Before folding Sprint, T-Mobile unveils the best unlimited 5G plan price and free 5G phones

That's right, you can hop on T-Mobile's budding 5G network for just $100 a month for a family of four. In addition, you can add 5G phones towards each line for just $5 a month, a pretty incredible proposition aimed at ballooning T-Mobile's market share after merging the Sprint brand into T-Mobile on August 2. Here's the scoop, as you can see, you'll basically be getting what only the military could get so far.

For a limited time, starting July 24, new and existing customers, including small businesses, have several options to take advantage of this sweet unlimited 5G plan offer by T-Mobile:

1. Get four lines for $25 each per month, plus taxes and fees with autopay on T-Mobile Essentials. Existing customers who already have four lines (or want four lines) can also swap to this new offer. Got (or need) more than four lines? Every additional line after four can be added for just $20 more a line, up to six lines.

2. If you need 5G phones too, for just $5 more per line, get four lines for $30 each per month, plus taxes and fees with autopay on T-Mobile Essentials plus four Samsung Galaxy A71 5G included with bill credits and eligible trade-in.

3. Those who just want a new 5G smartphone on their existing plan, starting July 24, existing T-Mobile and legacy Sprint customers can snag a Samsung Galaxy A71 5G for free or a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G for 50% off with eligible trade in and 24 monthly bill credits.

As if to hammer the point home, T-Mobile released the following comparison table aiming to prove that this is indeed unlike anything that has been offered in the US so far:

Just yesterday, T-Mobile issued a press release detailing its network achievements after the merger with Sprint, and informing us about future plans with the #5GforAll tagline. Cherrypicking from recent Opensignal and Speedtest reports about the state of US carrier networks, it boasts being first for "5G availability," and scoring higher median download speeds on 5G-capable phones than Verizon.

The availability part is quite correct, and T-Mobile really outshines the competition in that regard at the moment, while it conveniently omits to mention that AT&T was first in overall median speed on both LTE and 5G-capable devices. The advantage in coverage comes thanks to T-Mobile's use of low-band spectrum for the initial rollout, and the integration of Sprint's mid-bands.

Both travel way further than Verizon's high-bands which, in turn, are the ones able to deliver those blazing gigabit speeds that put it way ahead of everyone in 5G-only speed measurements.

Still, T-Mobile currently has the widest 5G network coverage, but not nearly by the margin it boasts with here that counts every little hamlet it blankets with 5G, while others count metro areas as one. If we look at the number of people covered - 225 million in total against AT&T's 179 million - the difference in coverage is not quite 2x as T-Mobile is impressing on here based on presence in individual cities and towns rather than metro areas.


Moreover, extra 5G coverage is great, but, for now, its only advantage is speeds, and AT&T gets it beat with the current phones that users have in their hands, while Verizon is the undisputed king in 5G speeds albeit in a very limited area.

Still, what T-Mobile can rightfully boast with, is the future potential of its network. It holds way more spectrum than anyone else, and can cast the widest net going forward with its spectrum layered cake strategy that started from the bottom.


As a result, T-Mobile recently managed to shoot 5G connectivity farther than anyone else, at 60 miles in direct sight. The Un-carrier used its long 5G press release to announce new T-Mobile 5G markets availability on the low-bands:

• Virginia Beach
• Norfolk, Va.
• Richmond, Va.
• Topeka, Kan.
• Sussex County, Del.
• Buffalo, N.Y.

With the acquisition of Sprint, T-Mobile also gained valuable mid-band spectrum at the 2.5 GHz mark, and retrofitted existing towers for it, resulting in 300Mbps average downloads speeds in the parts of Philadelphia and New York where it went live. This mid-band spectrum is now active in more than two cities, with Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles joining the mid-band 5G fun in select downtown areas. All in all, a great network offer for just $25 per line a month and a few bucks more for a phone.