At the beginning of last year, T-Mobile introduced several drastic changes that upset its customers to the point where some decided to cut ties with the company.
In April of last year, T-Mobile raised the monthly prices of some of its older phone plans by $5 and increased its regulatory programs and telco recovery fees, which customers pay each month.
It officially retired its Go5G plans in June and began removing taxes and fees from plan pricing. By August, T-Mobile booted select customers from older phone plans and placed them on its Go5G Plus plan.
After these changes took effect, T-Mobile disclosed in its 2025 third quarter earnings report that its postpaid phone churn, the number of customers who cut their phone service, increased by 3 basis points year over year.
Losing loyal customers is no surprise, as many Americans draw a line in the sand on the cost of their monthly phone bills. This has led to many consumers looking for cheaper non-traditional options for phone service, such as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), according to a survey by WhistleOut last year.
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The average cost of a single-line phone plan is $76 per month.
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about 42% Customers of T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T have seen their phone bills growth In the last year, which is 7% more than average.
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Also, 58% Customers include T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T Thinking about switching As prices go up, switch to a different phone carrier.
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Also, 34% Among these customers they cOnsider switching of one MVNO within the next year.
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T-Mobile risk of loss a joint 75.9 million customers Due to high mobile plan pricing.
Source: WhistleOut
“Due to economic uncertainty and rising prices, many people are realizing they can save by switching their phone service to smaller carriers called MVNOs,” WhistleOut senior staff writer Max McCaskill wrote in the survey. “These carriers use major carrier networks, but at significantly lower costs.”
Despite the risk of further customer losses, T-Mobile has decided to start the new year by raising monthly bills with another fee increase.
In an update on its website, the phone carrier warned customers that it is once again increasing its regulatory program and telco recovery fees. T-Mobile says the fee helps “recover certain costs,” such as fees from other carriers and costs for funding and compliance with government mandates.
Starting Jan. 21, charges for phone customers will increase from $3.99 to $4.49 per voice line. For mobile Internet lines, the fee will climb from $1.60 to $2.10 per line.
Related: T-Mobile Changes Bold Phone Plan After Customer Loss
The rate adjustment will only affect customers on plans that do not include taxes and fees in the price. Customers on old plans that already include taxes and fees will not see any change in their bills.
When T-Mobile last year increased its regulatory program and telco recovery fees in April of last year, the fees increased from $3.49 to $3.99 for voice lines and from $1.40 to $1.60 for mobile Internet lines.
The fee has faced criticism from customers in the past, with some questioning its legitimacy. In 2024, T-Mobile was sued in a class-action lawsuit, where customers alleged that they had been “illegally” charged this fee for decades, and claimed that the description of the fee was “unfair and misleading” because the fee was “not tied to any benchmark” and could be changed “at will”.
T-Mobile’s latest fee increase comes after the company made several significant billing changes affecting its customers in recent months.
In October, T-Mobile began notifying customers that they would lose their auto-pay discount if they made early payments with a credit card. It required customers to set up payment arrangements for past due balances through the T-Life app rather than at a T-Mobile store or the company’s automated phone system.
The following month, T-Mobile also increased its late fees for customers who couldn’t pay their bills on time from $7 to $10 (or 5% of past due amounts; T-Mobile will choose whichever is higher).
Most recently, on Jan. 1, the phone carrier began charging $3 a month for its Apple TV “On Us” feature, which was free for “Plus”-level phone plan customers starting in 2021.
These changes come as T-Mobile is operating under new leadership. On November 1, Srini Gopalan became CEO of the company after serving as Chief Operating Officer for about seven months.
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Under his leadership, Gopalan aims to initiate a “digital transformation” at T-Mobile, which he hopes will solve customer frustrations.
“I want you all to know that I am not only the network leader today, but committed to investing relentlessly to protect and expand our network leadership margin for tomorrow,” Gopalan said on an earnings call in October.
“Let me talk a little bit about digital transformation. The amount of friction and frustration we have with customers today because of our processes and the state of development in this industry is unprecedented. We have a huge opportunity to change that with our digital transformation,” he continued.
T-Mobile’s change in direction comes after a recent survey by J.D. Power found that the phone carrier lags behind MVNOs in terms of consumer satisfaction rates.
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T-Mobile has one Consumer satisfaction score who 636 (on a 1,000-point scale) for its postpaid plans, beating out Verizon and AT&T, which have multiple points. 583 and 573, respectively.
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but, MVNOs has an average satisfaction score of 641.
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in particular, Consumer Cellular is the number of 726While Google Fi Wireless is the number of 671.
Source: JD Power
“The findings show that price is the most important driver of the overall experience, followed closely by service quality,” Carl Lepper, senior director of technology, media and telecom at JD Power, said in a press release.
“These two dimensions are central to our new model – and for good reason,” he added. “As the market continues to expand with different brands designed to meet different customer needs, expectations are rising – not only for robust network performance, but also for service plans that reflect individual preferences.”
RELATED: DirecTV takes drastic action as customers keep leaving
This story was originally published by TheStreet on January 12, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
