Odean and her husband switched from Verizon to get the lifetime T-Mobile price lock in 2017, signing up for a two-line plan specifically marketed to people ages 55 and over. They are now set to receive their second price increase since 2024.
Odean, who is in her early 70s, told us she is furious about the latest price change. She said she complained to the company and “just got a generic email in reply.”
T-Mobile trying to simplify back-end system
T-Mobile COO Jon Freier told staff in a leaked email last month that the carrier is removing about 1,100 legacy billing codes from its systems in the process of eliminating old plans.
“Nearly half of these customers won’t see their price change at all by the time this migration is complete,” Freier wrote. “For those who do, It’s up to $6 per line. We’re reaching out to anyone—including employees—whose new plan includes a price adjustment.”
Freier’s email said plans originally sold in the 3G and 4G eras had stricter restrictions on smartphone and hotspot data, little or no international roaming, and a video resolution cap of 480p. Customers being moved to new plans will “get more premium data, more high-speed hotspot [data], and better international coverage,” plus a five-year price guarantee, the Freier email said.
A Fierce Network report said the elimination of 1,100 billing codes will leave fewer than 100 codes in T-Mobile’s system. With a smaller number of codes that reference various products and rate plans, T-Mobile is attempting to greatly simplify its back-end system.
“These are not 1,100 different price plans; they’re codes in the billing system that tell the network what to allow and not allow,” Fierce Network wrote. When T-Mobile adds a feature or capability to its website or mobile app, “it has to run it through all these codes to make sure it’s backwards compatible.”
It’s clear that in this mass migration of plans and reduction in billing codes, old service offerings weren’t always replaced with close equivalents. If T-Mobile lives up to the promise it made today, customers should at least get the missing free lines back and have their bills cleared of any erroneous charges. But the $6 per-line price increases are here to stay.
