T-Mobile has started making the change you've been dreading for so long
Only for smartwatches and tablets for the time being, but phones could well be next soon.
If you plan on buying a new phone from T-Mobile in the near future but don't have the money to pay its full price upfront, you might not want to put off your purchase much longer. That's because the "Un-carrier" is likely to move its handsets from two-year to three-year installment plans, thus making it easier to squeeze more cash out of you over a lengthier period of time than right now.
How do I know that? It's pretty simple...
The age of 36-month commitments has already started
Obviously, traditional carrier contracts are not coming back, but T-Mo's slightly more flexible monthly payment plans have just quietly become a little more complicated for new tablet and smartwatch buyers.
All tablets and wearable devices sold through the nation's 5G leader can either be paid in full at the time of your purchase or over 36 months now instead of 24. That will naturally reduce the amount of money you need to spend every month for a new iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Apple Watch, or Pixel Watch while keeping customers tied to Magenta for an extra 12 months, during which time more taxes and fees can be charged.
50 year leases are next.
D_Anger_Dan on Reddit, December 2, 2025
That's a pretty great profit-enhancing move from T-Mobile, and the fear is this is only the first step towards an identical change of policy for Magenta's phones.
Predictably enough, customers are not happy about a change some are calling "pathetic" on Reddit and describing it as meant to "milk more money out of" users, which is quite brutal, but not entirely uncalled-for.
Verizon and AT&T have been doing this for years
Not that that's going to make any T-Mobile users (especially longtime subscribers) feel much better, but the "Un-carrier" is (yet again) taking a (dirty) trick from its rivals' playbook, proving for the umpteenth time over the last couple of years that it has become a "traditional" carrier for all intents and purposes.
Because Verizon and AT&T are doing 36-month installment plans for smartwatches, tablets, and smartphones, it's clearly only a matter of time until T-Mo will expand its new policy to iPhones, Google Pixels, Samsung Galaxy handsets, Motorolas, and so on.
At that point, it will arguably become even more convenient for even more people to shop directly at said device manufacturers, especially with the likes of Samsung often selling its phones at wild discounts and Apple offering its own killer financing deals with zero interest.
I'm not really sure how they switch phones to 36 month financing because all of their marketing for Go5G+ and Experience More were for a 2 year upgrade cycle. I guess they'd just have to go back on that promise, but that's quite a change. For me, that could possibly change the economics enough to push me to an MVNO.
JackPAnderson, Reddit, December 2, 2025
As pointed out by a couple of different Redditors, T-Mobile built quite a few marketing campaigns (especially for costly plans like Go5G+ and Experience More) around the promise of an easy two-year upgrade cycle, which will probably have to be revised soon. Then again, that certainly wouldn't be Magenta's first broken promise of the last few years, and it likely won't be the last one either.
How frustrated should you really be here?
In a way, not that frustrated. After all, T-Mo isn't (technically) making its watches, tablets, and soon enough, phones any pricier. There are clearly worse things that could happen, have happened in the past, and are likely to happen to you in the future, so while I can definitely understand some frustration, it's important to maintain perspective, stay calm, and not overreact.
All T-Mobile has done for a while is go back on their promises (which they just claim they never promised to begin with). They're a-holes, so it's not much of an issue for them.
jpt86, Reddit, December 2, 2025
Alternatively, of course, I can get why some of you might feel like this is the last straw and the time has come to try something different, in which case you'll want to take a look at our complete list and comprehensive analysis of the best phone carriers out there today.
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