T-Mobile’s Magenta plan to match AT&T, Verizon, Sprint deals
T-Mobile is about to offer a fresh sweetener for prospective customers reluctant to leave AT&T, Verizon or Sprint because they are grandfathered into a corporate, affiliate, senior, military or other special discount they don’t want to lose.
For those people willing to switch to a new T-Mobile plan called Magenta, the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier says it will match (and sometimes beat) those eligible rival discounts and let you keep the new Magenta rate plan and discount until you choose to change your plan.
Magenta is the newly-named offshoot of the existing T-Mobile One plan, its top unlimited plan. T-Mobile One starts at $70 for a single line monthly with autopay; four lines are $160 a month.
Some 30% of wireless customers with discounts stay put, even if they’ve soured on their present carrier, because they think their deal is unbeatable. That’s according to a HarrisX Mobile Insights survey among subscribers who have not switched providers in the past year and receive a discount on their wireless plan through a relationship their employer has with the provider.
To take advantage of the match offer, you will have to bring your latest AT&T, Verizon or Sprint bill to a T-Mobile store for an employee to confirm you have an eligible discount. If so, that discount will be matched dollar for dollar – in $5 increments, up to $15 for one line and $30 total for two or more lines.
T-Mobile claims such a deal might beat the discount you’re currently getting. As anincentive, switchers who sign on for Magenta and purchase either of Samsung’s new S10 Galaxy phones – the S10 or S10e – can get up to $900 off a second one of equal or lesser value.
The new Magenta plan differs from T-Mobile One in a couple of ways, apart T-Mobile is still waiting on regulatory approval for its pending merger with Sprint.
from the name change.
Customers will get 3GB of high-speed smartphone hotspot – or tethering – per line. You’ll still get unlimited tethering if you surpass 3GB, albeit at lower speeds. T-Mobile ONE had no LTE hotspot.
But while T-Mobile giveth, it also taketh away.
To account for Netflix’s recent price increase, T-Mobile’s own Netflix perk is a little less sweet.
The Magenta plan for families will come with Netflix Basic, Netflix’s cheapest plan which lacks HD and lets you or a family member watch Netflix content only on a single screen at a time.
T-Mobile One came with Netflix Standard, a tier above plan that provides HD streams where available and that would permit you and other members of your kin to watch content on two screens simultaneously.
Those on T-Mobile One can choose to keep Netflix Standard but must pay (starting in July) an extra $2 per month for the privilege, as T-Mobile passes along Netflix’s cost increase.
If you’re not good with that, you can turn off the “Netflix on Us” bonus or switch to the Magenta plan.
T-Mobile is still waiting on regulatory approval for its pending merger with Sprint. It got a boost this week, when the Federal Communications Commission announced that it was blessing the corporate marriage.