T-Mobile Announces New Unlimited (2G) Prepaid Plans Starting At $40

If you’re someone who wants a prepaid mobile plan that includes unlimited talk, text and data access for things like checking e-mail or occasionally browsing the Internet, T-Mobile’s new Simply Prepaid plans may be worth looking into.

The new plans, which start at $40/month and go on sale Jan. 25, will offer the typical unlimited talk and text that most people are used to. They also provide unlimited data — but only to the provider’s much-slower 2G network (download speeds of 128kbps, compared to max. of 8Mbps for 4G). How much you pay for the plan depends on how much you want to use T-Mobile’s faster 4G LTE data.

(NOTE: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that the unlimited data was on T-Mobile’s 3G network, rather than the slower 2G connections. The story has been corrected to reflect the actual speeds of this data.)

The $40 plan includes 1GB of 4G LTE. For $50/month, that increases to 3GB of 4G LTE, which is currently enough for the average smartphone user. If you want 5GB of LTE each month, the rate goes up to $60.

While Simply Prepaid users will have access to other T-Mobile features like WiFi phone calls at no extra charge, they won’t get certain benefits offered to the company’s postpaid customers — like access to numerous streaming music services that won’t count against users’ data allotments.

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