T-Mobile USA drops unlimited voice plan to $50*: (*For select customers)

T-Mobile USA Inc. is offering a $50-per-month unlimited voice plan to its veteran customers nationwide. In combination with the recent price cut on its unlimited data and unlimited text monthly add-on price to $35 per month, according to a customer service representative, T-Mobile USA has an industry-low $85 per month unlimited voice, text and data offering.
Peter Dobrow, spokesman for T-Mobile USA, said there are offers out there, but would not provide specific details or confirm the reduced unlimited data and text price.
“We are offering select customers pricing plans that reward their loyalty to T-Mobile,” Dobrow said. “We are not providing further comment.”
News initially broke that the carrier was running the $50 promotion in San Francisco, but as of today, any customer in any location who has been with T-Mobile USA for 22 months or longer can sign up for the promotion. Editorial staff at RCRWireless.com successfully signed up two users in different locations for the $50 plan.
As a part of the deal, customers can add additional lines under the same unlimited offering for an even cheaper rate of $40 per month per line, which in combination with the $35 unlimited data/text package, provides a $75 per month unlimited offering. The carrier is also offering a $135 credit to customers that bring a new customer from a different carrier onto their family plan.
This is a is significantly lower than customers who signed up for T-Mobile USA’s normal unlimited voice and text offer, which runs $100 per month.
The new pricing nearly matches Sprint Nextel Corp.’s Boost Mobile’s recent launch of its unlimited everything plan for $50 per month and seems to indicate increased competition around the $50 per month price point. Regional unlimited carriers MetroPCS Communications Inc. and Leap Wireless International Inc. both operate aggressively near that price point.
Bill Ho, an analyst at Current Analysis, said that because this promotion is a retention deal, it brings to light some of T-Mobile USA’s recent downfalls, including its modest fourth-quarter results.
“Last quarter they showed that their churn was bad so retention is key,” Ho said. “But one of the bad things about retention deals is publicity. From a carrier perspective, you don’t want to offer retention deals because it means that people are leaving and it might cannibalize the people who are really, really good at working the system.”
Ho added that T-Mobile USA confirmed the nationwide availability of the new offering to the research firm.
Further, Ho said this move is a strategic way for T-Mobile USA to fight back against competitors without initiating a rate-plan battle.
“No carrier wants to be dragged into a price war,” Ho said. “By doing the retention deal, they’re kind of containing it in a way.”