T-Mobile Launches $40 Prepaid, May Bring YotaPhone 2 to US

T-Mobile continues to cause trouble for the mobile industry, slashing prices, and generally disrupting the power carriers have over their customers. Its latest initiative is called “Simply Prepaid,” and offers inexpensive, contract-free service for prepaid mobile customers. Additionally, some reports say that the carrier will bring one of the more interesting Android handsets – the YotaPhone 2 – to the United States this spring.

Starting on January 25, Simply Prepaid will give customers three plan option: $40 a month for unlimited data, talk and text and up to 1GB of 4G LTE, and $50 and $60 plans that increase the LTE access to 3GB and 5GB, respectively. When you’ve hit your data cap, you won’t get an overage fee – just throttled speed. Sure, that’s not fun, but it sure does beat getting slammed with a charge.

Meanwhile, a post on Android Authority reports that T-Mobile will be the first carrier to bring the YotaPhone 2, made by Russian mobile company Yota, to the United States. As you may recall, the YotaPhone 2 is an Android smartphone that features a full LCD touchscreen on one side, and a low-power e-ink touch display on the rear, meaning that you can save power (and your eyesight) while still using your phone’s functions.

It’s an interesting device that I’m definitely very interested in. For instance, I spend a fair amount of time reading webpages or Kindle books on my phone. But if I’m just reading text, why waste all that power on a full color display? An e-ink display would be a great way to enjoy the same kind of content in a much more enjoyable way.

The post says that T-Mobile could bring the YotaPhone 2 to the States somewhere between March and April, but as of now, none of this is confirmed. Moreover, the price of the device over here is up in the air. Currently, it costs €699 in Europe, which translates to roughly $850 in US currency. That’s pretty pricey despite its cool features, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the price came down a bit if T-Mobile brings it over.

If nothing else, the YotaPhone 2 and the new Simply Prepaid plans show how serious T-Mobile is about doing things a little differently.

[Sources: T-Mobile, Android Authority]