk didn't offer unlimited data, postpaid service, nor family plans. VZW certainly doesn't view them as a Straighttalk like competitor since they've lowered their prices to compete with them.
It's great that you enjoy your subsidy model and small data plan. But that doesn't work for everyone. With LTE networks getting faster and faster, data allotments are becoming the key differentiator and usage will only continue to increase. For heavy data users, VZW offers no value. That's the whole point of this promotion.