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T-Mobile increases SMS text messaging rates – gives customers an out

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 2:38 PM

T-Mobile logoRemember all the hoopla that was stirred up by T-Mobile’s increased SMS text message fees last year? Right, well it looks like the cost of sending a text message outside of a bundled texting plan will increase from $0.15 cents to a more profitable $0.20 cents.

The pricing increase obviously won’t be hitting those with unlimited texting plans very hard, but anyone opting to pay per-message or maxing out their bundled text message quota will be seeing an extra nickel leaving their wallets with each press of the “Send” key.

The 5-cent price increase for sending SMS text messages falls in line with what other carriers are charging for text messages. And, depending on your past text message usage, T-Mobile customers may be allowed to cancel their contracts without being charged an ETF – similar to last year’s contract-canceling hulabaloo. Presumably, anyone with a history of paying for text messages on a per-message basis would be let out of their contract sans-ETF. We’re not sure if canceling your bundled text messaging plans and then firing off a few 15-cent SMS text messages will help your case at this point, but it might not hurt to try.

The new 20-cent-per-message rates go in to effect on August 29, so mark your calendars and hop on a text messaging plan post-haste.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • backwerds

    I just went through the exact same procedure as neokusama did above. The only changes were this:

    1) the first customer service manager I got on the phone disconnected me

    2) the next person I got on the phone attempted to persuade me from mentioning in the call that I had not gone over in text messages in the past 3 months (apparently CYA on her part)

    3) she miraculously “found” some overages that the other two people couldn’t see and was able to cancel as a result of those overages.

    Now I can tell you for a fact that I have not gone over in my text messages in the past 3 months, but clearly she needed to record on the phone call that she had found some in case she was audited. Overall it took about 30 minutes. Well worth it for an iPhone.

  • Lalit Patil

    I called T Mobile yesterday and had a long 3 hr conversation with them to wave my ETF for two lines i.e $400. But they kept on saying they did notify me by a flier in the bill that message rates are going up. I was not sure if they sent any flier of that sort. They also said, I was out of the time frame in which they could wave off my ETF. They were adamant to escalate my case further. Now what??…….I dunno what to do…?…I want to get rid of T-Mobile…..and I am not sure whether to lodge a complain with FCC, as I dunno the consequences of it.(Legal stuff, so kinda worried)…

  • kevin

    yo kn0 wat i think…
    tm0bile should give free textinq to the myfaves plan..
    that will boost up their customers.. =]

  • maltinez480

    my husaband and I recently moved to california and we do not get service in our house or near our house. t-mobile is not responsible for no serivce in any house,building or apartment. they are building a new tower near our home but that will take 60 days to complete. they will not give us any compensation for having to deal with no service no wave or pro rate our cancellation fees. why should we have to pay for something we cant use or have to go out of our way to use? I am sick of fake customer serivce and just want out. I have had them for years and have not had any issues until now. any ideas of how to get out of it?