T-Mobile is battening down the hatches as a price hike for postpaid legacy plans seems likely

According to The Mobile Report, there are signs pointing to a “moderate” price hike for T-Mobile’s legacy postpaid plans and customers still using those plans. This could be made official sometime over the next 24 to 48 hours says the report. According to more than three sources, T-Mobile stores and customer service have been told to increase staffing through this Friday. Overtime has been approved for some locations.

The Mobile Report says that it also heard, again, from more than three sources, that T-Mobile customer service employees recently had been retrained to deal specifically with customer retention. It sure sounds like a company that is expecting to field calls from angry customers. Furthermore, at all locations, T-Mobile is demanding that a Store Manager, or someone holding a title with more clout, put in at least eight hours at each store through this Friday. This comes from two sources and is also a sign that the carrier expects angry customers to visit their retail locations during the remainder of the week.

Considering that last week T-Mobile’s executive vice president and chief financial officer Peter Osvaldik made some comments pointing to an impending price hike for customers on legacy postpaid plans, T-Mobile’s decision to batten down the hatches would certainly seem to indicate that such an unpopular move is imminent. Osvaldik made his comments during MoffettNathanson’s Media, Internet, and Communications Conference.

We could see the nation’s second largest wireless provider raise the pricing on plans such as Simple Choice (those are the oldest plans still used by T-Mobile customers), ONE, or Magenta. Last week we told you that the Magenta plans had been removed from the T-Mobile website.

T-Mobile legacy plan subscribers do have some protection. In the case of a price hike, subscribers to covered plans will be able to leave T-Mobile and the carrier will pay their final bill. This way, such customers won’t be responsible for the new, higher price although they will have to do some shopping to find a new wireless provider.