T-Mobile US today said it will end overage fees in a new bid to taken on America telecom rivals such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile US, also requested AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to stop overage fees that are estimated to be around $1 billion.
This means, American wireless customers can save $1 billion if AT&T, Verizon and Sprint also joins T-Mobile US.
The company in a statement said more than 20 million Americans were hit with overage charges in 2013.
Today’s announcement is part of a series of new offerings from T-Mobile.
On 10 April, T-Mobile challenged the major rivals with a new tablet offer. The company said Apple and Samsung 4G LTE tablets will be available for the price of Wi-Fi-only models. In addition, the telecoms also added free 1.2GB of 4G LTE data each month till December 2014.
Last year, T-Mobile banished annual service contracts and began phasing out overage charges with the launch of Simple Choice.
Also read: T-Mobile adds $40 plan with unlimited talk, text and 500MB LTE data
On 9 April, T-Mobile US announced its $40 a month package offering unlimited talk, text and up to 500MB 4G LTE data and tethering. The entry-level plan is aimed at both wireless customers and small businesses in the U.S.
Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile today termed surprise bills in the form of overages charges as unpopular and unjustified practice of slamming consumers. Interestingly, the company followed this model for years and made money from American mobile users.
Traditional carriers’ entry-level plans lure customers in with a low monthly fee for a fixed amount of domestic minutes, texts or data. Once consumers go over those limits – even by a little – they’re hit with much higher rates, often dramatically higher.
AT&T entry-level plan, advertised at $45 per month, will cost you $125 if you use 1.5 GB of data. 1.5 GB per person is the average amount of data for a U.S. smartphone user, according to T-Mobile.
The most notable thing is that the rivals of T-Mobile did not respond to the three offers. We need to wait for the next quarterly announcement to know the latest customer additions of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile US.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
