T-Mobile unveils new plans, but is there really anything new here that matters?

Author’s note: This piece has been lightly edited from its original form to make it clear that Experience More and Beyond do not include taxes and fees in the pricing. 

It seems the Go5G era is drawing to a close, as T-Mobile has just announced its new Experience plans, which are essentially rebranded and slightly enhanced versions of Go5G Plus and Go5G Next. The new plans are being marketed as better value for the money. Ironically, this comes on the heels of another round of price hikes for some legacy customers. Another change is the introduction of an updated version of T-Mobile’s price lock guarantee — clearly a response to Verizon’s recently announced three-year price lock.

The two new plans go into effect tomorrow, April 23. Here’s what we know:

• Experience More: This plan builds on Go5G Plus by adding 10GB of extra hotspot data, free T-Satellite with Starlink through year’s end, and a $5 per line discount. Of course, that discount goes away when you realize this plan doesn’t include taxes and fees for free.
• Experience Beyond: This new plan upgrades Go5G Next with 250GB of hotspot data (up from 50GB), doubles the Canada/Mexico high-speed data to 30GB, adds 15GB of high-speed data in 210+ countries, and includes T-Satellite service for free indefinitely.

Let’s be real: There’s nothing new here that’s going to matter to most consumers, and for Experience More, the addition of taxes and fees could be a real dealbreaker.

T-Mobile knows the majority of customers don’t even use the hotspot data they already have, so this is an easy way to advertise more value without much added cost on their part. That’s especially clear in the announcement video, where CEO Mike Sievert repeatedly claims these plans add “hundreds of dollars in value” —without clearly explaining why most people should care.

To be fair, Experience Beyond is a real upgrade for international travelers or heavy hotspot users. And for those on Go5G Next, the new perks will be added automatically, so there’s no need to switch. Still, if you don’t need more data or travel perks, these changes likely won’t matter, especially since the price of Beyond isn’t changing. Unfortunately, you’re also charged taxes and fees here, too.

The real highlight of the new Experience plans is the previously mentioned 5-year guarantee. Supposedly, the new lock ensures rates won’t be raised across the new T-Mobile plans for the next five years. This guarantee also applies to its other postpaid and internet plans. I’m still trying to find more of the fine print details behind the guarantee (hopefully we’ll learn more tomorrow), but considering how wobbly T-Mobile’s previous price locks have become, I imagine there’s a lot of fine print and caveats here, just like with the new Verizon guarantee.

I asked T-Mobile to clarify what will happen to its existing Go5G plans. While it didn’t specifically state if the base Go5G plan will still be available tomorrow and beyond, T-Mobile did state the new plans are the company’s core offerings, but that legacy subscribers can keep the existing plans as is.

Overall, these new plans are 100% about perception and marketing. The announcement video takes several jabs at its rivals, while effectively playing the same game as the other two big carriers are known for. Are these new plans worth it? I’d say no in most cases, and that’s due to the fact that you’re now charged extra for taxes and fees.