Update Mar 3 – According to Phonescoop, this trial is now nationwide!
I am pleased and a bit surprised to see T-Mobile USA offer $49.99 flat rate calling to “loyal” customers (customers in good standing and with acounts active for >22 months). This is just a pilot and based on this blog post, it looks to be limited to the SF Bay Area.
This is a big step for a US mobile operator. To my knowledge, voice ARPU for US mobile operators averaged around $40-50 dollars per month. The existing flat rate plans (at $99) come at a significant premium over normal rate plans for the **average** user (100+%). With this new pricing model T-Mobile makes the step to flat rate usage at ~25% increase, a far more palatable step up in pricing.
It will be interesting to see how AT&T, Verizon, and in particular Sprint will respond. Is this the end of tiered rate plans? If this plays out, the impact to enterprises will be significant – more mobile usage, but more importantly, more mobile users. Enterprises can easily justify rolling out mobile devices to a greater user base at neutral to lower overall cost.
I will keep my eyes on this one – I am keen to see if this pilot rolls out nationwide.
Pej
Read the post on Cellphone Signal