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T-Mobile just announced a fee increase: Here’s what’s changing
Published onApril 8, 2025
- T-Mobile is raising telco fees starting April 23, in addition to legacy plan increases earlier this month.
- The new fees apply to both current and legacy plans, according to user reports.
- Extra fees like these have become a common, controversial tactic among major carriers despite past legal challenges.
Note: This article has been lightly modified from its originally published form to include a statement from T-Mobile.
Last month, we learned that T-Mobile would be increasing prices on certain legacy plans by $5 starting April 2, but only for those plans that hadn’t already been affected by the 2024 legacy price hikes. Unfortunately, that’s not the only increase happening this month.
As first spotted by user UCF_Knight12 on the T-Mobile subreddit, the carrier has begun sending out text messages notifying customers of an additional price increase: a $0.50 per line increase for voice lines and a $0.20 per line increase for data-only lines. This latest increase will go into effect on April 23 and, based on community responses, appears to impact both current and legacy plans.
While disappointing, these new fees aren’t entirely unexpected, as the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee has been around for a while now and has slowly crept forward.
In recent years, all three major carriers have increasingly leaned on these kinds of administrative fees to inflate customer bills without changing advertised plan prices. Whether labeled as telco, infrastructure, or admin fees, they function similarly and remain highly controversial.
For T-Mobile’s part, the carrier told us in a statement that, “This is a standard fee that is charged in our industry. It helps to recover costs related to government mandates, network facilities, and delivery fees imposed by other providers.” That is certainly true but doesn’t make it any less liked of a policy, however.
In fact, both Verizon and T-Mobile have faced lawsuits over such charges and the former settled for a sizable amount out of court. Still, that hasn’t stopped carriers from continuing to rely on them, often justifying the fees as necessary for infrastructure and network maintenance.
Tired of the price hikes and considering a switch? There are plenty of prepaid carriers that offer services comparable to the big three postpaid plans. You can check out our top picks in our best phone plan guide.