If you're a T-Mobile customer who was not impacted by last year's price increases, I may have some bad news for you today. If you were migrated from Sprint to T-Mobile at any point after the two finalized their mega-merger back in 2020, the probability of your monthly costs going up soon are unfortunately extremely high.
While nothing is etched in stone at the moment, multiple inside sources are telling me that the "widespread sentiment" among T-Mo employees is that a new price hike will be announced as soon as tomorrow, March 13. A big Magenta announcement happening this week was already alluded to in a Reddit post that's been mysteriously deleted a few hours after its publication late last night.
That strongly suggests nothing good will come out of this secretive announcement, which is where a source with T-Mobile's leadership comes in.
Should you brace yourself for a price hike?
Probably. After all, CEO Mike Sievert himself hinted a little while back that something like this could happen sooner or later. What you may not have realized is just how imminent the move would be following that statement. According to the T-Mobile insider who reached out to us on the condition of anonymity, there's about a 70 percent chance that a price increase will be confirmed tomorrow and come into effect at some point next month.
This prediction is based on private discussions with several employees, almost all of whom share the feeling that they're being prepared to deal with a massive wave of customer complaints starting Thursday, March 13. The feeling that a new price hike is in the cards is actually nothing new, but the incentives and overtime pay offered across multiple departments this week suggest a storm is brewing essentially as we speak.
T-Mobile + Sprint = price hikes after five years. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
Our source's suspicions were initially raised last year, when they were made privy to a number of internal training documents that mentioned the same date - April 2025. Apparently, the "Un-carrier" is only obligated under the terms of its 2020 merger agreement to "honor certain legacy Sprint plans" until next month, and if history is any indication, that almost surely means those plans will have their monthly rates increased... in April.
Unfortunately, we can't publicly reveal these documents for fear of outing our source (and the source's sources), so you'll just have to trust us when we tell you that they look legit.
Recommended Stories
The good news in all of this is that you may be able to escape T-Mobile's next price hike if you were not a Sprint subscriber first. Meanwhile, if you asked to be migrated from your Sprint plan to a similar T-Mobile option after the merger or the migration process was done automatically through the Magenta Complete program, you should probably start saving up.
Can tomorrow's announcement be about something else?
Yes, there is definitely still a chance that T-Mobile will not announce a price increase for anyone... just yet. But the timing of these incentives offered to customer care employees simply fits that April 2025 cutoff date for Magenta Complete plans too nicely for it all to be a coincidence.
T-Mobile could try to soften the blow of rolling out another price so soon after the last with some sort of a positive Starlink announcement. | Image Credit -- T-Mobile
One possibility bandied about by an employee is that T-Mo could pair the price hike news with an announcement of a "Starlink plan" of some sort, which would obviously increase the volume of customer care calls even further while potentially reducing the online negativity and bitterness surrounding the operator's latest profit-hungry change.
With Starlink access already set to be included in the top-of-the-line Go5G Next plan for free and cost $15 a month on "any other plan", it's unclear how such a move would work, but until we hear directly from T-Mobile, we should probably keep all options on the table and rule nothing out (negative or positive).
Create a free account and join our vibrant community
Register to enjoy the full PhoneArena experience. Here’s what you get with your PhoneArena account:
Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
Recommended Stories
Loading Comments...
COMMENT
All comments need to comply with our
Community Guidelines
Phonearena comments rules
A discussion is a place, where people can voice their opinion, no matter if it
is positive, neutral or negative. However, when posting, one must stay true to the topic, and not just share some
random thoughts, which are not directly related to the matter.
Things that are NOT allowed:
Off-topic talk - you must stick to the subject of discussion
Offensive, hate speech - if you want to say something, say it politely
Spam/Advertisements - these posts are deleted
Multiple accounts - one person can have only one account
Impersonations and offensive nicknames - these accounts get banned
Moderation is done by humans. We try to be as objective as possible and moderate with zero bias. If you think a
post should be moderated - please, report it.
Have a question about the rules or why you have been moderated/limited/banned? Please,
contact us.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: