T-Mobile offering 10 GB data plan for $85 a month

T-Mobile announced a new 10GB cellular data plan for heavy modem and tablet users today, but obsessive downloaders will pay a high price of $84.99 per month.

As wireless carriers have sped up their networks, data caps have remained firmly in place. The industry standard is 5GB, after which you're either charged overage or your speed gets choked down for the rest of the month. Fast new networks make it easier to reach that cap; we once proved that in an extreme circumstance, you can download 5GB with Verizon's new LTE network in 32 minutes. Of the major wireless carriers, only Sprint, on its 4G WiMAX network, currently offers a truly unlimited laptop modem plan.

Less than 5 percent of wireless data users exceed 5GB, T-Mobile spokesman David Henderson said - but it's not clear whether that's because they don't actually want more data, or if that's their limit.

T-Mobile's new "Even More 10GB webConnect Overage Free plan," available today, costs $84.99 for data-only users and $67.99 as a supplement to a voice plan. The new plan also included unlimited access to T-Mobile's Wi-Fi hotspots, and it requires a two-year contract.

It joins a $49.99, 5GB plan, which throttles speeds after 5GB, and a $29.99, 200MB plan which charges 10 cents for each additional MB used.

These plans are separate from T-Mobile's phone data plans, which currently offer "unlimited" data which gets slower after 5GB/month has been used.

This article, written by Sascha Segan, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.