T-Mobile adds HD video and 10GB of high-speed tethering to its unlimited plan in response to Verizon's new unlimited plan
HD video and 10GB of high-speed tethering starting Friday — It's been only a day since Verizon resurrected its unlimited data plan, and the company's competitors …
Context & Ripple Effects
When T-Mobile launched its $70 unlimited high-speed plan last August, HD video was deliberately held back as an upsell — first via $25 add-ons, then via $3/day passes on the One Plus tier. That monetization strategy lasted about six months.
On February 13, Verizon re-entered unlimited data at $80 for one line or $45 per line on four, bundling 10GB of LTE tethering and a 22GB throttle threshold. T-Mobile's response came within a day: HD video and 10GB of high-speed tethering folded into its base unlimited plan at no extra charge.
First-order effects
- T-Mobile's existing unlimited subscribers get HD streaming and 10GB of tethering starting Friday without paying the $25/month premium that was previously the only path to HD video.
- Verizon's tethering allowance — a headline feature of its new plan — is neutralized as a differentiator before it can drive switching.
Second-order effects
- The remaining big carriers now face pressure to match both plans' terms, since the February 20 comparison coverage shows unlimited has become the competitive baseline across all four networks.
- T-Mobile's HD-video upsell revenue stream is effectively cannibalized by its own response, trading near-term ARPU for subscriber defense against Verizon's relaunch.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, carrier competition shifts from data caps to feature bundles — video resolution, tethering allowances, and throttle thresholds — making 'unlimited' a commodity whose price floor gets set by whichever carrier moves fastest, as T-Mobile did here.
- The episode suggests the era of metered-data pricing among major US carriers is structurally over, with each carrier's profitability hinging instead on network capacity costs it can no longer bill around.
The trend: Competition from T-Mobile is forcing the biggest US carriers back into unlimited data plans, resetting wireless pricing around bundled features rather than usage caps.