Earlier this week, we had heard that T-Mobile would be introducing data-only plans on Wednesday, March 30th, and it looks they did just that. It was said over on Reddit that these data-only plans are supposedly geared towards those that are deaf (which means they won’t be making calls anyways, so why bother buying voice minutes?), but these new plans are supposedly going to be easier to get now. These plans are not available online, and T-Mobile is not promoting these really. Although that may change in the near future. In order to get this data-only plan you’ll need to either call T-Mobile’s Telesales to get it set up, or run to your local T-Mobile store. While these plans were meant for hearing impaired users, the carrier is making it available to everyone now. Even if it is somewhat of a secret right now.
The prices are the same as what was rumored earlier this week. So for $20/month you get 2GB, $35 gets you 6GB, $50 gets you 10GB, $65 gets you 14GB, $80 gets you 18GB and $95 gets you 22GB of data per month. It’s not mentioned what happens once you hit your cap, although it is safe to say that once that happens, your data will be slowed down, as usual. While you don’t get phone calls included here, you do still get unlimited texting and the ability to call 911. Which is likely mandated by law.
Here’s the big question though. Many don’t use minutes or very little, each month these days. Where we have tons of services that can make calls without using our minutes and they are free. Will these plans work with consumers that are not hearing-impaired? Most likely. Although we will have to wait and see what happens with these plans. But it definitely sounds like something we’ll see more of in the future. Especially as calls move over to VoIP and VoLTE in the very near future – in fact T-Mobile has already said that the majority of calls on their network are over VoLTE. So the future may not be as far away as we once thought.