T-Mobile is preparing a very unpopular change to a very popular grandfathered plan

For the longest time, it seemed like T-Mobile could do no wrong in the eyes of its own subscribers, as well as customers of wireless industry rivals fed up with classic carrier shenanigans and swayed by bombastic "Un-carrier" announcements to switch to the fast-growing underdog.

But after merging with Sprint, surpassing AT&T in customer numbers, and taking the early nationwide 5G lead in terms of both speeds and service availability, T-Mo is certainly straying from the underdog path... for better and for worse.

While we can definitely understand if you appreciate the more professional public communication tone adopted of late by the operator's top executives compared to the belligerent John Legere era, it's hard not to view the newest feature revision first reported on Reddit and subsequently confirmed on the official T-Mobile Support webpages as yet another sign of declining customer service.

At first glance, you might not see anything wrong with or consider the latest "updates to JUMP! upgrades" to be a very big deal for a lot of people, but a not-insignificant number of Redditors is clearly unhappy with what's coming in the fall.

Starting October 6 2022, T-Mobile users who have yet to abandon the long-retired JUMP! 1.0 program will be migrated to the 2.0 version, which promises improved "upgrade flexibility." Obviously, not everyone agrees with that assessment, pointing to a key requirement of the newer smartphone upgrade plan as a big disadvantage compared to the original version launched all the way back in 2014.

In a nutshell, JUMP! 1.0 users are (still) allowed to upgrade their devices up to twice a year without meeting any special conditions, while the JUMP! 2.0 program removes the restriction on the number of "jumps" permitted every 12 months... as long as each upgrade happens after you've paid off at least 50 percent of your current phone balance.

Basically, you win some "flexibility" but also lose some affordability, and that doesn't seem like a very advantageous equation for a lot of people.

For what it's worth, T-Mobile will apparently allow "at least" one more upgrade before October 6 even if you're on JUMP! 1.0 and you've already done your two jumps in the past year, with the grandfathered program then set to move into complete oblivion.

Apart from the actual change, another thing that's making some T-Mo subscribers upset is the fact that the "Un-carrier" vowed to maintain or improve all its plans for at least five years after the completion of its Sprint mega-merger.

But as The T-Mo Report points out, this is technically a feature or an add-on and not in fact a base service plan, so it might not be covered by that promise. All in all, this feels like a classic carrier move on a number of different levels.