MetroPCS Drops 4G LTE Rate to $40

In advance of Verizon Wireless releasing its first 4G LTE phones at the CES trade show Thursday, MetroPCS dropped its LTE plan prices today to as low as $40 per month for 4G service.

Budget carrier MetroPCS launched LTE service back in September, but its goals are very different from Verizon's. While Verizon seems to be positioning LTE as a lightning-fast Internet service for smartphones and USB modems, MetroPCS focuses on providing a 3G-like service for very affordable rates, with faster speeds coming later down the line.

The carrier currently only has one 4G LTE phone, the Samsung Craft, with LTE service in nine metro areas: Boston, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, LA, New York, Philadelphia, Sacramento, and San Francisco. More cities, along with 4G smartphones, will be coming early next year, the carrier has said.

The new $40 plan includes unlimited talk, text, Web browsing, and YouTube. The catch is that the Craft's Web browser isn't quite up to smartphone standards; we'll see if the price holds when MetroPCS brings out its Android phones.

Metro's new $50 plan also includes international text messaging, turn-by-turn GPS navigation, IM, e-mail, and 1GB of data usage for downloads. The $60 plan includes unlimited data access, streaming video and music downloads.

We're going to see a lot more 4G devices and network announcements this week. Verizon's anticipated half-dozen 4G phones and tablets are the most prominent, but T-Mobile is promising more 4G HSPA+ devices, and Sprint may also make some WiMAX announcements. We'll have the full details day by day from the CES trade show.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

Read the latest from Sascha Segan

Read full bio