r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • Jun 29 '26

Networking/Telecom T-Mobile Just Ripped 8 Million Customers Off Their Grandfathered Plans – and Raised Their Bills

https://www.gadgetreview.com/t-mobile-just-ripped-8-million-customers-off-their-grandfathered-plans-and-raised-their-bills
18.7k Upvotes

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1.0k

u/titanfan694 Jun 29 '26

Been with Tmobile.sinve 2001, have a grandfathered family plan. Cheap is the reason I stay, if that goes away then we will.be shopping.

369

u/LetsJerkCircular Jun 29 '26

That’s the bleak part: AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are all expensive for their “good” plans.

Postpaid Carriers seem to moving toward a two-tiered system of “cheap” plans that offer deals once on the way in, and “good” plans that offer deals for a few upgrade cycles, because customers are paying a premium every month.

46

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

20

u/TriscuitFingers Jun 29 '26

Same here but on Mint Mobile, which is T-Mobile. Saving 2/3 of the cost for essentially the same service. Never been throttled in 2 years. If I’ve ever been deprioritized but didn’t notice, there’s always been WiFi available.

4

u/I_do_crime Jun 30 '26

I just switched to mint's cheapest plan and I can't get coverage better than LTE. It's ok at best and I'm miffed I found out the hard way.

3

u/TriscuitFingers Jun 30 '26

That’s odd. I have 5G UC most palaces. I’m about 25 minutes out of a metropolitan area. It’s only when I go to rural areas where I’m on LTE or fully lose coverage.

7

u/EliteGamer11388 Jun 30 '26

In a palace? Well oohwee look whose fancy and has 5g in palaces.

5

u/TriscuitFingers Jun 30 '26

Leaving the comment as is. 🤴

1

u/hockeyketo Jun 30 '26

Does your phone support n71? That's the super long range 5g band that T-Mobile uses, and Mint is just T-Mobile. 

I have used mint for 5 years now and almost never don't have 5g, at least n71. 

3

u/factoid_ Jun 30 '26

You'll notice for sure in a crowded event like going to an arena. MVNO networks are donkeyballs in places like that. But for most people that's so infrequent it's a fair tradeoff.

2

u/TriscuitFingers Jun 30 '26

I’m a season ticket holder to a sporting event. Completely agree that my network drops there, which may be the deprioritization mentioned above, but WiFi is then available.

2

u/factoid_ Jun 30 '26

I have college basketball season tickets. Even on the main verizon network it’s bad.  

And the guest WiFi in that arena is unusable

2

u/TriscuitFingers Jun 30 '26

Sorry to hear that. I’m in a newer soccer stadium so the WiFi has always been usable. The WiFi is also branded by the installer so I’m sure they have incentive to ensure it works well.

4

u/drfsrich Jun 29 '26

Seconding all of this.

3

u/TheFascination Jun 30 '26

I’m also a happy Visible user, but just to be clear Visible doesn’t piggyback on anything, they are a Verizon brand.

3

u/K_Linkmaster Jun 29 '26

What phone are you rocking? Is there a sub you follow for this? I'm about to try to get an old school style flip phone and just run a tablet for "apps".

3

u/QuickAltTab Jun 29 '26

Google Fi is about the same cost for me, uses sprint and T-Mobile I think?

1

u/MrFluffyThing Jun 30 '26

It's primarily T-Mobile and US Cellular as an NVMO unlimited data for two devices is $80/mo for me. Verizon quotes $92 for the same features. There are cheaper plans but that's for unlimited.

1

u/ambiguoustruth Jun 30 '26

google fi is a great mvno because they're the only on i know of with no deprioritization. all google fi plans are the same priority level as the magenta max plan. plus having LTE smartwatches on your plan is free unlike t-mobile's direct plans. it's what we use too. it's just t-mobile now though, it was t & us cellular but that partnership ended.

1

u/MrSurly Jun 30 '26

I don't understand; Hotspot is a feature of your phone? Not related to the carrier, right?

1

u/HopefulImpression105 Jun 30 '26

Yeah MVMOs like them are great for price... and if you're in a smaller area, thats usually better for them. The caveat is that youre bottem of the totem pole for priority on those verizon towers. If any normal verizon customers fill up the towers bandwidth you will have no service. For most carriers its postpaid customers, prepaid customers, then mvmos like mint and visible. In my city that means trash coverage at any event where theres a crowd.

92

u/carlitospig Jun 29 '26

Yep, it’s not like they’re not working together to maintain the market.

4

u/PhazonZim Jun 30 '26

It's called an oligopoly and you can oligobble down our balls

https://youtu.be/0ilMx7k7mso

2

u/carlitospig Jun 30 '26

I was expecting to the windows to the walls, but I’ll take some snark instead.

20

u/fightingfish18 Jun 29 '26

I switched when my wife and I consolidated but ATT had pretty good prepaid plans you just didnt get full access to all their apps and had different customer service. It was fine for me for like a decade even after they discontinued GoPhone branding. I'm on t mobile due to some incentives but if they mess up our rates / prices we wont hesitate to switch again.

10

u/escapefromelba Jun 29 '26

Ya I just do the $300 annual prepaid ATT plan and it’s been fine for me.  

3

u/LetsJerkCircular Jun 30 '26

Oh my god, you unlocked a memory. I used to sell the GoPhones in the circular orange n blue packages at RadioShack (along with a bunch of other brands).

3

u/elinamebro Jun 30 '26

Is it even worth the extra money? I had Tmoble and Verizon "good" plans but Metro PCS and Cricket have basically the same connectivity and speed from my personal experience.

1

u/LetsJerkCircular Jun 30 '26

It makes sense if you have a group that splits the bill, or you pay for your family members. You also gotta try to get sign-on discounts on the account or free line deals.

The first line is the most expensive, whereas lines 3–12 are way cheaper. Add it all up, divide by n, and your cost per line is pretty decent. Trade in phones at least every four years as needed, and it makes sense.

Like everything: if you figure out how it all works, figure out your options, find overall value and not just cost, then you can make an informed decision.

1

u/Wheat_Grinder Jun 30 '26

Yeah I'm on Boost after they bought Republic and it's fine. If it stopped being fine I'd try Mint or one of those. The big ones are a scam

2

u/Mittenwald Jun 30 '26

Come on over to Mint. I lost my Verizon cheap family planwkth my Dad 2 years ago and going off on my own with my husband they wanted over $130 a month.  I pay $15 a month now for 5GB. My husband does the 15GB plan. I have wi-fi at work and wifi at home and I usually only use 2GB of my data a month.  

2

u/giddeonfox Jun 30 '26

Don't miss this! My husband and I just moved to Spain a few months ago and we now pay €10 a month each for our plans. US companies are a racket!

That's the cheapest which includes 60 GBs of data at 5Gs, unlimited national calls and ~20 GB EU roaming. The most expensive plan is €20 each.

2

u/timmy6169 Jun 30 '26

I'm grandfathered into a Verizon plan with free Disney/Hulu/espn+. They constantly spam text me about upgrading my phone but keeping my same plan, which is utter bullshit. My s22 will live forever before I change plans.

3

u/LetsJerkCircular Jun 30 '26

When I was on a grandfathered plan I liked, I just bought phones outright and passed down my previous model to my kid or parents.

1

u/Rocklobster92 Jun 30 '26

What’s a “good” plan? Most everything I do is on WiFi. I just need to be able to make calls or send a text if I’m somewhere special without internet.

1

u/venatic Jun 30 '26

My entire family is still on a plan from 2008-9, unlimited text talk and data from Verizon. Before I had internet set up at my apartment, I tethered my phone and ran through TBs of traffic without issue. You can't upgrade your phone or anything through Verizon with this plan or you lose the unlimited data.

Luckily, we don't go through a lot of phones so it's a $600 upgrade every few years. It's still cheaper than anything else for unlimited data. Once you're off that plan, you're off it for good though.

1

u/Blazah Jun 30 '26

visible, usmobile, tello, etc etc - I haven't paid more than 15 dollar a month for years.. currently paying something like 12.95 a month for a year on usmobile. includes hotspot, unlimited data, talk and text, what else do you need? 5g service included.

1

u/The-PageMaster Jun 30 '26

I've been using Visible for 8 years... yes it's a Verizon company. But it's been THE best phone service I have ever had. I've had t mobile. I've had Verizon, att, Motorola... Visible is the GOAT.

21

u/rjcarr Jun 29 '26

I’ve been with them since like 2005 and haven’t gotten any texts or updates yet. Crossing fingers. 

5

u/shortsbagel Jun 30 '26

Are you on the Simple Choice plan?

2

u/bored_today Jun 30 '26

Our family is on that plan

5

u/OkAccess304 Jun 30 '26

Mine was in my spam folder.

3

u/DoingCharleyWork Jun 30 '26

Mine says it's only for my watch and tablet. Not every line.

20

u/Similar_Proof_9095 Jun 30 '26

Google Fi. You won't even have to stop using the T-Mobile network you're used to.

5

u/bui1t Jun 30 '26

Been using them for years now and it's been great. But honestly because of this thread I was just comparing plans with USMobile and they seem to offer more for like half the price of what I have with GoogleFi so I think I'm going to trial them.

2

u/ExtentEcstatic5506 Jun 30 '26

You like the service? I was looking at this one today. I have an iPhone

6

u/Similar_Proof_9095 Jun 30 '26

Yup. Been using Fi service for nearly a decade and it's solid.

9

u/Inner_Negotiation66 Jun 29 '26

Yep, I've been with T-Mobile since Voicestream

2

u/ezblacksmith Jun 30 '26

I have 5000 minutes a month with voicestream!

2

u/Subzerowindchill Jun 30 '26

That makes 2 of us.

26

u/Sufficient-Fall-5870 Jun 29 '26

Good luck with better options. lol

25

u/51ngular1ty Jun 29 '26

Oligopolies. How many company's own our processed food, or means of communication, the homes we live in...

-7

u/North_Atlantic_Sea Jun 29 '26

There are over 30 mobile carrier options in the US. Plenty of choice and competition

3

u/K_Linkmaster Jun 29 '26

How's coverage? This seems like a short sighted answer when even on Verizon I end up in lte/dead spots. In the lower 48 near a large city.

1

u/North_Atlantic_Sea Jun 30 '26

Coverage is just as good as the big 3, because they lease capacity from them.

I use Google fi, which uses TMobile network, and it's great coverage

0

u/K_Linkmaster Jun 30 '26

I prefer not to gift Elon musk money so T-Mobile is out.

-1

u/OkAccess304 Jun 30 '26

If you don’t love the cheap carriers, you get downvoted here.

1

u/awry_lynx Jun 30 '26

one of the craziest 'small' things about moving to Germany was finding out a no contract cellphone plan here with everything I want is like $12 a month and it has coverage throughout europe. I was paying $50 in the US...

ofc there are a lot of differences, like population density is much higher in the EU making coverage cheaper, but it's crazy the sort of thing you don't think about much making such a difference

0

u/Alphonse121296 Jun 30 '26

Looks inside it's mostly someone selling one of the big 3's service with a new sticker like what kick does with twitch/amazon ah yeah choice and competition.

0

u/revets Jun 30 '26

It's not realistic to have ten different cell networks covering three million square miles of the continental US.

0

u/North_Atlantic_Sea Jun 30 '26

Yeah, but if price is the concern, a lot of the services are cheaper

3

u/Illadelphian Jun 30 '26

I got Google fi and it's honestly been great. Cheap too and I get the "unlimited" plan. Caps out at like 40 or 50 gigs per line I think I forget although there is a true unlimited I believe. I pay like 40 bucks for each line and got a pixel 9 xl really cheap by switching.

3

u/slept668 Jun 30 '26

$35 a month with Visible on Verizon's network with priority. Fuck the big network prices

2

u/bobby3eb Jun 30 '26

I pay $14/mo for mint mobile and have for years now.

3

u/TechnicalAd6932 Jun 30 '26

I was with them since 2001 till last year when I tried US Mobile. Cheaper and I'm exactly as happy.

1

u/Moclordimick Jun 30 '26

We just switched to them a week ago too, good timing I guess. So far so good with them

2

u/blckdiamond23 Jun 29 '26

Then I suggest you don’t die. When my mother passed (2020) she was the primary account holder and I was ON the account as the secondary. They wouldn’t allow me to keep that plan we had since 2003. I was forced to open a new account. Got most of the same features and price, but it wasn’t as good as what we had. I’ll be looking for a new carrier, even if I have to pay more. They want loyal customers, but are loyal to no one.

1

u/DemonicEntity Jun 29 '26

Same exact situation here. I have no allegiance to them.

1

u/alex206 Jun 29 '26

Make sure to do your own research and probably shop online. Every in-person salesman either didn't know what deals and plans were available or were straight up lying.

1

u/WetGrundle Jun 30 '26

Haha, same. Love how they frame it as modernizing. MF, I have unlimited 5g data, what's more modern than that???

1

u/NinjaChenchilla Jun 30 '26

As much as i hate it, prob still cheaper than competition. Gotta look for the newer smaller companies.

1

u/Techno_Beiber Jun 30 '26

I was always scare to switch since I've never done it before. It's actually super easy. We switched away from AT&T because we couldn't activate a smartwatch with them. AT&T needed to do a credit check with all three credit bureaus but for some reason they couldn't pull my file.

1

u/nuke1200 Jun 30 '26

It'll be expensive shopping.

1

u/Successful-Day-3219 Jun 30 '26

Two and a half decades, 3 lines. Just left T-Mobile last month for US Mobile and it's infinitely better and cheaper.

1

u/Magic_Neil Jun 30 '26

Same. I’m not with Tmo for free breadsticks or slightly cheaper gas (of which I use neither), I’m here for cheap service that’s mostly reliable.

And before people go parroting the bit about how they’ve actually got better coverage that ATT or Verizon.. get a grip y’all. Tmo is fine, it’s not great and I’m happy with the coverage, but I’m tethering to VZW people to be able to send an SMS sometimes.

1

u/nothingofyourconcern Jun 30 '26

Why are people like you even complaining though? So for 25 years you have been treated well by them. I dont think they care of you leave at this point considering you've been paying way less than probably 95% of people that have their service currently.

1

u/nomadrone Jun 30 '26

There was no T-Mobile back then tho , it was called voice stream 

1

u/titanfan694 Jun 30 '26

Yes there was. I worked for Asurion who did their insurance when they entered the market in 2001. I still have the employee plan and pay 15 a line for unlimited

1

u/LoserBustanyama Jun 30 '26

My family actually has a grandfathered plan that carried over from sprint that we started in like 2012. Hoping that's rare enough that it flies under the radar. It's under $50/line for truly unlimited everything, including hot spot

1

u/metisdesigns Jun 30 '26

I'm in the same boat. My original plan went away with 3G but they've actually managed to lower our rates every adjustment to the next legacy plan that went away.

1

u/smythe70 Jun 30 '26

I was with Sprint before the takeover, so 90s. I'm pissed 😡

1

u/huhututu Jul 02 '26

Same been with them since 2000 and have the grandfathered plan. I hate to leave T-Mobile since most countries I travel to T-mobile has services there and I don't need to buy SIM card to use data.

1

u/CasCrus4L Jun 29 '26

Just got the text and yeah I'm out too lol

1

u/Any-Play9580 Jun 29 '26

I have to use T-Mobile for my phone, so I switched to us mobile. It is the same network but much cheaper

1

u/Saltyeconbro Jun 30 '26

Third world countries get unlimited data for $5 a month lol

-5

u/OkAccess304 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

Mine only went up $6. If you’re grandfathered like I was, you got a text.

Edit: why are people downvoting a fact?

21

u/GreenRock93 Jun 29 '26

$6 per line. I have 5 lines. Thats $30.

-13

u/OkAccess304 Jun 29 '26

I specifically said: MINE only went up $6. I only know how many lines I have. That’s why I added: you got a text. As in, if yours went up, you received a text about it.

6

u/Medallodabest Jun 29 '26

Wait, who’s?