T-Mobile's 5-Year Price Guarantee covers the plan price, not the $4.49 fee

T-Mobile’s 5-Year Price Guarantee fixes the price of talk, text and 5G smartphone data for at least five years while you stay on an Experience 2.0 plan. It doesn’t cover taxes, fees, add-ons or third-party services, and T-Mobile’s own $4.49 per-line fee is listed as “subject to change without notice.” I’m not a T-Mobile customer; this is T-Mobile’s plan page and Broadband Facts labels, read on September 22, 2026.

What exactly is guaranteed?

From t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans:

5-Year Price Guarantee means we won’t change the price of talk, text, and 5G smartphone data on our network for at least 5 years as long as you are on an Experience 2.0 plan.

It also covers the price of data on wearable, tablet and mobile internet lines added to the plan. It starts when you activate or switch to an eligible plan, and it “doesn’t restart if you add a line or change plans after that.”

What isn’t guaranteed?

The same sentence lists the exclusions: “Taxes & fees, per-use charges, plan add-ons, third-party services, and network management practices aren’t included.”

The one worth watching is T-Mobile’s own fee. Every voice line carries a “Regulatory Programs & Telco Recovery Fee” of $4.49 a month, which T-Mobile says is “not a government required tax or charge”: $0.50 for regulatory programs and $3.99 for telco recovery. Mobile internet lines carry $2.10. The label says the fee is “subject to change without notice,” and it isn’t part of the guaranteed price.

So the guarantee protects the $90 a single Experience More 2.0 line costs before AutoPay, or the $105 for Beyond 2.0. It doesn’t protect the fee on top, the taxes on top of that, or anything you add later.

How does it compare with other guarantees?

• Total Wireless advertises a five-year guarantee for new subscribers on its tax-inclusive rate, but says it “does not apply to any promotions, add-ons, features, or discounts, such as an Auto Pay discount.” The Verizon network page has Total’s plans.
• Visible pairs its SAVE6 monthly discount with a one-year rate guarantee.
• Mint: its price rises at renewal by design (the price cliff table). I haven’t found a multi-year guarantee on Tello’s or US Mobile’s plan pages, though US Mobile’s blocks the reader this site uses, so check it yourself.

Is the guarantee worth staying for?

It’s worth something if you’d stay on T-Mobile for years anyway: the plan price won’t be the thing that rises. It isn’t a reason to pay much more than a prepaid carrier on the same network. A $25 prepaid line on T-Mobile’s network, like Tello’s unlimited plan, costs less than a third of a single Experience More line, before counting the fee. The T-Mobile network page ranks every plan on the network at its regular price.

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Terms and fees read from t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans and its Broadband Facts labels on September 22, 2026.