today: Go5G Plus, which guarantees two-year device payment plans and that existing customers will get the same new phone promotions as new customers. It takes the place of Magenta Max as the carrier’s most expensive plan to the tune of $90 per month with autopay for a single line.
The company is announcing the new plan and a couple of other promotions in an aggressive bid for new customers and is doing so on 4/20 because the company That’s some real “How do you do, fellow kids?” energy.
Go5G Plus includes everything Magenta Max offers, like unlimited premium data, Netflix, and Apple TV Plus, and adds a few more things on top in addition to the phone upgrade perks. There’s an extra 10GB of premium mobile hotspot data for a total of 50GB per month and 15GB of high-speed data in Canada and Mexico.
That’s all well and good, but new device promotions and device payment plan terms seem to be at the center of the new plan. Currently, many “free phone” promotions from T-Mobile and other carriers require you to add a new line or switch to a qualifying plan to take advantage of the deal. That won’t be the case on Go5G Plus — if you have an eligible phone to trade in, you’ll be able to take advantage of a promotion the same as a customer signing up with T-Mobile for the first time and stay on the plan you have.
Go5G Plus also guarantees 24-month payment plans rather than the 36-month plans that are now the norm at Verizon and AT&T. When I asked Mike Katz, T-Mobile’s president of marketing, if that meant the company was considering moving to three-year payment for other customers, he only said that it’s “Not something that’s a part of our plan.”
He also says that taxes and fees are still included on Go5G Plus, so that particular T-Mobile tradition seems to be (mostly) holding up. One more thing that’s clearly not changing? Wireless carriers offering a spectacularly confusing array of plans. That’s sure not going away anytime soon.