New York –T-Mobile’s Classic rate plans, which incorporate subsidized handsets and two-year contracts, are still available through indirect retailers, but T-Mobile narrowed the range of Classic plans to a single new plan.
Likewise, T-Mobile scaled back the number of no-contract, no-subsidy Value Plans available through the indirect channel to one. Like its predecessors, the new no-contract Value Plans are available with the purchase of a SIM card or with the purchase of a full-price unsubsidized handset.
In another change, T-Mobile structured the new indirect-channel plans to make them similar to the carrier’s new no-contract, no-subsidy Simple Choice plan, which launched exclusively in carrier stores this week to replace a mix of Classic and Value plans.
The new Classic, Value and Simple Choice plans consist of a single base plan with unlimited talk and messaging, 500MB of 4G data, and unlimited 2GB data after the 500MB cap is exceeded. Consumers can also opt to pay extra to raise their 4G data caps in increments of 2GB or opt for unlimited 4G data. The monthly cost of service under the new no-contract Value plan and under the new no-contract Simple Choice plan is the same, but the new Classic plan’s service prices are higher because handsets are subsidized.
Indirect retailers Wirefly and Walmart and Staples are among the indirect retailers that have rolled out the new Classic and new Value. Staples and Walmart offer both plans on their websites but offer only the new Classic plan in their brick-and-mortar stores. The new Classic plan has been rolled out to national retailers nationwide, Staples said.
As previously reported, indirect retailers haven’t yet launched plans under the Simple Choice name. “To offer the plans/unsubsidized handsets, we have to modify some of our systems because we’re not currently set up for that,” one retailer previously told TWICE. “I believe other retailers are in the same boat.”
For its part, Walmart offers T-Mobile’s new Classic Plan and new Value Plan as well as another no-contract T-Mobile plan. The retailer, however, has “no plans to offer Simple Choice at this time.” She added, “We are always evaluating different products and services.”
For its part, Staples confirmed it is not offering Simple Choice plans because “T-Mobile is not offering this to any of their retail partners at this time.”
