MetroPCS Expanding Market, Making Changes

T-Mobile’s MVNO brand, MetroPCS is shaking things up again this week with a slew of changes including introducing service to 10 new markets, a solid date to close their CDMA network and double the data for some customers–no doubt in response to Boost Mobile’s new data options announced earlier this week.

Expanding Markets

New markets to get MetroPCS are:

• Chattanooga, TN
• Chicago, IL
• Kansas City, MO
• Milwaukee, WI
• Mineapolis/St. Paul, MN
• Norfolk/Portsmouth/Newport News, VA
• Salt Lake City, UT
• St. Louis, MO
• Yakima/Pasco, WA
• Richland/Kennewick, WA

According to T-Mobile, MetroPCS has expanded its market from 6,000 points of sale in 15 metropolitan areas to nearly 11,000 points of sale in 55 metropolitan areas including the newest additions to the network.

Goodbye, CDMA

The press release also confirmed that T-Mobile is continuing to move towards shutting down MetroPCS’ CDMA network and encourages customers to switch to GSM. The word is that the carrier intends to completely shut down the CDMA network by the end of 2015. T-Mobile reported that they have had great success getting customers to switch to GSM, keeping about 92% of customers in Boston, Hartford, CN, and Las Vegas.

Plan Changes

Effective immediately, customers on the “$40, Period” rate plan will receive double the data–from 500 MB to 1 GB–before being throttled. Likewise, customers on the Metro $50 plan will see an increase from 2.5 GB to 3 GB. The $60 plan will remain unchanged. Additionally, MetroPCS is running a promotion for a new family plan with four lines for $100 per month. Each line will get unlimited voice and text as well as 1 GB of data before throttling. You can get more info on their site, but I haven’t seen any indication as to when this promotion will end.]]>