T-Mobile is abolishing consumer overages! Arriving as part three of its Uncarrier announcements, the development seeks to dropping domestic overage charges on all wireless service plans from the Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier.
This much-needed change now gives T-Mobile’s customers a piece of mind knowing they can safely consume data on the go without worrying about being slapped with exorbitant overage fees for exceeding their monthly data allowance.
If history is an indication, rival carriers should reluctantly follow suit or risk getting left behind. Again, no more overage fees on any of your wireless service plans with T-Mobile, not just the carrier’s popular Simple Starter plan that was announced last week…
T-Mobile wrote in a media release that its CEO John Legere laid down a challenge to AT&T, Sprint and Verizon to do the same because as many as 20 million Americans were hit with overage fees totaling more than $1 billion last year.
Today I’m laying down a challenge to AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to join T-Mobile in ending these outrageous overage penalties for all consumers – because it’s the right thing to do.
He also fired another potshot at the AT&T’s, Verizons and Sprints of this world.
For example, an individual on AT&Ts entry-level plan, advertised at $45 per month, will pay $125 if he uses just the average amount of data for a U.S. smartphone user (1.5 GB per person).
Legere even set up a petition to abolish overage fees on Change.org.
The changes will be put into effect starting in May for bills arriving in June. So what happens when you burn through your allotted data? Nothing dramatic. Instead of texting you that you’re now in the penalty zone, you’ll be able to simply buy more data or continue surfing the web at sluggish EDGE speeds, overage fees be damned.
“Regardless of whether you’re on Simple Choice, Simple Starter or an older plan, we’re abolishing overages for good,” said Legere. “Period.”
“If I’m right, the consumer wireless movement is rapidly approaching a tipping point,” the CEO noted on his blog, hitting that previous announcements are going to pale in comparison “to what lies ahead.”
As you know, last year the carrier banished annual service contracts and kill subsidies in favor of interest-free monthly installments.
Last week, T-Mobile introduced a new $40 Simple Starter Plan that includes unlimited voice/text and 500MB of 4G LTE data with tethering and no overage charges. As if that weren’t enough, the company is now selling all 4G LTE iPads (and other LTE-capable tablets) at Wi-Fi prices and offering an additional sixteen gigabytes of free high-speed 4G LTE data through the end of the year, free of charge.
Are you glad that T-Mobile is eliminating another stupid industry practice?
They are certainly feeling it, aren’t they?