“T‑Mobile will never change the price you pay for your T‑Mobile ONE plan.” That was the promise. The Un-contract. The whole reason millions of customers picked the magenta team over Verizon and AT&T in the first place. Now T-Mobile is retiring legacy 3G and 4G-era plans — Magenta, ONE, Simple Choice — and automatically moving customers onto “modern” 5G plans at higher monthly costs. Billing changes hit mid-July for the current wave. The company that swore it would never surprise you with a rate hike just sent the notification.
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4 hoursI pay about 3x that to US Mobile so I can use mobile data for all my devices. I hotspot or Bluetooth-tether for everything and intentionally have no ISP-provided home Internet so I can save money and also avoid those crooks.
- nullspace@lemmy.worldEnglish8 hours
They do shit like this and get away with it because it’s slim pickings for a plan that has phone, internet, and most importantly no data cap. All carriers suck at one of those three.
- schipelblorp@sh.itjust.worksEnglish8 hours
I’m using Cricket wireless. $45/mo gets me unlimited internet on my phone with a 15gig hotspot.
I’m all physical media, but if I need to download something, I do it on my phone (sorry, seeders) and transfer it over to my PC to watch on my TV.
- HiTekRedNek@lemmy.worldEnglish8 hours
Guess I’m switching to C-Spire.
I’ve been a T-Mobile customer for over 10 years, but this isn’t acceptable.
- elucubra@sopuli.xyzEnglish11 hours
Airtel did that to me when I got the first Smartphone. They argued that the forever was for 3G, not 4G, although there was no mention of such a thing in the contract. They lost 4 mobile lines, a landline, and ADSL forever.
- rockandsock@lemmy.worldEnglish7 hours
Anyone upset about this should consider prepaid service. I’ve been on prepaid service (a couple of different companies over the years) for almost 15 years and haven’t had any serious issues.
I have, however saved serious money.
- TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.worldEnglish4 hours
people won’t go on pre-paid service because of the social stigma of it being for ‘poor people’
I’ve been on a 20-25$ cell plan my entire adult life… but it’s Boost, and people think it is ‘ghetto’ due to the fact Boost was originaly marketed as ‘urban’ cell phone company. It’s insane. I even got my mom to switch over to it when she retired to save money. but my sister found out and was RIPSHIT i put my mom on a ‘phone plan for black people’… because she’s racist AF, and she took my mom off the plan and put her back on a $100 Verizon plan again… and bought her a fancy iphone she had no clue how to use, because ‘successful people use iPhones, poor losers use Android phones’.
my plan on Verizon would be like 80 bucks a month. a lot of people take pride in throwing away money because it makes them feel they are ‘not poor’. and marketing loves them.
In other news, my nephew turned 18, wanted to get off the family plan and get his own phone and plan, and wanted Boost w/android because it’s cheap and he can easily afford it. She was furious with him and basically told him he can’t do it, because she’d lose the ability to track him via his iphone, which is precisely why he wants to get rid of being on the family plan… but she tells him he can’t do it because ‘people won’t respect him’ if he has an android and not using Verizon.
- Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish11 minutes
Lol like the respect of die hard apple users is worth anything. Something about people being snobby about the shittier option (though Google is doing what it can to catch up in that regard) is hilarious.
- CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
The same company that told me they would give me a $300 prepaid visa to switch. Then told me I had to stay a customer for 30 days before I would get it. And at 30 days told me I was outside the 30 day window to claim it?
I’m so surprised.
- 20 hours
A few years ago I tried to buy a couple of phones at a T-Mobile store and they flatly refused to sell to me unless I purchased their monthly phone insurance. The manager openly admitted he knew the practice was illegal but didn’t care.
The company is also famous for refusing to pay customers trade in value by fraudulently claiming phones have cracked screens and significant damage.
T-Mobile’s been a shit company for years.
- Tiral@lemmy.zipEnglish14 hours
I guess YMMV. I have 6 lines and I’ve traded in phones worth $200 on eBay for $1200 credit which is insane. I’ve never had them say they were damaged and do any bullshit. In fact I traded in my mom’s barely functional iPhone 13 like 5 months ago for a 17 pro which ended up being kike $2 a month for 2 years.
Which I get that’s their plan, keep you on their network with credits over 2 years. But I’ve never had a problem over a decade so I’ve never cared. I’m in a magenta plus plan so maybe I’ll call to see tomorrow.
But I’m just saying, I had nothing but good things with them. Not saying others haven’t, or they e never tried pulling some bullshit, just that I personally haven’t experienced it over a decade.
- 1 day
In 2025 T-Mobile reported a net income (net profit) of $11.0 billion. Think of the poor shareholders!
- 1 day
Well, fuck. These companies move in step with one another and I’ve been paying the same 60-something per month since January 2007 before AT&T gobbled up Cingular.
Guess I’m probably next.
- 1 day
US Mobile is still in the “good prices, good service, be nice” phase of their existence. Buy out or enshittification should still be a few years off. It’s a fraction of the price of TMO’s new rates too.
- fusionsaint@lemmy.worldEnglish8 hours
Came here to say this. I know the enshitification will come. It always will come but for now US mobile is fantastic.
- P13@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish1 day
Damn dude that’s rough.
I pay €15/m for 35GB EU-wide data and unlimited talk/text. Sim only and not an introductory rate. In fact, I’ve been paying the same for years and the only thing that’s changed is my data limit slowly increasing.
I think unlimited plans are roughly double but I don’t use that much.
1 Gbps fiber at home for €50/m but unfortunately they do jack that up slowly over time so you either need to switch providers or lock in again for a promotional rate.
I don’t miss living in the US and getting fucked in the ass by Comcast and the like…
- WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.caEnglish7 hours
Americans really will do anything to avoid actually doing something, won’t you
- SalamiDommie@lemmus.orgEnglish1 day
Old TMobile user… Haven’t gotten the messages. Going to look into this.
The anti-consumer practices going on in business right now are becoming insane.
- 1 day
They don’t even hide it any more. Rug pulls left and right because fuck you.
“What are you going to do about it? Absolutely nothing.”
That’s their thought process.
- fishy@lemmy.todayEnglish1 day
The modern consumer has a spine made from jello. They’ve had company after company fuck them over but rather than slightly inconvenience themselves to find an alternative or do without, they’ll just bend over and get fucked.
People have forgotten that they’re the power and companies can be told to go eat shit.
- 2 days
T-Mobile raised our rate last year which is bad enough by itself after promising not to, but they also seriously reduced the quality and availability of their customer service. Why stick around for that? We switched to a much cheaper prepaid company (~1/3rd T-Mobile’s current price) and couldn’t be happier.
Edit: Was thinking about the other problems we had with T-Mobile and forgot to mention one big problem… Incoming calls routinely would not ring and voicemails left just vanished. This happened for months. Multiple friends (and a couple of doctor’s offices) mentioned it often enough that we realized we had a problem. T-Mobile’s great customer service could find nothing wrong and refused to look at the lost calls that originated from other TMO customers.
We have been grandfathered into a Simple Choice Plan for ~13 years and just switched over to whatever their comparable current plan is, and only saved $10 (woohoo). What’d you go with? I was looking into prepaid with Tmo but they’ve been in quite the steady decline for a while now.
- GalacticRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
Mint works pretty darn well. It’s still using t-mobile towers, but is a whole lot cheaper.
- scytale@piefed.zipEnglish1 day
We have a Mint plan and yeah it’s been fine. Only issue we have is it gets deprioritized in large, crowded events like concerts.
- 2 days
I’ve been very happy with Visible. They’re owned by Verizon and in the long term, it’s the best value I’ve been able to find. They have a 2 week free trial period and frequently have awesome deals during Black Friday and in the Spring. Even without a discount though, plans start at $25/month with a plan that is probably enough for most people. Their highest tier (of 3) is $45.
Moved off T-Mobile for Visible after getting sick of their constant data breaches and haven’t been this happy with a cell carrier since Jump On-Demand was a thing.
The only real catches are:
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Support is basically a chatbot and social media teams. However, human support reps do exist if you’re insistent enough, and I’ve only needed them maybe once in the past 3 years or so
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Plans are for smartphones (and smartwatches with an existing smartphone line) only. No tablets or other devices.
Oh neat! Can’t say I’ve heard of it, and for a while there I was very much leaning towards Mint, until they were bought by Tmo. Ryan should have fought for it, Deadpool style 😆
Really liking what I’m seeing. I’d def rather spend $70/mo than the ~$110 I am now. I personally just can’t justify it for how little I use my phone, literally Lemmy, Newpipe and Fennec, with a side of fin account apps.
- 23 hours
Check them out again around Black Friday! If you’re ok paying annually they usually have some pretty deep discounts then.
My first year was on a Black Friday discount and I got their high end plan (usually $45 a month) for $225 for the whole year (made it cheaper than the low end plan)! It renews at like $450 but that’s still so much cheaper than other carriers in the long term.
Sounds like you have multiple lines on TMo. Visible is a 1 line per account setup but with inner circle you can pay them all together and get another $5 a month off.
The ATT reps at Costco HATE me because they can’t offer a good enough deal to switch 😂
- Zidane@lemmy.caEnglish2 days
Been on Visible for quite a while as well. I have never needed to contact support so can’t speak on that. The only complaint I have is the app will force you to log in and authenticate every month (or used to idk I haven’t been on it in a while)
- Nurse_Robot@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
I’ve loved visible ever since I joined like 7 years ago. Unlimited 5G, $25 a month. Works great international when I need it, but it’s an extra $5/day with my plan when I use it
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- PunnyName@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
If you have any government assistance programs ) Medicaid, SNAP, etc.), look into the Lifeline program for potentially free cell service:
- Syndication@lemmy.todayEnglish2 days
What’s the new carrier? I want to ditch T-Mobile they are ripping us off. I was thinking about switching to Mint mobile.
Edit: Thanks for the heads up and suggestions. I’ll avoid Mint and take a look into US Mobile.
- John Doe@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
We switched to US Mobile last October and I’ve kind of been a bit shocked at how good and responsive their customer service is to be a MVNO prepaid utilizing Indian call centers.
Also, US Mobile partners with all three major carriers, so you can pick your network! They have to use different names because of copyrights but here is the translation: AT&T = Dark Star, Verizon = Warp, T-Mobile= Light Speed
Their unlimited plans all come with hotspot and start at $25 monthly regular price but they always have promos for new customers and you can prepay for a year of service and get unlimited for as little as around $16 a month. They ALSO always seem to have fantastic prices on the current model Google Pixel base phone and Pro XL, if you’re an Android person like me.
- halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
Dark Star… Hmm…
It was even blown up once before with the breakup of Ma Bell.
- adarza@lemmy.caEnglish2 days
we keep looking in their direction but the boss doesn’t really wanna change. got some small concession from vzn a little while ago but still more than double what usm would cost.
what would get her to switch would be finding a carrier that actually worked at her house. vzn doesn’t, tm doesn’t, need to find someone around here with at&t to try but there really isn’t anyone around here that does use them.
- 2 days
Doesn’t US Mobile offer all the of the major networks? I’ve also been looking at them recently, and my understanding is that the three networks they offer are (despite their silly codenames) in reality just verizon, t-mobile, and at&t. You can pick which one you want to use and even switch between them without too much hassle.
- GalacticRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
Yep, they do charge you to switch between networks though, and charge you a fixed fee for each additional line on top of your service, so it works well if you have just one phone or device.
- GalacticRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
I have been ok with US Mobile, but they kind of get pricing when you add devices or need more data. Mint has been pretty solid for me though, and I have heard Visible is pretty awesome.
- amgine@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
I added my iPad to them about a year ago because they were a super carrier and didn’t expect my to have my main line on them just for a data plan. They worked so well I moved my main phone from att to them. Love the service
- NaibofTabr@infosec.pubEnglish2 days
Phreeli https://www.phreeli.com/
“The goal of this phone company is to be more private than the three biggest phone carriers in the US. That’s the promise we’re going to massively overdeliver on.”
- halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
They did, but even beyond that, the other alternatives mentioned in this thread are MVNOs that still use T-Mobile’s network (usually with a lower priority compared to direct customers, not usually an issue unless there’s congestion). You’re still paying T-Mobile, just indirectly. MVNOs buy in bulk and try to offer options that split that bulk usage up in ways different to the big carriers to target smaller more specific demographics.
- prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish1 day
Isn’t this really hard to avoid in the US because of the existing infrastructure? All of the towers are owned by one or two companies, and the rest have to rent them out.
- halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish11 hours
Actually, many towers (maybe even most now with how dense small cells need to be) are not actually owned by the carriers. They are owned by independent companies and leased to the carriers, or the carriers lease space on an existing pole or building to mount their panels. If you’ve ever looked at a cell tower and seem multiple levels of panels… that’s almost surely not owned by a carrier. It’s most likely owned by something like American Tower Corporation, Crown Castle, or SBA Communications, and they lease physical space on that site to various carriers and other users. Line-of-site microwave connections also make use of towers quite heavily to relay direct wireless connections.
A lot of churches also lease space on or even inside their steeples/stowers.
And then there’s also the small cells that can get installed basically anywhere… and often get installed on things like light posts which are owned by local governments.
- DevDave@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
Anti-Trust is some bullshit invented by damn socialist commies to keep the money from trickling down. \s
- Fishnoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
Mint Mobile. Uses the t mobile network. 20 bucks a month unlimited text/talk 15gb data
- GalacticRobot@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
They just upped it to 17gb a month as well. Been pretty happy with them, even though I think T-Mobile bought them out.
- melsaskca@lemmy.caEnglish1 day
You know all the corporations are now thinking…“The prez lies with immunity. The precedent has been set. Let’s go boys…SELL SELL SELL !!”.
- FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
This is some straight up MBA enshittificarion. I’m on the military plan with all unlimited yada yada, even then data is throttled down after a certain amount. Waiting for an email that says they’re supporting the troops by increasing the amount we can contribute to the economy or some shit.
- ITGuyLevi@programming.devEnglish1 day
Yeah, I’m a bit pissed that the military plan is changing. Bill for me is going up around $20.
- AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
Is it? I’m being moved to some new plan that doesn’t seem to actually exist.
- ITGuyLevi@programming.devEnglish2 hours
They didn’t say in the message what they are moving me to, just that it’s $6 more per line so another $18 per month… This after they ended the autopay discount unless you gave them direct access to your bank account (and for me that would mean losing the phone insurance provided by MC world).
- AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish51 minutes
My message says up to $6/line and following the link says I’m being moved to “experience signature” which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere on their website.
And direct access to my bank account isn’t happening, so I never had the auto pay discount.
- TrippyHippyDan@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
Its almost like everyone saw this coming once Sprint was allowed to merge with them, and then US Cellular
- adarza@lemmy.caEnglish2 days
they all pull this shit… three different providers besides tm here, just in the last 2-3 years.
and they get away with it, so it continues…
- PunnyName@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
Mergers of larger corporations shouldn’t be permitted. In fact, any attempt at initiating a merger should instead initiate a breakup.
- halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
Don’t forget that part of the merger was Dish buying Boost Mobile with the supposed intent to build their own network. Which anyone actually paying attention knew would never actually happen. Dish Network says a lot of shit, and follows through with basically none of it.
On July 1, 2020, Dish Network officially purchased Boost Mobile per their agreement with the companies and the United States’ Department of Justice. The purchase was valued at $1.4B and transferred 9.3 million customers.[67] The intent of the US government was for Dish to erect a new nationwide wireless mobile network in order to compensate for reduced competition following the Sprint–T-Mobile merger.[citation needed]
However, in the years following the transaction Dish failed to sufficiently grow Boost Mobile’s subscriber base and in 2025 announced that it will decommission its 5G network infrastructure, sell most of its wireless spectrum assets to AT&T, and shift Boost Mobile’s operating model from a facilities-based network to a mobile virtual network, with its subscribers being hosted on AT&T’s wireless network.[68]
T-Mobile followed the timeframe they agreed to for the merger to be approved, which was very public.
On March 11, 2020, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced he will not appeal the judge’s decision made during the previous month to reject the state AGs’ lawsuit against the T-Mobile-Sprint merger. He, instead, struck a settlement with the defending parties. The terms of the settlement include making its low-cost T-Mobile Connect plans available in California for at least 5 years, that T-Mobile customers can keep their T-Mobile plans held in February 2019 for a total of five years …
Hmm… 2020 plus 5 years is… 2025… would you look at the calendar.
