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A comment on Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition in U.S..

Re:Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition... by walterbell on Thursday May 16, 2024 @03:48PM (#40382377)
A government condition of the merger was that T-Mobile had to offer low-cost prepaid plans without an MVNO. The program is called T-Mobile Connect, https://clark.com/cell-phones/connect-by-t-mobile/ & https://coveragecritic.com/t-mobile-connect-review/ & https://prepaid.t-mobile.com/connect/phone-plans

Monthly price for USA-only unlimited talk/text + 5G/LTE data, is $15/5GB, $25/8GB, $35/12GB + taxes/fees.

Outside USA, T-Mobile pSIM Wi-Fi call/text continues to work with cellular/eSIM data from 2nd line.

Eskimo has 2y ("global", excluding Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Qatar, Maldives, Morocco, Oman, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa) and 1y (regional) data eSIMs for about $4/GB, https://www.eskimo.travel

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Re:Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition... by baby-yoda on Thursday May 16, 2024 @07:44PM (#40384709)
IIRC, Connect was proposed as a 5 year solution, I fully expect T-Mobile to discontinue Connect as soon as possible.
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Re:Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition... by walterbell on Thursday May 16, 2024 @11:21PM (#40386052)
Merger was in 2020, which implies that Connect ends next year.

If 2024 wireless price competition is lacking, can US regulators extend Connect beyond 2025?

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Re:Sprint, T-Mobile Merger Killed Wireless Price Competition... by chris-smith on Friday May 17, 2024 @12:19AM (#40386348)
No, but I won't be surprised if the plans stick around longer. Speculating here, but I think odds are good T-Mobile continues to offer them for longer than required & just stops the annual data increase it has been doing
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