For current Netflix subscribers
On or before September 12, the carrier will make a URL available where subscribers of both Netflix and T-Mobile can link their accounts together. T-Mobile will then take over paying your Netflix bill, so you don’t have to do anything. However, it may take up to two billing cycles before payment transfers over.
For new Netflix subscribers
Once you’ve signed up for a qualifying T-Mobile One plan, you’ll receive a text to a page that will instruct you how to create a Netflix account connected to T-Mobile. You won’t have to arrange to pay for the monthly subscription — T-Mobile will handle that for you.
What kind of subscription is it?
You’ll get one Standard Netflix subscription, which runs $10 per month. You can stream content in HD, and you can watch Netflix on two different screens at the same time. To put that in perspective, Netflix’s Basic streaming package costs $8, doesn’t include HD streaming, and limits you to watching on only one screen at a time. The Premium tier costs $12, bumps simultaneous streaming up to four devices, and includes 4K content.
What if you want Premium?
If you want to upgrade to the higher package, T-Mobile will continue paying Netflix the full $12 every month, but you’ll pay the difference between the Standard and Premium rates to T-Mobile. That’s $2 currently, and it’ll be tacked onto your monthly T-Mobile bill.
How long does it last?
Interestingly, nowhere in T-Mobile’s announcement or the FAQ section of its site does it say that this is a limited-time deal, or constrained to a year for every customer. It would seem the carrier is prepared to extend this offer to its subscribers indefinitely. As always, we’ll let you know if that changes.
What else should I know?
Again, this offer is only available to T-Mobile One customers with two or more active lines. If you recently joined T-Mobile through one of its recent “line-on-us” promotions, it seems you’ll have to forgo your current rate to qualify for the deal, as the carrier is encouraging these customers to switch to “the latest T-Mobile One plan” if they want to save on Netflix.
You should also note that streaming quality on the basic One plan prevents streaming at full HD resolution — to do that, you’ll need to upgrade to the One Plus plan, which runs an extra $10 per month per line. This is only the case when you stream via 4G LTE on your mobile phone. The web version is unaffected, regardless of your Internet Service Provider. As always, you’ll be able to download movies and TV shows at full quality if you wish, which is one potential way to sidestep the streaming cap.
