T-Mobile USA joins crowd

[blsemp]

T-Mobile USA joins crowd, raises texting fee to 15 cents
It appears T-Mobile USA Inc. has held out long enough. The No. 4 carrier has fallen in line with its three larger rivals and announced that it too will increase text-messaging rates from 10 cents to 15 cents per message, beginning June 1




http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../70322014/1005

[agentHibby]

If you want to stay in the wireless business you have to have competitive prices. So that is what they had to do.

I would think that over time the price that the provider pays for SMS would getting cheaper so if that is true, is this away to get more $$$$$

[bobolito]

Let's all thank Sprint for this. They started it all last October, then Cingular followed them in late January, then Verizon this month, and coming this summer T-Mobile.

[Fire14]

It's interesting that Sprint & T-Mobile say it was a contract change & Cingular & Verizon didn't.

T-Mobile USA subscribers get an out: ETF can be waved over increased texting fee

T-Mobile USA Inc. has confirmed that its recently announced rate increase on pay-per-use text messages will be regarded as a material change to the terms and conditions of its subscribers’ contracts, hence allowing them to cancel service without incurring early termination fees.

“Customers may terminate their contract without incurring an ETF soon after receiving their notification of the pricing change,” T-Mobile USA spokesman Peter Dobrow wrote in an e-mail to RCR Wireless News.

T-Mobile USA didn’t elaborate on whether all of its customers would be allowed to cancel without paying the fee. Customers who pay for text messages in bundles—and therefore don’t pay the per-message fee—as well as those who don’t use text messaging at all won’t be affected by the change and therefore may not be able to claim it as a change to their service.

While the four largest U.S. carriers have all increased their pay-per-use rate for text messages from 10 cents to 15 cents over the past few months, each claims the changes affect customer contracts and ETFs differently.

AT&T Inc.’s Cingular Wireless said it was simply a pricing change for an optional service and that subscribers would still have to pay the fee to cancel their contract. However, when Sprint Nextel Corp. made the change, the carrier said it would only allow affected customers to cancel their service without paying the carrier’s ETF; customers on text-messaging plans were not able to get out of their contracts scot-free.

http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...3005/1002/FREE

[bobolito]

I guess T-mobile listens to the forums and they don't want all the bad publicity that Cingular and Sprint got over this.

[clock3687]

Originally Posted by bobolito

I guess T-mobile listens to the forums and they don't want all the bad publicity that Cingular and Sprint got over this.

Yea they did do this kinda sneakily, and weve been complaining about it over in the t-mo forums as well...

http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/t-...sms-rates.html (T-Mobile's raising SMS rates)

Originally Posted by bobolito

I guess T-mobile listens to the forums and they don't want all the bad publicitythat Cingular and Sprint got over this.

I don't know if that's what it was . I think by rights they are just honoring the customers contracts in which a change is being made to the users agreement so the customer has the right to opt out of this change as long as it is done within 30 days from the customers notification. Verizon is also letting their customers our of their contracts as well due to Verizon rate changes. But as we all know, nobody will take advantage of this situation and leave Americas most reliable network over that change.

[Matt]

I think it's better PR to just let people out - they have other reasons to leave in the most case; this is just an excuse....they would have left anyway...