T-Mobile Cuts the Bull: No More Contracts and iPhone 5 Release Date!

You know it’s a huge shake-up when the CEO of a company starts cussing. Last Tuesday, T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere stood before a crowd of tech journalists in his bright magenta T-Mo shirt and slammed the wireless industry. Two year contracts? Ew. Confusing plans? Gross. AT&T? Old news.

If you’ve purchased a smartphone in the past 5 years, you’re likely familiar with this process:

1. See if you’re eligible for an upgrade.
2. Wait a few months until you’re eligible.
3. Buy a new phone for $200 and extend your service agreement for another 2 years.

Then a new phone comes out the next month. Then an even cooler one the month after that. Then they cut the price of the phone you just bought in half. Then rumors crop up about the new IMPROVED version of your phone. Then you start up again at Step 1 only to find out you’re only 6 months into a 24 month prison sentence.

Or, you know, you don’t care about that kind of thing. You kinda like your 3GS and don’t see a reason to upgrade. That’s perfectly reasonable. You would likely be forced to give up your unlimited plan anyways.

But how much do you pay per month? And what do you get for your money? Mobile plans have changed quite a bit over the past couple years, with both AT&T and Verizon offering “Mobile Share” plans that create a pool of bytes that you share amongst your plan members. After all these years, is your current plan still right for you?

A Simple Choice

There are the Talkers, the Texters, the Data Hogs, and everyone in between. Carriers have created plans to cater to all types of users, but it’s gotten into a jumbled mess. “Which plan do I sign up for?” is a loaded question for any mobile sales rep.

• How many minutes do you use per month?
• How many texts do you send in a month?
• How much data do you consume in a month?

Answering those three questions should narrow you into the perfect plan. With T-Mo, they take care of the first two questions in one fell swoop: unlimited talk and unlimited text on all plans. The two major takeaways here are: no more contracts and true unlimited data that isn’t throttled. Let’s take a look at the new data options:

T-Mobile no longer offers separate prepaid and postpaid plans. What you see in the graphic above is it. A simple credit check will determine whether you’re eligible to pay at the end of the month, or if you have to pay up front.

Next: No contracts?