T-Mobile planned to move users to pricier plans, called it no price hike, then dropped it

In October 2023, Ars Technica reported, citing Reddit posts and leaked documents published by The Mobile Report, that T-Mobile would move customers on older plans (Simple Choice, Magenta, ONE Plan and others) to newer ones such as Go5G or Essentials starting with the November bill cycle. Customers would pay $5 or $10 more per line unless they called to opt out. T-Mobile confirmed to CNET an increase of about $10 per line.

Customer service reps were trained to say 'We are not raising the price of any of our plans; we are moving you to a newer plan with more benefits at a different cost.' That line clashed with the 2015 'Un-contract' promise that Simple Choice customers could keep their price as long as they stayed, and with ads saying T-Mobile would not raise the price of a plan. Reddit users called the move shady and money-grubbing.

On 25 October, CEO Mike Sievert said on the earnings call that the migration was only a test cell and had leaked as if it were national, but that the feedback showed it was not something customers would love, so none had been rolled out and it would not go ahead. He and marketing president Mike Katz added that T-Mobile still wants to rationalize legacy rate plans and move users up its price card.

The plan raised revenue per user by shifting older, cheaper plan holders without asking them to choose, only letting them opt out.

The 'different cost' script tried to avoid the word price hike, which customers read as evasion given T-Mobile's earlier no-price-rise marketing.

Internal training documents leaked before the test, so customers saw the plan and the script before T-Mobile could frame it.

Telling customers a higher bill is not a price hike convinces nobody, especially when you once promised price guarantees. A leaked script can turn a test into a public reversal.

T-Mobile dropped the automatic migration on 25 October 2023, two weeks after the leak. Sievert said his company would 'probably do something different' while still pursuing the goal, and Katz expected more such tests. The articles report no fine or measured subscriber loss. Sievert also told staff the media reports were largely inaccurate, though T-Mobile's own communications team had confirmed the plan to Ars and other outlets.