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.
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.
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“These facilities are not closing,” T-Mobile said in the notice. “The layoffs are not due to the relocation or outsourcing of employer operations or employee positions, but some of the work currently performed by these employees may be performed by others at some point. While employees are encouraged to seek open positions with T-Mobile, these layoffs are expected to be permanent.”
Some of the affected employees are managers, analysts, directors, senior account executives and engineers.
T-Mobile said in the notice that the layoffs were due to “changes in business needs.” The employees will be officially laid off on April 2 and have been given 60 days’ notice.
T-Mobile decided to lay off employees, and its peers in the tech industry have also recently laid off employees.
Verizon laid off as many as 13,000 employees in November, shortly after new CEO Dan Schulman, the former PayPal CEO, took over.
Additionally, a few weeks ago, Amazon announced 16,000 layoffs, a move it said would help it “strengthen” its organization. Meta also laid off more than 1,000 employees in its Reality Labs division last month due to lower profits in the Metaverse business.
More telecom news:
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the U.S. unemployment rate reached 4.4% in December this year, up from 4.1% in December 2024.
Despite the recently announced layoffs, Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, said in a statement to the Society for Human Resource Management that she expects hiring to increase this year.
“We are likely to see a gradual pick-up in hiring activity this year, rather than a huge increase in a post-pandemic hiring boom that results in lower headcount in subsequent years,” Bashaud said.
“The low-employment, low-fire environment that characterized much of 2025 will continue into early 2026, but with one crucial difference,” she added. “While demand will gradually pick up, it will soon encounter tight labor supply constraints.”
A recent Resume.org survey found that about 6 in 10 U.S. companies plan to lay off workers this year, and 9 in 10 plan to hire.
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about 55% of U.S. companies Planned layoffs 2026.
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nearly half (48%) Expect to announce layoffs exist first quarter this year.
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also, 44% of companies view AI as The main driver of layoffsand 42% Blame restructuring and 39% Point out budget issues.
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However, 92% of companies plan to recruit this year, including 86% First quarter hiring.
Source: Resume.org
Kara Dennison, director of career counseling at Resume.org, said in the report that many industries are undergoing a “workforce rebalancing,” with companies cutting jobs that “no longer align with near-term priorities” as they hire in areas “relevant to revenue, transformation and efficiency.”
She also said many companies are using AI as an excuse to lay off employees because it sounds more strategic than admitting the problems they face internally.
“Artificial intelligence has become an explanation because it sounds strategic, forward-looking and inevitable,” Denison said. “AI means progress, not problems. Saying roles are being affected by AI means innovation and modernization, while acknowledging financial pressures may cause concern among investors, employees and customers.”
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This article was originally published by TheStreet on February 4, 2026, and first appeared in the Retail section. Click here to add TheStreet as your preferred source.