In brief: T-Mobile next month will rebrand its prepaid service to Metro by T-Mobile, shedding the PCS suffix and hopefully, the negative stigma associated with prepaid wireless services.
T-Mobile is rebranding its MetroPCS prepaid wireless service in the US in an effort to shed the "outdated perceptions" that prepaid is synonymous with cheap flip phones, bad credit and limited coverage.
Metro by T-Mobile launches next month with two new plans that include some noteworthy perks. The new $50 plan includes "unlimited" LTE data, 5GB of LTE mobile hotspot data and a subscription to Google One. The top-tier plan starts at $60 per month for a single line and grants 15GB of LTE mobile hotspot data, Google One and Amazon Prime. Additional lines can be added at $30 extra per line per month.
Metro's existing $30 and $40 plans persist albeit without the added Google and Amazon perks.
MetroPCS merged with T-Mobile in 2013 but remained a separate brand. Metro has grown to cover to 323 million people, up from just 103 million in 2013.
Earlier this year, T-Mobile announced plans to purchase Sprint for $26 billion but that deal is on hold as the FCC is taking additional time to examine it.
Metro customers may notice a difference in speed compared to T-Mobile customers during times of congestion due to network prioritization, we're told, but otherwise, both use the same network. What's more, customers that use over 35GB of data per month may see reduced speeds during times of congestion until the next payment cycle kicks in.