T-Mobile Drops Family-Plan Price in Latest Shot at AT&T, Verizon

In another aggressive bid for subscribers, T-Mobile unveiled a new family plan that undercuts rivals AT&T and Verizon on price.

Chief Executive John Legere used the company’s blog — sprinkled liberally with his trademark pokes at rivals — to announce a limited-time offer in which a family of four can receive unlimited talk, text and up to 10 gigabytes of data for $100 a month.

Comparable plans, such as AT&T’s Share Value, Verizon’s More Everything and Sprint’s Family plan, cost $60 more every month.

“It doesn’t take a genius, right?” Legere wrote. “That’s $60 in your wallet every month for a family of four — or $1,440 over two years.”

Legere singled out AT&T for special ridicule, calling the rival’s “Best Ever” pricing promotion “a joke.”

There are, of course, caveats in T-Mobile’s own special offer, which is available from June 30 through September. While the deal is cheaper on its face, the data usage isn’t shared among family members — it’s set at 2.5 gigabytes per line. And the Simple Choice pricing for a family of four, with the data option, ends on Jan. 2, 2016.

T-Mobile’s promotion also doesn’t include an early upgrade option, as AT&T’s Next or Verizon’s More Everything plans do. T-Mobile subscribers will pay an additional $10 per line, per month — or $40 more a month, for a family of four — to take advantage of T-Mobile’s Jump upgrade program.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Kevin Manning wrote that he doubts Legere’s new deal will attract many new subscribers — in part, because the offer has a time limit. But it may help to reduce churn, the loss of subscribers to other carriers, ahead of an anticipated introduction in September of the new iPhone, he wrote.

T-Mobile’s offer comes after AT&T posted significant subscriber gains in its second quarter, and Verizon saw gains, thanks to a jump in tablet use.

The carrier reports earnings on July 31.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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