T-Mobile is undergoing a critical transformation as it tries to prevent its cell phone customers from flocking to rivals following major changes in prices and cell phone plans.
After raising rates on some older cell phone plans in 2024, T-Mobile raised prices on those plans again last April, frustrating many customers. It also increased regulatory scheme and telecommunications restoration fees, which are paid by customers in their monthly bills.
The phone operator later removed the tax from its phone plan pricing and moved customers to newer plans without their permission.
Shortly after these changes, T-Mobile revealed in its third-quarter 2025 earnings report that its postpaid phone churn rate (the number of customers who canceled phone service) rose 3 basis points year over year.
A WhistleOut survey last year found that many consumers across the country are planning to switch cellphone carriers in response to rising prices that are leading to a loss of customers. As a result of this trend, T-Mobile is at risk of losing 75.9 million customers due to overpriced mobile plans.
The company subsequently appointed Srini Gopalan as its new CEO in September, who has since vowed to make the company digital-first and make customers more reliant on T-Life apps for tasks. This has sparked concerns among some employees that the move will lead to layoffs.
Shortly before officially taking over as CEO on November 1, he doubled down on his efforts to drive the company’s digital transformation.
“Digital acquisitions and moving our customers to digital fundamentally solve customer pain points and follow the way we’ve always done things in this industry, changing and fundamentally re-examining that process just makes it easier for you to do the one thing you can’t do with wireless, which is buy wireless,” Gopalan said during an October earnings call.
T-Mobile’s new CEO promises to make the company digital first.Shutterstock · Shutterstock
Employees’ concerns were confirmed in December when T-Mobile reportedly laid off an unknown number of account executives and sales managers. Then, between Jan. 6 and Jan. 20, the phone carrier cut jobs in several other divisions, including end-user support, consumer and retail and product.
In response to the layoffs, T-Mobile said in a statement to TheStreet last month that while it continues to hire, it is making “some changes” to ensure it has the “right focus, structure and momentum” as it aims to focus more on customers and “react faster to dynamic markets.”
Now it looks like T-Mobile is continuing to lay off employees. In a warning notice filed with the Washington Department of Employment Security on January 30, T-Mobile announced that it was laying off 393 employees at multiple locations in Washington state.
