After getting 250,000 signatures in a petition launched at Change.org, CEO John Legere of T-Mobile is preparing for his next move by asking consumers the type of message they want to convey.
Started in April 2014, the petition requests that carriers abolish their data overage charges, something T-Mobile had already done. Legere's campaign now ranks as the number one technology petition on the site.
"I have some news to share this morning!" said Legere on T-Mobile's blog page. "I just found out that more than 250,000 people have signed my petition to end overages on Change.org — making it the #1 technology petition on the site!"
Early this month, Verizon introduced its new data plans, where all overages would cost $15 for every 1 GB of extra data that the customer incurs on top of their data limit.
AT&T charges $20 for every 300 MB (300 MB plan) and for every 500 MB (1 GB plan). The rest of the plans would have overage charges of $15 for every 1 GB.
Sprint charges 1.5 cents for every extra MB that a customer incurs on top of their data allotment, which falls under the carrier's Family Share Pack shared data plans.
"Traditional wireless plans start with a low monthly fee for a fixed amount of domestic minutes, texts or data," said Legere in the petition. "Once consumers go over those limits — even by a little — they're hit with dramatically higher rates and extreme penalties. These plans seem purpose-built to drive customers over that invisible line into massive overage charges."
After filing the petition, Legere made a promise that, should it hit a quarter-million signatures, he would send a message that would be difficult for other carriers to ignore. He now has three options from which consumers can choose.
The first option is Skyline Takeover. As the name implies, Legere will take over the skyline of the carriers in their home markets and then display on a building a huge copy of the petition, which also includes the names of the quarter-million-plus signers.
The second option is Skywriting. This would mean writing in the sky, directly above each of the carriers' headquarters.
The third option is Overage Counter. Here, Legere plans to set up a live counter, on which consumers can see a running tally of how much money has been spent due to overage charges.
In order to vote, consumers should tweet the hashtag of their favorite type of message. These include #tmobileskyline, #tmobileskywriting and #tmobileoveragecounter.
"Take a second to vote, and we'll take it from there!"
