T-Mobile has introduced the Better Value Plan designed to directly address customers who desire the best from their plan options without the jumble of add-ons. The plan begins at $140 a month for three lines and relies on a rich bundle of streaming, hotspot, and travel features that the carrier contends its closest rivals can’t beat without charging more.
What You Get with the Better Value Plan from T-Mobile
Unlimited premium data — that is, no regular deprioritization in times of congestion — claims top billing. Power users will be more impacted by the hotspot allotment: unlimited while you’re on its network, but throttled after 250 GB at high speeds to 600 kbps. That in itself surpasses the 50–60 GB caps prevalent on many competing premium plans.
- What You Get with the Better Value Plan from T-Mobile
- How It Compares to T-Mobile’s Other Plans
- Positioning Against AT&T and Verizon’s Premium Plans
- Eligibility and the Fine Print for the Better Value Plan
- Who the Better Value Plan Is Best Suited For
- Bottom line on T-Mobile’s Better Value Plan and pricing
Access to 30 GB of high-speed international data in more than 200 destinations every month, followed by reduced speeds at 256 kbps. T-Mobile is even packaging free satellite connectivity through T-Sat for coverage of hard-to-reach areas and you have the option to pay an extra $10 per month for a Home Internet Backup add-on to keep crucial appliances online during outages.
Entertainment is baked in. The plan comes with Netflix and Hulu at no extra cost, with Apple TV for an additional $3 a month. For households that do a lot of their streaming across multiple services, that bundling also trims the difference between the cost of an unlimited plan and total real monthly savings.
How It Compares to T-Mobile’s Other Plans
It’s more expensive than Good Value and costs about the same as Essentials, at $90 for three lines before taxes and fees, but it offers a lot better value. Essentials has unlimited talk and text, 50 GB of premium data, and little else. It misses out on most streaming benefits, too — and some versions don’t even include basics like Scam Shield.
It is far more interesting to compare it with Experience More. They both are priced at $140 for three lines, but Experience More falls short in some important areas: hotspot is slowed after 60 GB of use; international high-speed data is capped at 15 GB each month; Hulu isn’t included. In real-world value, Better Value offers more headroom for remote work, tethering, and international travel all for the same sticker price.
Positioning Against AT&T and Verizon’s Premium Plans
With those carriers’ current elite packages as a frame of reference, the pitch is audacious. Both usually make premium streaming bundles available but optional, and they cap hotspot around 50–60 GB with international high-speed data sold as a day pass or bitier monthly bucket. By comparison, T-Mobile front-loads generous hotspot and travel data while baking in two major streaming services into the base price.
And here, too, the network backdrop matters. Independent testing by outfits like Opensignal and Ookla has consistently given T-Mobile kudos for wider 5G availability and decent mid-band performance, which counts for users that depend on hotspot data speed and consistent premium data. The benefits are all well and good for people who prioritize velocity and coverage where they live, but if you don’t have the support to take advantage of all that goodness, what’s the point?
Eligibility and the Fine Print for the Better Value Plan
There are strings attached. The Better Value Plan is for three lines or more, and costs about $46 per line (not including taxes and fees). New customers are required to port in two lines or more to be eligible. Current subscribers can change if they have three or more lines and have been with T-Mobile for five years or more.
Once you’re on the plan, you get to keep it, and there’s a five-year price guarantee. Still, consumers should read the terms carefully. Taxes and fees aren’t included, and T-Mobile has previously tweaked the terms of plans, including by breaking taxes and fees out of some plan tiers. If you anticipate heavy usage of hotspot or international data, check the throttling thresholds and speed reductions to make sure they meet your needs.
Who the Better Value Plan Is Best Suited For
This offer is aimed at families and work-from-anywhere households that would otherwise patch together add-ons or bolt for prepaid. A three-line family that relies on hotspot for schoolwork and streams nightly, traveling a few times a year, is likely to see meaningful value. In the meantime, light users focused on the cheapest bill may still be best served with minimalist plans like Essentials or prepaid service.
Bottom line on T-Mobile’s Better Value Plan and pricing
The Better Value Plan isn’t so much a price cut as it is piling more perks in the areas where its competitors are most miserly. Unlimited premium data, a 250 GB hotspot cap, strong international data — and streaming Netflix and Hulu included! — T-Mobile is hoping that a thicker bundle at $140 for three lines can stem defections and bring fence-sitters back into the fold. If you’re eligible and actually use the included features, this is one of the best three-line deals in postpaid right now.
