T-Mobile flattens phone bills, kicks back money for unused data, and streamlines to one rate plan

Today’s a big day in the land of T-Mobile. The carrier, err, Un-carrier, rather, today announced a number of changes as part of its latest initiative. Speaking in Las Vegas today, T-Mobile president and CEO John Legere and COO Mike Sievert announced that it will do away with “crazy monthly fees and added taxes”. Well, at least in a consumer-facing manner, that is.

Going forward, the T-Mobile One rate plan will be flattened; a $50 plan is going to appear as $50 on the bill. In other words, the taxes and other charges will be folded into the price. You might still see oddball charges for upgrades or equipment installation costs, but the rate plan is getting cleaned up.

Now, the price you see advertised is actually the price you pay. When you sign up for T-Mobile ONE and AutoPay for $40 a line for a family of four, your bill at the end of the month is EXACTLY $40 per line for your wireless service. And not a penny more.

Additionally, T-Mobile is going to start kicking back money to customers who don’t use very much data. Effective January 22nd, any subscribers on a Simple Choice or One plan who doe not use at least 2GB of data in a month will receive a “KickBack” worth up to $10 per line. Available for phones and tablets, the options can be enabled via the T-Mobile app, or via customer service.

But, wait, there’s more

In a move some saw coming a mile away, T-Mobile will now ONLY offer T-Mobile One plans later this month. Current customers will be able to keep their current data packages, but all new customers and current customers changing to a new data allotment will only be able to pick a T-Mobile One plan.

Here’s the problem with that: a lot of customers don’t want their streaming video capped at 480P. Sure, some, maybe most, don’t care, but that T-Mobile is locking customers into this unless they pay an additional charge for HD access every month is troubling from a company who claims to be all about the consumer and removing pain points.

Nevertheless, subscribers will be able to get HD Day passes if they sign up for the T-Mobile ONE Plus option which runs an extra $15 per month. Also included in the bundle is Gogo Full Flight Unlimited Wi-Fi, 2x the data speed when traveling, Voicemail to Text, and Name ID.

A ONE Plus International add-on can also be purchased for $25 per month, per line which also offers Unlimited international calling to landlines in 70+ countries and mobile numbers in 30+ countries,  and Unlimited 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot.