At a press conference in California T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere, took the stage to announce its “Un-carrier X” plans. The announcements are still exciting, and will surely have more users looking at T-Mobile for service as they becoming cheaper and easier to deal with than AT&T or Verizon. The first part of the announce is like Music Freedom, but is tailored to watching tv and movies. The second part is new updated data allotments with a promotions for families.
The “Bing On” move is similar to Music Freedom, allows customers to stream an unlimited amount of tv or movies from select services. The services include Netflix, Sling TV, watchESPN, Starz, Encore, Vevo, Hulu, HBO Now, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Crackle, Ustream and even AT&T’s DirecTV and Verizon’s Go90 service. Most notably left out is YouTube, but T-Mobile claims it’s working to add them to the list. The video will stream at 480p or the same quality as DVD’s but you can use your data to stream at a higher quality. The move means your data allotment won’t be eaten away quickly when you’re traveling and trying to entertain yourself at the airport.
The second part of the announcement is new data allotments for new and existing users. Instead of offering 1GB, 3GB and 5GB packages, T-Mobile will now offer 2GB, 6GB and 10GB packages at the same costs.T-Mobile is also running a massive deal for families; “Family Match” allows a family of four to have four lines with 6GB of data per line for $120 per month. Previously families each had 3GB, but it cost $140. With Binge On families won’t have to worry about streaming movies when they travel together or when they’re kids are playing on their phones at the grocery store.
The changes are surely going to shack up the mobile market, but I doubt we’ll see At&T, Verizon, or even Sprint mimicking this promotion. Many have argued the Music Freedom is against Net Neutrality rules, but T-Mobile seems confident that these promotions won’t be challenged by the government.
Tell us in the comments below what you think about T-Mobile’s Bing On and Music Freedom, and if these promotions have made you think about switching if you’re on another carrier.