T-Mobile Has a $10 Android; New Tethering Plan

T-Mobile has announced that it will soon launch a budget Froyo phone along with a $15 unlimited tethering plan for customers already on the network's unlimited data plan.

With Halloween over, we're fully expecting to see holiday cheer bandied about with careless abandon. Kicking things off is T-Mobile, which this morning service plans "designed to help families stay connected without busting their holiday budget."

All told there's actually a few interesting nuggets of news here, the first being a $15 tethering plan for customers already paying $30 per month for unlimited data from the carrier. For users not interested in guzzling all the data they can, T-Mobile is also launching a $10 plan that will give customers on a new two-year contract 200MB of data per month. Customers on old plans can get that $10 pricing if they're up for a contract extension. If not, they'll have to pay $15 per month.

To go with this new, bite-sized data plan, T-Mobile is launching a budget smartphone, the T-Mobile Comet, which should serve as healthy competition for the dumbphone market. Engadget reports that this device should be available for just $9.99 (after a $50 rebate) on contract, or under $200 as a prepaid device. Packing a 528MHz processor and a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, the Comet boasts a 3.2 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSPA, FM radio, integrated Swype, microSD expansion up to 32GB, and 802.11b / g / n. All of this runs on the latest version of Android, 2.2 aka Froyo.

T-Mobile also announced the LG Optimus (600MHz CPU, a 3.2-inch full touch screen display and a 3.2 megapixel camera with video capture), the Motorola Defy, (scratch- and water-resistant, dust-proof, 800 MHz processor, a 3.7-inch full touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera with flash and video capture), and the Motorola Charm (full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.8-inch touch screen, a 600 MHz processor and a 3 megapixel camera).

The Comet, LG Optimus T and Motorola Defy are expected to be available starting Nov. 3 from T-Mobile. The T-Mobile Comet will also be available as a prepaid option at Best Buy, Radio Shack and Target. No specific date for the data plans just yet, but T-Mobile is saying, "this holiday season," so you won't have to wait long.

_{Source: T-Mobile PR, Engadget}