A T-Mobile employee has taken to an unofficial company Reddit to remind everybody that the price consumers will pay for the company’s One Plus plan add-on will be going up by $5 beginning tomorrow, July 6, due to the ending of the associated promotion. For T-Mobile customers that don’t have the maximum number of allowed lines that include the add-on, that jump from $5 to $10 should represent a relatively minimal hike. Unfortunately, for those who have the maximum number of allowed lines, that small amount could add up.
One sticking point for penny-pinching consumers, however, may be the revelation that those customers won’t actually be seeing any added benefits for that increased payment amount. All of the benefits currently available with the add-on will remain the same, according to the T-Mobile employee in question – who posted to the Reddit thread under the handle “cwaldie1.” That includes the “limited time free DIGITS Talk and Text line.” For those unfamiliar with T-Mobile’s plans or add-ons, One Plus adds a few features over the top of T-Mobile’s popular One plans. For starters, it adds unlimited video streaming in HD for customers in the U.S. It also adds mobile hotspot, with the first 10 GB set at 4G LTE speeds. For users who spend time outside of the U.S., One Plus ramps up data speeds by up to double where the appropriate network is available. Along the same vein, flying also has added benefits since One Plus customers get unlimited Wi-Fi on flights which are Gogo Wi-Fi enabled. Beyond that, Voicemail to text is included and so is Name ID. As to DIGITS Talk and Text, that allows for multiple phone numbers to be used on a single line – although, as mentioned above, that benefit will only be available for a limited time.
While some customers are likely to feel a bit put off by the price increase, mobile plan prices have – for the most part – remained pretty stable. Small increases such as this one are something to be expected from time to time as carriers work to offset the increasing costs operators face in maintaining relevance in a market filled to the brim with rapidly changing technology. That’s especially true with consideration for the components that comprise cell towers, as well as the cost of expanding overall network coverage. Price hikes such as this one can also play an important role in preventing outages, such as the one T-Mobile customers experienced on a wide scale just a couple of weeks ago.