T-Mobile is implementing surgical price hikes instead of across-the-board increases, as evidenced by a new $0.50 per-line addition to some plans due to an existing regulatory fee. The carrier recently boosted rates for some legacy customers, which may have led to surprise offers of free lines by way of apology.
Beginning April 23, 2025, the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee on voice lines increases from $3.49 per line to $3.99 per line every month. Mobile internet lines get a more modest jump from $1.40 to $1.60 per line every month.
Who will be hit with the fee increase?
This new surcharge affects only a portion of customers, who were notified by text message. Specifically, it applies to those with prepaid plans such as T-Mobile's Unlimited Plus and 10GB offerings or the postpaid Essentials plan. The Go5G plans are listed as "taxes and fees included" and are not affected by this new increase.
What is the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee?
The increase comes to the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee, a charge that is "collected and retained by T-Mobile to help recover certain costs we have already incurred and continue to incur," according to a breakdown of T-Mobile fees and charges.
It's not a government fee, though the Regulatory Programs portion is dedicated to covering "costs for funding and compliance with government mandates, programs and obligations, like E911 or local number portability." T-Mobile's documentation breaks down that portion as 50 cents of the overall voice line fee, but that applies to the current $3.49 fee. The mobile internet line portion is 12 cents of the current $1.40 fee.
The balance is set aside for Telco Recovery, which helps cover "costs and charges imposed on us by other carriers for delivery of calls from our customers to theirs," among other things.
While this fee increase is small, it's not the first price bump T-Mobile customers have seen this year. Last month, the telecom hiked prices on legacy customers. Verizon similarly raised prices for a select group of customers using older plans back in January, while AT&T announced it would increase rates on older unlimited plans back in June.