T-Mobile rebrands its unlimited plans as ‘Magenta’ and downgrades free Netflix

T-Mobile today announced that its unlimited data plans will soon be called Magenta and Magenta Plus — a change from their current “T-Mobile One” branding. With the new names come some tweaks to how each plan works. First, T-Mobile is now including 3GB of LTE hotspot usage with the base Magenta plan. Previously, T-Mobile One was limited to 3G tethering speeds.

But there’s bigger adjustment for people on family plans: T-Mobile is downgrading the quality of its “Netflix on Us” promotion on Magenta to Netflix’s basic subscription, which is limited to standard definition quality — no HD streaming allowed — and limits you to watching on a single device at a time. T-Mobile is squarely laying the blame for this change on Netflix’s most recent plan price hikes.

Customers on T-Mobile One right now can choose to keep the standard Netflix plan and pay an extra $2 each month starting in July. To avoid that increase, they can cancel the Netflix on Us feature or switch over to Magenta, which costs the same price. (One of T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” promises is that the company will never force you off a plan unless you make the change yourself.)

Stepping up to Magenta Plus will keep you on the standard Netflix tier and comes with the previous T-Mobile One Plus benefits including HD video streaming, 20GB of LTE hotspot, faster data speeds when abroad, and free Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile says that on June 2nd it’ll launch a promotion where the carrier will match any corporate or affiliate discounts you currently receive from its competitors if you make the switch over. You’ll have to bring your bill into a T-Mobile store to take advantage of this latest offer, and discounts are limited to $15 for a single line or $30 for a family plan. But the match will be done in $5 increments, so there’s a chance T-Mobile might beat your current discount in some circumstances if it falls between say $10 and $15.