• July 30, 2009

Regional wireless operator MetroPCS has reduced the cost of its monthly unlimited plan offering voice, text and mobile access to $40 starting August 1. The move comes two days after Sprint announced its $483 million acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA and signals an escalation in the ongoing price war in the prepaid market.

MetroPCS also said Thursday it would add unlimited email, navigation and social networking applications to its flagship $45 monthly unlimited plan. Both plans are $5 cheaper than they were before the price cuts.

The prepaid operator also offers a $50 monthly unlimited option for smartphone customers that includes HTML Web browsing and enterprise wireless email.

TracFone Wireless, the nation's largest prepaid wireless service, recently introduced a $45 flat-rate monthly plan for calling and text messaging. That undercut the previous $50 benchmark for unlimited monthly plans set by Sprint's Boost Mobile prepaid service earlier this year. The pressure is now on Boost, and Virgin Mobile, to match its rivals by dropping pricing below the $50 level. --Mark Walsh