In case you see T-Mobile CEO John Legere today asking people via Twitter what they’d spend an extra $1,550.71 if they had it to blow, here’s what’s going on. It’s the so-called Un-carrier’s way of touting the findings of a new study from industry analyst firm Strategy Analytics, which found that T-Mobile’s ONE mobile plan packs in $1,550.71 worth of extra value per line — on top of basics like unlimited talk, text and data. For a family of four, the reported savings gets even higher, up to as much as $5,150.59.
T-Mobile prides itself, as we all know, on presenting the company as distinct from its fellow carriers, which certainly is visible in the company’s announcement of these study results. That $1,550.71 worth of extras, the company good-naturedly raves, is the equivalent of 364 Pumpkin Spice lattes, 31 slow cookers and 310 orders of avocado toast.
“Through the inclusion of taxes and fees and a wide range of offers with broad appeal across sports, travel, video and retail, T-Mobile ONE can bring customers more than $1,500 in value-adds per year,” said Susan Welsh de Grimaldo of Strategy Analytics. “That’s a significant benefit that no other carrier comes close to providing in comparable plans.”
According to the analysis, no other carrier even reaches a $500 per line per year value-add for customers. With T-Mobile ONE, meanwhile, taxes and fees are included, plus extras like a standard Netflix subscription. Other features include unlimited data that won’t see any kind of slowdown until you pass 50GB of usage in a month, and video streaming quality is limited to 480p. With the plan, you also get “scam ID,” so you can see when calls come in from potential spammers.
You can get a rundown of T-Mobile ONE plan details and features here. From the Strategy Analytics report: “While many Un-carrier features have been replicated across the industry, there is still significant unique value add packed into T-Mobile ONE. These include free subscriptions to Netflix (for family plans) and MLB.TV, free use of Gogo’s inflight Wi-Fi service, the inclusion of taxes and fees in the listed monthly plan price, free Scam ID protection and blocking, the free offers and discounts included in T-Mobile Tuesdays including most recently discount tickets to Live Nation concerts and a free year of Pandora Plus. Not all subscribers will be interested in all of these elements, but a savvy user able to access all of these offers could garner $1,550 per annum in free offers and savings versus other wireless plans.”
T-Mobile released the analysis results under embargo Wednesday, the same day designated as the final day for opposing arguments to be filed with the FCC related to the pending merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. Executives of both carriers this week reiterated their optimism that the deal is headed for approval.
