T-Mobile petition calls for other carriers to end overage fees

T-Mobile is on the offensive against its rivals again, calling for the top U.S. wireless carriers to end their use of overage fees.

The Seattle-based carrier launched a petition on Change.org on Monday morning that said 20 million Americans were hit with overage fees by carriers in 2013. T-Mobile estimates that customers pay AT&T, Verizon and Sprint more than $1 billion in overages per year.

“I’m laying down a challenge to AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to join T-Mobile in ending these outrageous overage penalties for all consumers -- because it’s the right thing to do,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. “Overage fees are flat out wrong.”

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T-Mobile, which doesn’t charge overage fees for its Simple Choice and its new Simple Starter plan, said that it would no longer charge overage fees to customers on its older plans. The company gives details for what will occur when customers on older plans go over their limits.

However, customers on the Simple Starter plan that was unveiled last week are given the option to pay for “additional data sessions” if they want to use more than their 500 megabytes of monthly data. That charge is similar to an overage fee with the only difference being that customers must first accept the charge before they can continue using data.

So far, T-Mobile’s petition has been signed by more than 1,000 users. AT&T, Verizon and Sprint could not be reached for comment.

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