Lycamobile has eliminated 3 of its cell phone plans while increasing data on another.
Perhaps the most interesting change for its customers and would be subscribers is that Lycamobile's $35 plan now comes with 6 GB of high speed data before throttling whereas it previously contained 5 GB. The plan also includes unlimited talk and text both domestically and internationally, with international talk and text provided free of charge to over 60 countries. Mobile hotspot is not included.
Not all taxes and fees are included with the plan. When I added the plan to my cart, a $1.75 "regulatory recover fee" was tacked on to the $35 price, although to my surprise sales tax was not.
In addition to the plan change, Lycamobile discontinued its "International plans." Although, with the exception of the company's unlimited data plan, all of Lycamobile's cell phone plans include international calling and texting. The International plans differed from the other plans by providing subscribers with larger call anywhere credits and some provided more international calling and texting countries than the standard plans.
The plans that got discontinued were a $39 and $49 plan that came with 1 GB of high speed data, and a $59 plan that came with 3 GB of high speed data. The $39 plan also offered unlimited calls and texts to over 70 countries plus $6.25 call anywhere credit while the $49 plan came with unlimited talk and text to 30+ countries plus a $25 call anywhere credit. The $59 plan came with unlimited calls and texts to over 75 countries plus a $5 call anywhere credit.
Given hot little data the discontinued plans came with, their elimination is no surprise.
Lycamobile's altered cell phone plan lineup now includes 6 plans instead of 9, which are summarized below.
- $19 plan – unlimited talk and text, 100 MB at 4G LTE speeds, unlimited talk and text to 60+ countries
- $23 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with 1 GB at 4G LTE, unlimited talk and text to 60+ countries and a $1.50 international calling credit
- $29 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with 1 GB at 4G LTE; unlimited talk and text to 65+ countries, $2.50 international calling credit and international bonus minutes
- $35 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with 6 GB at 4G LTE (was 5 GB), unlimited talk and text to 60+ countries
- $45 plan – unlimited talk, text and data with 7 GB at 4G LTE, unlimited talk and text to 60+ countries. 200 domestic texts and 200 domestic roaming minutes are also included
- $50 plan – unlimited talk, text and 4G LTE data with data speeds that may temporarily slow down during times of heavy network traffic once more than 32 GB has been consumed in a month. 200 domestic texts and 200 domestic roaming minutes are also included
Lycamobile's unlimited LTE data plan still mirrors that of Ultra Mobile's where customers who purchase service 3 months in advance can get their 4th month free of charge.
Analysis
Lycamobile's cell phone plan lineup changes makes sense and in some ways were a bit overdue. The international plans should have been eliminated awhile ago, as they provided very little value to customers.
The addition of 1 GB more data to Lycamobile's $35 plan gives the company a cell phone plan that is competitively priced no matter which network you are looking for service with. As a T-Mobile MVNO, Lycamobile's plan offers more data than any competing T-Mobile MVNO does at that price point. Of course if you have an Amazon Prime subscription you can get an unlimited data plan for $37.50/month from Simple Mobile. Likewise, Ultra Mobile and Lycamobile's own multi-month plans can also be considered as they both offer unlimited LTE data right around that same $37.50 price point. Then there's Mint SIM which offers unlimited talk, text and 10 GB of LTE data for $30/month for customers willing to pay for service 6 months in advance.
In addition to the plan changes, Lycamobile continues to offer 20% off to new customers through the use of the coupon code LYCA20 at checkout.
Those that shop at Amazon can get 20% off a Lycamobile phone plan and sometimes even more without a coupon code needed.