I think it's mostly a philosophical issue in terms of how much government/regulatory involvement you want, knowing that you don't have to be a strident libertar

I think it's mostly a philosophical issue in terms of how much government/regulatory involvement you want, knowing that you don't have to be a strident libertarian to understand that we can all die death by a thousand lashes via regulation. I tend to think that 1) T-Mobile has several competitors in the US 2) Consumers, who are so inclined, can research fairly easily and compare providers side by side and 3) Switching, especially if you avoid locking in via buying your phone, is relatively trivial. Based on that I feel like we just hand this one back to the market to decide. I think articles like this are important in that they are easily reachable by Google or Bing to help you decide whether an offer really is legitimate or compelling.