T-Mobile didn’t tell anyone, but has secretly removed its $10 per month 200MB data plan since October 10th, according to a leaked internal document, and will now require customers to have a minimum data plan of 2GB, starting at $20 per month. This was confirmed by a T-Mobile official to Fierce Wireless.

Existing customers can continue using the $10 200MB plan, but new customers will need to get the 2GB plan, as T-Mobile believes that current smartphones consume data at a higher rate and that the $20 plan will protect customers from “unexpected overages”, which stand at $0.10 per MB (up to $30 per month) for the $10 plan. The $10 plan is more suitable for feature phones according to the carrier, and you will be recommended one of those if you insist on having the 200MB plan when buying a new device from them.

This move should be fine for most who use their smartphones to access the web regularly, but those that are fine with 200MB of data each month, certainly if all they do is check a few emails, might not be so happy when buying a new smartphone from T-Mobile. But then again, the carriers never liked listening to what the customer may want, have they?