Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- T-Mobile offers segmented rate plans that offer a discounted price on mainline prices to specific segments of consumers, such as those 55 and above, First Responders, and the Military.
- As per a leaked report, T-Mobile will soon carve out exclusions on promotional discounts for these segments, offering them a lower discount than the mainline plan’s promo.
Carriers have a strong grip over the US market, often strongly dictating what Android flagships users will pick up and even when they will upgrade. Companies generally want you to be on their latest plans, but they do grandfather your older plan and its benefits to honor their commercial contract. However, these grandfathered mainline plans end up receiving reduced promotions on new devices, which is a way to nudge users into leaving them behind. It seems T-Mobile could soon use the same strategy on some of its segmented rate plans, too.
Some of the best T-Mobile deals are on the latest smartphones, with massive discounts frequently available on the top-end premium mainline plans. Older plans no longer offered to new customers have their benefits grandfathered for existing customers, but the promotional discounts on new devices are reduced in these cases. So customers hunting for the best deal when switching to a newer plan do check if they are eligible for a “segmented” rate plan — mainline plans that have a discount built in for special categories of customers, like age 55 and above, First Responders, and Military.
According to leaked documents obtained by The Mobile Report, T-Mobile will soon restrict these “segmented” rate plans from receiving the highest device promotion values. From October 4 onwards, customers on discounted “segmented” rate plans will receive reduced values compared to customers on the standard non-discounted plan of the same name.
As we can see in the leaked image above, exclusions are being carved out in plans for 55 and above, Military and First Responders. On a Galaxy S24, mainline plans are getting a $800 promotional discount, while these segmented plans are only getting a $600 promotional discount. Similarly, the Moto Razr Plus is discounted by $1,000 and is thus free on mainline plans thanks to the promotions, but it is $800 off on the segmented plans.
As the report suggests, this is the first time promos are being separated by plan and segment, not just the plan. It’s unclear if this segregation will apply to future promotions or only to this round of promotions.
We’ve contacted T-Mobile for comments on the above report and information. We’ll update this article when we hear back from them. Since the changes allegedly go live in the next two days, we won’t have to wait too long to find out if the report is correct.
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