T-Mobile USA is ramping up its game by lowering rates for its smartphone plans as it looks to attract new customers, especially families and teenagers.

The exact pricing details were not made available by T-Mobile but, according to reports, the news plans include unlimited talking and texting with 2 GB of data for $59.99 a month. T-Mobile?s current pricing for a similar plan is $80.

?This is to make data more attractive to families ? that?s the main market T-Mobile is going after,? said Tole Hart, a senior analyst at Yankee Group, Boston. ?They are trying to target the teenage group that is interested in using data and texting.?

?This makes T-Mobile more competitive,? he said.

Competitive moves
Under the new pricing, the price for a family plan drops to $100 from $140.

The new pricing helps make T-Mobile more competitive with other carriers.

?T-Mobile has had trouble gaining customers in recent quarters,? Mr. Hart said. ?They have to be able to have an attractive story for customers.?

With AT&T?s $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile not expected to go through for a year, T-Mobile still needs to be able to compete in the carrier space. 

The move comes at time when most of the carrier networks are tweaking their pricing and plan strategies to address both growing bandwidth consumption and competition in the space.

Earlier this month Verizon Wireless said it would eliminate unlimited data plans. Similar moves were made in recent months by T-Mobile and AT&T, both of which dropped unlimited data plans in favor of a tiered pricing structure.

T-Mobile is facing pressure from other sides as well, with reports that some dealers may be looking to abandon the brand instead of waiting to see what happens when and if the merger with AT&T goes through.

AT&T?s deal for T-Mobile faces scrutiny from regulators who are concerned that the deal would decrease competition in the space and drive up prices since the deal would make AT&T the largest U.S. mobile carrier.

T-Mobile?s new Value plans are available on any of its phones and mobile broadband devices, including 4G smartphones and tablets. The plans are available with a two-year agreement for new and existing customers.

The new pricing goes into effect on July 24.

From a data perspective, the plans are similar to what was offered previously, with customers? first two gigabytes of data covered. After that, customers have to buy more data or have their speed slowed down to 2G.

Value plan customers who purchase a device can pay an upfront down payment on a new device and make low, interest-free payments for the full price of the product.

Value plan customers can bring their existing phone to the service or they can purchase a new phone.
T-Mobile also will introduce new Value plans for small business customers this summer.