T-Mobile to allow frequent phone upgrades for fee

NEW YORK — T-Mobile says it will let people upgrade phones more quickly for a $10 monthly fee.

With the new Jump plan, a customer will be able to get a new phone if the old one malfunctions or gets lost, or even if there’s a better phone that comes out. The plan lets customers upgrade up to twice a year. Rivals typically allow upgrades after about two years.

T-Mobile also launched a high-speed 4G LTE network in more than 100 markets nationwide. LTE brings greater data speeds for tasks such as streaming video and gaming. T-Mobile had lagged other carriers, but it says it now covers nearly three-quarters of the nation’s top 100 markets. The enhancement was aided by T-Mobile’s combination with MetroPCS earlier this year, which gave T-Mobile more airwave rights.