T-Mobile Forcing Customers Off Grandfathered Plans Beginning Next Month

In a bid to make things easier on itself, T-Mobile has decided to move existing customers off of their older grandfathered service plans onto variants of their current Simple Choice plan slate, the slate being the linchpin to their current “UnCarrier” corporate strategy. In a statement to the press regarding the changes beginning next month, this is how the newly resurgent carrier justifies the significant changes, which means increased monthly rates for many customers as a result of the forced migration:

Maintaining thousands of rate plans is the norm in the industry, but we think it creates unnecessary complexity. Simple is better, which is why we’re reducing the number of older plans in our systems. We’re giving customers on these plans the opportunity to choose a plan that best meets their needs. For the vast majority, their plan will provide similar or better features at a comparable price.

While T-Mobile is offering selected customers custom variants of the current Simple Choice plan slate with $5-$10 discounts in order to match previous grandfathered plans, those with older data plans such as T-Zones or the many cheap unlimited data add-ons from the middle of the 2000’s aren’t so lucky, as their overall monthly rates are being doubled due to the migrations, even when unlimited data is included and the only consolation being that if the changes aren’t amenable, customers affected are able to leave without termination fees until next February. Below an example of the letters being sent out to T-Mobile customers currently under grandfathered plans: