T-Mobile seems to be on a roll. It has just announced that it is eliminating overage penalties for all its customers regardless of their cellular plan as part of its latest Un-carrier campaign from May 1st.
The carrier claims that the three largest carriers may have charged customers more than $1 billion in penalties.
Carriers charge customers overage penalties when they use more minutes, data, or messages than are included in their plan.
T-Mobile is challenging other carriers to follow in its footsteps by eliminating overage penalties for their customers. The carrier has also started an online petition that asks AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to abolish overage fees.
From T-Mobile’s press release:
“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,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “Overage fees are flat out wrong. Agree with me? Join me in putting this challenge to all the major national carriers by signing my petition on Change.org. Right here. Take one minute to be a part of this consumer movement.”
“Charging overage fees is a greedy, predatory practice that needs to go,” continued Legere. “Starting in May for bills arriving in June – regardless of whether you’re on Simple Choice, Simple Starter or an older plan, we’re abolishing overages for good. Period.”
T-Mobile continues to shake up the cellular industry with their Un-carrier promotions such as the contract-free cellular plans, paying for early termination fees if a customer switches to T-Mobile, offering LTE iPads for the price of Wi-Fi models etc.
Update:
This is applicable only to customers with older plans. It also looks like instead of the overage penalties, it will slow data speeds when customers exceed their data limits. It is not clear how it would work for calls and text messages.
