Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

The merger between the third and fourth largest wireless service providers is finally complete. However, shortly after New T-Mobile turned its attention to spearheading the 5G revolution and challenging the Verizon/ATT oligopoly, it was somewhat concerned about the escalating views of unions on the potential negative impact on the industry (and people).

On the one hand, T-Mo appears to have laid off some employees in its prepaid business, a move many expect to trigger a series of other related layoffs in the coming months. The biggest worry, of course, is that the upcoming market consolidation will give consumers all sorts of price hikes, but while the timing is at least somewhat dubious, No Load insists that changing its Protect 360 plan on April 18 has nothing to do with a merger that could be completed this month.

While not everyone is buying Magenta's explanation, it does make sense, because "the average price of new smartphone devices" has been "rising continuously" over the past few years, and "many new flagship devices now cost more than $1000," which was a no-go zone not long ago. As a result, T-Mobile claims it needs to "adjust" the pricing structure of its Protection 360 program so that wireless networks can "continue to deliver significant revenue" so customers can protect their "precious devices."

In the Protection 360 Tier 5BYOD program, the most valuable devices will be charged $18 per month starting with the first bill on or after April 18, compared to the current monthly fee of $15. Prices for the fourth and third floors will increase from $14 and $12 to $16 and $13, respectively, while prices for the first and second floors will remain unchanged at $7 and $9, respectively.

These are hardly drastic changes as we would say, but of course costs for T-Mobile customers protected by Tier 4 or Tier 5 plans may increase. On the bright side, the Protection 360 plan does include a lot of good stuff, from lost, stolen and accidentally damaged compensation to $29 screen replacement service, McAfee security, Tech PHD tech support and JUMP! Upgrade, yes, even AppleCare supports "qualified" iDevices.

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