T-Mobile’s plans to forcibly move subscribers on legacy plans to newer, more expensive offerings has another wrinkle, with the company now calling it a “small-scale test” that hasn’t kicked off yet.
Word of the migration efforts leaked on Reddit, and was later confirmed by several outlets, including Cord Cutters News. The leaks included a breakdown of which plans were affected, but noted there was an option to opt out if you contact T-Mobile’s customer care line.
Customers were supposed to start getting notifications that they would be moved on Wednesday. Indeed, there’s a Reddit thread that includes some people mentioning how they’ve already opted out. But the company said the test hasn’t begun and has offered more clarity on just how many people would be affected.
Here’s the full statement from T-Mobile:
We are always testing new ways to deliver more for our customers and learn how to improve their experience. Though we haven’t kicked it off yet, this would be a small-scale test where we reach out to a small subset of customers who are on older rate plans to let them know they have the opportunity to move to newer, better plans with more features and more value. Eligible customers would hear from us when this starts – no customer accounts will be changed until then. At that time those customers can also choose to stay on their current or similar plan if they prefer.
A spokeswoman for the carrier wasn’t available for a follow-up question about the exact start time for this test.
With more than 100 million subscribers, T-Mobile likely has a large number of customers on older legacy plans first offered when the carrier was an upstart No. 4 player looking to grow by any means necessary. Since its first “Un-carrier” campaign back in 2013, the company has offered a myriad of different plans and freebies — the kind of offers the company would likely want to claw back now.
T-Mobile has already spent the last few years pushing customers to its newer, more expensive plans, offering perks like free Netflix or better iPhone upgrade programs to people to entice them to make the switch. But there are likely a number of customers on older, cheaper plans who prefer what they currently have.
If you are notified that your plan will be migrated, the best route is to call the customer care line at 611 on their T-Mobile phone. Some users have reported that you’re able to make the switch on the website or in the app, but that hasn’t been confirmed by Cord Cutters News. Keep in mind that you’ll need to wait until you’re notified that you’re part of this test before you can contact customer care.