T-Mobile (TMUS) , one of the largest mobile providers in the U.S. with over 130 million customers nationwide, recently concluded 2024 on a high note.
The company raked in a record-high net income of $11.3 billion last year as it added 3.1 million new postpaid phone customers.
During the fourth quarter of 2024 alone, T-Mobile increased its net income by 48% year-over-year, generating total service revenues of $16.9 billion, a 6% increase compared to the same quarter in 2023.
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“In our storied growth history, 2024 was our greatest growth year ever across multiple metrics, and we finished strong,” said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert during an earnings call on Jan. 29.
After unveiling this recent boost in profits, Sievert warned his employees earlier this month that the company will be increasing prices for its older phone plans (also known as legacy plans) sometime this year.
“You’re going to be hearing about us, for example, getting back to some of the adjustments of legacy pricing that we began last year,” said Sievert during a recent company all-hands meeting.
T-Mobile announces a major change
Well, that time has now arrived for many T-Mobile customers as the phone carrier just announced that it is increasing monthly prices for some of its older phone plans by $5, which will take effect on April 2. However, customers that have a Price Lock guarantee will not be impacted by this price increase.
A man walks past a T-Mobile store on August 24, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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“While some of our competitors have announced multiple price increases – 10 in two years between AT&T and Verizon – for the first time in nearly a decade, T-Mobile is making small adjustments to prices on some of our older monthly service plans,” said T-Mobile on its website, where it announced the price change.
According to a leaked internal company memo, which was obtained by CNET, Jon Freier, president of T-Mobile’s consumer group, said the price increase is due to “rising costs over the past several years.”
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He also said that “no line that received a prior increase will receive an additional adjustment as part of this initiative.” This means that if a customer faced a price increase for their older phone plan last year, they wouldn’t be affected by this new price hike.
T-Mobile customers have had enough
In response to the new price increase, some T-Mobile customers took to social media platform Reddit to express their frustration with the change.
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More customers even threatened to leave the company.
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The latest price hike from T-Mobile comes after it increased prices for older phone plans (One, Magenta, and Simple Choice) by $2 or $5 per line last year.
There may be more price increases on the way for T-Mobile customers. During the earnings call on Jan. 29, Sievert said that T-Mobile’s current legacy plan rates are “outdated.”
“There are legacy rate plans out there that are very outdated that we still can address at scale,” said Sievert. “And so we began this program last year. It went very successfully, and we’ll continue it this year.”
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