T-Mobile’s New Prepaid Plan Undercuts Major Wireless Competition

T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE:TMUS) is constantly updating its service, and most recently, the network lowered and simplified the prices of its prepaid plans. T-Mobile’s new ‘Pay as You Go’ structure, which starts Aug. 17, allows customers to power their phones for a flat rate of 10 cents per minute for talk and text.

T-Mobile is also offering a monthly minimum to ensure users their accounts will remain active. For $3 per month, customers can get 30 minutes of talk or text messages. T-Mobile said in a blog post Monday its new rates are the lowest among major nationwide carriers.

Additionally, prepaid customers can add daily or weekly data to their plans. A one-day pass offers as much as 500 MB of LTE data for $5 while a seven-day pass offers as much as 1GB LTE data for $10.

Prior to detailing its new plan, T-Mobile announced last Wednesday it had overtaken Sprint Corp. (NYSE:S) to become the No. 1 prepaid wireless provider in the nation. T-Mobile reported it has 15.64 million prepaid customers while Sprint has 15.19 million, AT&T has 11.34 million and Verizon Wireless has 6.04 million.

Notably, last Thursday, T-Mobile CEO John Legere predicted the network will overtake Sprint as a whole by the end of the year. The race is currently neck-and-neck, with T-Mobile powering about 50 million subscribers and Sprint slightly ahead with 53 million.

Legere has ensured he and his company are in the news constantly. Following the end of Sprint’s bid to acquire T-Mobile and the introduction of its new CEO Marcelo Claure, Legere took to Twitter hazing Claure in a schoolboy-like tirade.

T-Mobile also just released its own device unlocking application on the Google Play Store. While the app is currently compatible with only one device, the Samsung Galaxy Avant, there is speculation T-Mobile may extend unlocking support to other devices in the future.