More than five years after T-Mobile’s super-successful acquisition of MetroPCS, the carrier is overhauling its branding and market positioning to attract more customers.
MetroPCS, which had largely kept its separate identity after being acquired, focuses on the so-called prepaid segment of the wireless market, requiring customers to pay up-front every month and typically targeting people with weak or no credit histories and lower incomes. Since T-Mobile bought the unit, its subscriber base has more than doubled to 18 million as the brand spread from just 12 markets to about 100 nationwide currently.
Now T-Mobile tmus wants to make big changes. Starting in October, MetroPCS will be renamed “Metro by T-Mobile” and will add enhanced unlimited data plans in an effort to appeal to a broader customer audience. New advertising will emphasize that its service runs on the same wireless network as T-Mobile. And aligning itself with several other popular brands, both of Metro’s new unlimited plans will include at no additional cost cloud storage from Google’s Google One program and one plan will also include Amazon Prime, the e-commerce giant’s free delivery and video programming service.
The first new Metro plan will start at $50 for one line and run up to $140 for four lines and will include unlimited 4G LTE data for phones, 5 GB per month of tethered data for a connected laptop or tablet, and Google One. The second new plan starts at $60 for one line and goes up to $150 for four lines. It also gets unlimited 4G LTE phone data, 15 GB of tethering data, and includes both Google One and Amazon Prime. Both plans have the industry’s usual caveat of slowing download rates if customers use too much data in a month. Here the threshold is a generous 35 GB. And video streaming is downgraded to DVD-quality.
The new plan prices are set just above Metro’s existing limited data plans, which start at $30 and $40 for one line, and just below regular T-Mobile unlimited plans, which start at $70 for one line. Metro’s prior unlimited plans without the add-ons started at $50 for one line.
A new ad campaign will use the tagline “That’s Genius” and emphasize both that Metro’s service has wide, high-speed coverage thanks to T-Mobile and the links to Google googl and Amazon amzn . That’s in synch with the rest of the wireless industry that is increasingly turning to bundling with popular online brands. AT&T t offers many wireless customers free HBO or its new WatchTV app; Sprint throws in Hulu subscriptions; and Verizon vz grants a six month free trial to Apple Music. T-Mobile itself gives unlimited data customers Netflix nflx .