T-Mobile: The “Un-Carrier” That Sold Out

This is about margins and metrics are a means to that end. T-Mobile ending “taxes and fees included” will boost margins by 10-20%; it was low hanging fruit. Watch upgrade deals only apply to plans with “taxes and fees additional” to force customers to upgrade. The one and only one way to address this is to switch carriers. T-Mobile does not care what you think unless enough people do exactly this. Your petitions do not matter. Your complaints do not matter. Your online reviews do not matter. The only thing that matters is taking your business elsewhere.

That argument no longer holds. The three major carriers now operate on an even playing field. Between 2023 and 2025, Verizon implemented five distinct rate or fee increases, AT&T four, and T-Mobile three. Customers may switch providers temporarily, but ultimately, there is little relief to be found. While the idea of “low-hanging fruit” may explain the strategy, it does not justify the actions. Overall, monthly costs have become absurd, and it is time these companies learn to read the room and prioritize what is ultimately right for the customer. In practice, changing carriers often leads only to further frustration. Perhaps a cost-free path to transition will emerge, but as of now, no such option exists.

Clients may choose a MVNO and they have great deals even without a contract so i can't see what's the problem with T-mobile. Virtual carriers are much better in lot of ways and stil use fast 4G/5G network of the big carriers.

The problem is network priority…. I have used those MVNOs and the pricing is temping…. But when you need your Google Maps to load or an email or something and it won’t load because you don’t have priority because your on an MVNO it’s horrible!!

You want to use the Safeway app to scan a product to get the deal, but your phone won’t load because your at the back of store signal isnt great and the network doesn’t give you the attention you need to save that 2 dollars of something it’s annoying.

Unfortunately, leaving one of the Big Three (or what is suppose to be the Big Four if we want to be generous to Dish Wireless dba Boost Mobile) for an MVNO oftentimes puts you back with MNOs anyways, albeit saving you $10-$20/month in some cases depending upon your areas coverage and service availability. MVNOs are resellers who do not own the networks they operate from being how they are differed from MNOs.

The MNOs (to their credit) basically have a pretty firm on consumers and understand that by owning all the MVNOs that they have customers boxed in because if you are getting your service via

* Visible or Tracfone, you are under Verizon

* Cricket, you are under AT&T

* Mint or Metro, you are under T-Mobile

* Ting or Gen, you are under some next level chaos as who knows what in the long term will be happening with 'hybrid MNO' Boost Mobile/Dish Wireless and EchoStar. Since they have deployed a network, I know they are an MNO, but like seriously if T-Mobile and AT&T have been holding them above water as far as the network side of things is concerned. It almost feels like Sprint and T-Mobile tricked Dish into this venture knowing that it was likely to drown before too long and would naturally swoop in and collect what it could salvage from its lifeless business. To their credit, they have stuck around this long but very much not in a way that feels sustainable. This appears to be commonly understood and accepted at this point amongst those who follow to some extent what is playing out with telecommunications in the US.

But back to MVNOs, Verizon and T-Mobile, own a sizeable share of the prepaid wireless and MVNO space. Some MVNOs, like Google Fi, while not owned by the Big 3-4 carriers is heavily reliant and therefore does play ball and is limited on its independence to push out features and services that many consumers would love to see. The Big Three really treat MVNOs like the salt shakers (and their consumers as the salt that they season their dishes [of no relation to Dish Wireless] with) if you figuratively look at this like a baking contest. They control what is served, how much of each service is allowed to happen (including priorities of access and denials of some features) and because MVNOs are reliant on the success of sign ups, work closely within the MNOs controlled structures (if they are independent, of which like I pointed to earlier with the bigger MVNOs, is not often common as many wind up under the Big Carriers (mostly Verizon and T-Mobile, as AT&T has really not been gobbling up anything major other than Cricket Wireless as far as acquisitions go...but picking up divested regions the other two shed during FCC approval negotiations.

At the end of the day, the bill may not say AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon on it, but they are still collecting funds from you...especially if you live in areas where you're limited to who offers coverage and/or services to you.

Well, you pulled the curtain back a little, but who’s to say the other major carriers aren’t doing similar things? I don’t follow phone news so if I’m wrong, I’m wrong….but tell me in what way

I interpret your post mostly as a diatribe against T-Mobile’s changing corporate culture. If you’re an employee, or even an ex, I get why that would matter, but what does it matter to me as an end consumer?

I care about price, features, performance, and reliability. Features would include things like camera, weight, battery life, for starters, just to be clear

You dismiss “freebies” rather off-handily but the included streaming options do save me from having multiple subscriptions. I’m due for a phone change (iPhone XS Max), and when the time comes, I’ll evaluate my phone choices and carriers but the streaming freebies do carry some weight with me

They about to care real soon.when they catch a young thug trial.and when certain people pulling up looking for records.i got the remedy for them.for sure.

TMo succumbed to the inevitable corporate greed epidemic made much worse through industry consolidation.

I love my T-mobile service phone and internet, beats att hands down on service and price