T-Mobile customers with Essentials, Simple Choice, or prepaid plans will pay an extra $0.50 per voice line (or $0.20 per data-only line) after April 23rd. This price increase does not affect customers with Go5G, ONE, or Magenta plans.
This is a mild but somewhat insulting price hike. T-Mobile is not changing the sticker price of its prepaid or Essentials plans—instead, the company is pumping up a “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery” junk fee that appears at the bottom of some customers’ monthly bills.
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The “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery” fee is not a government tax, nor is it required by any law. It’s just an arbitrary fee “collected and retained by T-Mobile to help recover certain costs,” such as E911, network leases, and local number portability. Competing carriers like Verizon and AT&T also use fees to offset these operating costs, so T-Mobile isn’t unique in this regard.
T-mobile’s explanation of the “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery” fee is as follows:
“This fee is not a government tax or imposed by the government; rather, the fee is collected and retained by T-Mobile to help recover certain costs we have already incurred and continue to incur … The Regulatory Programs component helps cover costs for funding and compliance with government mandates, programs and obligations, like E911 or local number portability … The Telco Recovery component helps cover costs and charges imposed on us by other carriers for delivery of calls from our customers to theirs and for certain network facilities (e.g., leases), operations, and services we obtain to provide you with service.”
Angry T-Mobile customers flooded to a Reddit thread after being notified of the price increase earlier this week. However, several of these customers misinterpreted the purpose and scope of T-Mobile’s “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery” fee, accusing the carrier of trying to force them away from their Magenta plans—legacy Magenta service, like modern Go5G plans, use tax-included pricing and will not be impacted by the April 23 fee increase.
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For what it’s worth, T-Mobile already charges $3.49 per voice line in “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery” fees. The $0.50 increase, which brings the fee to $3.99, is relatively mild. But the price bump isn’t completely insignificant—if you’ve got four voice lines, your monthly bill will increase by $2, which works out to an extra $24 each year. And that’s on top of the $5 per-line price hike that Simple Choice and ONE subscribers got nailed with a few months ago.
Customers who are affected by increased service pricing should avoid making rash decisions. You may be tempted to switch over to a plan with tax-included pricing and promo goodness (T-Mobile might offer you a free line, or whatever), but your current plan may save you money in the long run. Shop around, do your research, and if you’re on a legacy plan, stick with it until you have a good reason to jump ship.
The T-Mobile “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery” fee will increase by $0.50 per voice line (or $0.20 per data-only line) on April 23rd. To reiterate, this change does not impact Go5G plans, Magenta plans, or other subscriptions with tax-included pricing. Essentials, Simple Choice, and prepaid plans do not have tax-included pricing and are affected by the udpated fees.
Source: T-Mobile via The Mobile Report
