T-Mobile Plans 'Project Black'

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- T-Mobile is ramping up the noir drama a bit.

The U.S. wireless unit of Deutsche Telekom (DT Quote) is preparing what is being called "Project Black," according to a person familiar with the plan. While the source could only confirm that T-Mobile has something brewing under that name, this person declined to share any more information, further compounding the mystery.

Wall Street types who have seen blog reports of Project Black suggesting it could juice business enough to put T-Mobile ahead of No. 3 Sprint (S Quote), are somewhat concerned about what implications it might have for the top two players Verizon (VZ Quote) and AT&T (T Quote).

Project Black, which kicks off on one of the next two Sundays, could involve the introduction of Research In Motion's (RIMM Quote) BlackBerry Bold 2. The new device is codenamed Onyx, and is expected to be a standard looking BlackBerry with a touchscreen.

But a product introduction, even for an intriguing new BlackBerry, doesn't quite pack the potential market power to shake up the industry's player standings.

This is why some investors fear that T-Mobile may introduce a new price plan that could severely undercut the competition. T-Mobile has long been the most aggressive player in terms of prices on its calling plans. Sprint made a splash with its $99-a-month Simply Everything plan that offered limitless calling and data use.

T-Mobile could easily beat that offer. Investors fear a move like that would start a vicious price war among the other carriers, with AT&T and Verizon having the most to lose from a revenue standpoint.