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T-Mobile reverses plan to kill corporate discounts

Only current customers enrolled in a discount plan will get to keep their lower rates -- new customers are still stuck with no discounts.

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Roger Cheng (he/him/his) was the executive editor in charge of CNET News, managing everything from daily breaking news to in-depth investigative packages. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade and got his start writing and laying out pages at a local paper in Southern California. He's a devoted Trojan alum and thinks sleep is the perfect -- if unattainable -- hobby for a parent.
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Roger Cheng

T-Mobile CEO John Legere.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere. Lori Grunin/CNET

T-Mobile hit reverse on its plans to completely kill off its corporate discount program, allowing current subscribers to keep their existing rates.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a blog post on Wednesday that anyone enrolled in the Advantage Program before April 1 would be able to keep their plan as long as they worked for a participating employer and remained on a qualifying plan. Customers need to participate in a simple annual online employer verification system.

It's an about-face for the carrier, which last week said it was doing away with the corporate discount plans in an effort to clear things up and remove the confusion over varying rates of discounts based on deals between the carrier and big businesses. It was the latest attempt to shake up the industry, but unlike past moves, it wasn't met with enthusiasm.

It turns out, people liked their discounts, and were vocal about it.

"Over the past few days, I've been doing a lot of listening to our customers," Legere said in the post.

Legere said he still believes complicated rate plan discounts and backroom deals with big corporations are unfair.

"I meant what I said: we're not going to play that game anymore," he said.

New customers will have to go on the new rate with no corporate discount.

In lieu of a discount, T-Mobile offered a $25 reward card toward a new device.