Ultra Mobile and Univision, MVNOs on the T-Mobile network, have increased the amount of data included with the majority of their plans. The increased data however, is at 3G speeds.
Univision Mobile is actually powered by Ultra Mobile and the two MVNOs offer essentially the same plans and features. For the rest of this write up, I'll simply refer to Ultra Mobile to cover the updated plans and features offered by both.
Ultra Mobile has not specified what 3G speed is other than to say that it offers "high-speed performance" that "is slightly slower than 4G LTE." This could be that the company is offering 3G speeds equivalent to HSPA+ which in the real world may be 2-3 Mbps. This is the speed I got when I set my LeEco Le Pro 3 phone to 3G priority network mode on T-Mobile. Other speculation is that speeds may be limited to 512 Kbps as that is what T-Mobile's calls 3G for its T-Mobile ONE plan.
Ultra Mobile is referring to this bonus 3G data as DataXtra and it will be included with any plan priced $29 and up. Ultra Mobile's plans with DataXtra offer data in tiers. Subscribers will get an allotment of 4G LTE data, and when that is exhausted, DataXtra will kick in, and when that is exhausted you'll be left with unlimited but throttled 2G data. 2G data speeds are at a minimum of 64 Kbps according to the companies terms of service.
Plan Changes
A summary of Ultra Mobile's plans and their changes are described below.
All plans with DataXtra include unlimited 2G data.
Taxes and fees are not included with the prices shown, and they vary based on location.
- $19- 100 MB (hard capped) data, unlimited calls to 60 international destinations (previously 30), $1.25 int'l call credit, $10 int'l roaming credit
- $24- 500 MB (hard capped) 4G data (previously 100 MB), unlimited calls to 30 international destinations, $7 int'l call credit, $10 int'l roaming credit
- $29- 1 GB 4G data+ 1 GB 3G DataXtra, unlimited calls to 60 international destinations, $2.50 int'l call credit, $10 int'l roaming credit
- $34- 2 GB 4G data + 2 GB 3G DataXtra, unlimited calls to 60 international destinations (previously 30), 0 int'l call credit, $10 int'l roaming credit
- $39- 2 GB 4G data + 2 GB 3G DataXtra, unlimited calls to 60 international destinations, $2.50 int'l call credit, $10 int'l roaming credit
- $45 (previously $44)- 5 GB 4G data (previously 1 GB) + 2 GB 3G DataXtra, unlimited calls to 60 international destinations (previously 30), $0 int'l call credit (previosly 20), $15 int'l roaming credit
- $49 (previously $54)- 2 GB 4G data + 2 GB 3G DataXtra, unlimited calls to 30 international destinations, $20 int'l call credit, $15 int'l roaming credit
The plan changes are certainly a welcome addition to subscribers of each of these MVNOs. As the main carrier networks begin to explore 5G technology, I imagine at some point in the future all plans will include unlimited 3G speeds as opposed to the 2G speeds we typically see now with unlimited but throttled data plans.