T-Mobile CEO Hints at Price Increase For 5G Home Internet

CC™ TechSpective

By Roger Cheng 

Consumers have gravitated towards 5G home internet because of the simple installation and the low price. T-Mobile may tweak the latter in 2024. 

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert suggested as much during his fireside chat at the UBS investor conference on Tuesday. 

“You might see us experiment with rate vs. volume dynamics over this next year,” Sievert said. “We want to make sure we add the most possible value to the business.”

Decoding the business jargon, T-Mobile “experimenting” with the rate indicates a potential higher price. The “volume dynamics” means the number of customers willing to sign up for the service. He knows a more expensive plan may dampen some enthusiasm for the service, but with the company adding roughly half a million new 5G home internet subscribers per quarter, it’s something he can live with. 

The comments underscore the momentum T-Mobile has enjoyed with 5G home internet. While it wasn’t the first company to offer so-called fixed wireless broadband (that would be Verizon), it’s quickly surged into the leadership position over the last year. In the third quarter, it added 557,000 new 5G home internet customers, edging out Verizon’s 384,000 and well ahead of any cable broadband players by a wide margin. 

T-Mobile’s in such a leading position that it’s willing to experiment with the pricing next year. That’s largely because the company sees this as a potentially capped business. It previously projected that 5G home internet service could accommodate as many as 8 million homes, since it uses excess capacity from its cellular network. It expects to hit that goal by 2025, but its current rapid pace means it’s actually ahead of schedule. 

Sievert didn’t go into any detail about a price increase, and the company may not even follow through with his suggestion.

But he added that turnover for the service is falling, and its net promoter scores, which tally how willing a person is to recommend the service, are higher than cable, and in some cases, higher than fiber. 

“It’s a product that’s surprised people,” he said. 

So it’s no wonder Sievert is thinking about raising the price.

CCN

T-Mobile to make major changes to its wireless plans on April 20th

CC™ Mobility Watch

By Alan Friedman

T-Mobile announced this week that it will announce its next Un-carrier move on Thursday, April 20th. The news will be released at 9 am PDT/Noon EDT. In addition, a promotional image shared by T-Mobile has the phrase "Let's Go" right in the middle which dovetails with the rumored new "Go5G" branding for T-Mobile's wireless plans.

T-Mobile is about to shake up its wireless plans according to The Mobile Report. The latter cites multiple sources who claim that the nation's second-largest wireless provider is going to rebrand its top wireless plans under the "Go5G" name. Those subscribed to the current Magenta plans (Magenta Max, Magenta) will be allowed to keep their current plans. The "Go5G" plan will be the basic plan, similar to the Magenta plan. "Go5G" Plus will match Magenta Max.

The report adds that T-Mobile will also be using the "Go5G" name for its enterprise-related Business and Business Plus plans. Also expected are "Go5G" Military and "Go5G" First Responder plans. 

While it isn't known what additional features the new plans might have, one source mentioned by The Mobile Report suggests that there might be more international calling options. Another possibility is that the new plans might not include taxes and fees. As for the pricing of the new plans, when T-Mobile went from its ONE branding to Magenta, prices were the same before and after the change. While that could be the case here, we will have to wait for an official announcement to know for sure.

Besides the "Go5G" plans, the sources have apparently mentioned a plan called Essentials Savings which might be a less-loaded discounted plan similar to the carrier's current Essentials plan. The report claims that there is a company-wide meeting scheduled for this coming Sunday, April 23rd which is when the new branding and plans could be announced. T-Mobile has broken big stories on Sunday before. On April 29th, 2018, a Sunday, T-Mobile announced that it was going to acquire Sprint.

T-Mobile is supposed to announce its first-quarter results on April 27th and analysts expect it to lead the industry in one of the most important industry metrics, net new postpaid phone customers. Additionally, T-Mobile dominated the latest data speed report released by Ookla for the first quarter.

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