T-Mobile eliminates 200MB data plan, new smartphone minimum is 2GB

T-Mobile tells it reps how to sell 2GB of data a month

Quietly, about a week and a half ago T-Mobile eliminated the 200MB monthly data plan it had offered for $10 a month as the minimum amount of data that its customers could purchase from the carrier for a smartphone. Now, the minimum is the Unlimited Plus data plan that can be obtained for $20 a month. The $20 gets you 2GB of data that you can use for web browsing, video or any other type of multimedia. What if you have the 200MB plan and want to keep it? In that case, T-Mobile says that you can continue to buy the old minimum amount of data monthly but when you upgrade to a new phone, you will have to pay the full retail price. That should give many T-Mobile customers the incentive to give up the 200MB plan. 

A leaked memo for T-Mobile reps shows what they are supposed to say to customers who don't want to give up the old minimum. The reps are told to point out that with the 2GB of data, customers never pay more than $20 a month while the 200MB plan had an overage charge of 10 cents per MB up to an additional $30 per month. With the new plan, if you exceed the monthly 2GB cap, your data speed is subject to be throttled. If the customer is persistent about the 200MB, the rep is supposed to downsell him into a featurephone. And after seeing, say, the Samsung Galaxy S III at work, it is hard to think about going back to a non smartphone.

Of course, heavy data users have the option of signing up for T-Mobile's Unlimited Nationwide 4G plan which removes the threat of throttling from the picture.