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T-Mobile and Univision offer Latinos a phone plan

Sally Herships May 19, 2014

T-Mobile is offering three new cell phone plans starting at $30 a month and including 100 free minutes to some countries in Latin America. T-Mobile’s partner in the plans is Univision, the Spanish-language broadcast network. If you sign up for a new Univision Mobile plan you’ll get access to exclusive content.

Luis Miguel Messianu, president and chief creative officer at Alma, a Hispanic and multicultural advertising firm in Miami, says the strength of Univision’s brand could help bring success. “Why would I leave my At&T plan and move to this new venture if it doesn’t give me additional perks?” he asked.

Messianu notes that Latino consumers want good content and prices and that others have failed in targeting them in the past, like ESPN, J-Lo & Verizon.

But T-Mobile wants Latino consumers and it’s easy to understand why. Messianu calls them “the original social network.”

Telecom industry analyst Roger Entner says Hispanics are spending more on their smart phones than the average. He notes that the market for Latino smartphone users is worth about $30 billion a year in service revenues.

But when it comes to Latinos, T-Mobile will have to overtake AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

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