T-Mobile’s disruptive impact on the wireless industry until now has been largely limited to consumer services. But the company hopes to change that with its “Un-carrier for Business,” a.k.a. Un-carrier 9.0, strategy announced today. As with previous Un-carrier announcements the new offering claims substantial savings in comparison with what is available from traditional carriers.
AT&T and Verizon currently dominate the business market for wireless services, with business wireless representing about 40% of each company’s total business, according to T-Mobile President and CEO John Legere, who announced “Un-carrier for Business” at an event in New York today.
Using his characteristically four-letter word-laden style, Legere noted that 70% of business customers say wireless service plans are not as transparent as they would like. Businesses, he said, have to haggle with AT&T or Verizon sales representatives to get pricing.
T-Mobile aims to change that, Legere said, noting that “the best price is the only price.”
Un-carrier 9.0
With Un-carrier 9.0, business customers can get 10 lines for $160, 100 lines for $1500 and 1,000 lines for $15,000 monthly. Service includes unlimited talk and text along with two gigabytes of data per month. Extra data starts at $4.75 per gigabyte and drops to as low as $4.25 per gigabyte for a terabyte of data.
Individual lines can have data boosted to an unlimited level for $30 monthly or customers can buy 100 gigabytes of pooled data for sharing among specific lines.
According to Legere a typical small business might save 42% in comparison with buying the same service from AT&T or Verizon.
Un-carrier 9.0 also addresses another opportunity related to business wireless. According to Legere, it’s quite common for consumer accounts to use the same carrier that someone in the family uses for business wireless. For customers such as these, T-Mobile will count the business line as the first line on a family plan – an offering the company says saves as much as 50% on a Simple Choice family plan.
Legere also cited studies showing that 56% of respondents don’t trust a business without a website yet 50% of companies don’t have a website. He also noted that 94% of small businesses don’t have a mobile optimized website and that consumers have a higher level of trust in companies with branded email addresses.
To address findings such as these, T-Mobile is offering business customers a free .com domain and website optimized for mobile viewing. Business customers also can get free custom .com email addresses “powered by Microsoft Office 365” at the rate of one free email address per line that has additional paid data associated with it.
Un-contract and Carrier Freedom
Also today T-Mobile announced two new consumer offerings – an “Un-contract” offering that locks in current rates as long as customers remain with T-Mobile and a “Carrier Freedom” program that will pay customers up to $650 per line to cover outstanding phone or tablet payments when they switch from AT&T Next, Verizon Edge or other carrier equipment installment or leasing plans.
