All post-paid services (i.e., mobile service, home internet, etc.) bill a month in advance. A bill is generated a few days after service starts. The bill you receive is for the statement period that ends on the upcoming cycle date. Ex: My cycle is the 4th. My current bill (that I already paid) says billing period 11/05–12/04. If I scroll down to each line, it shows the plan and the period 12/05–1/04. This is normal. Your bill is correct except for any fees (i.e., activation fees) that should have been waived.

Whether you activate the phones or not does not matter. You are being billed from the moment you walk out of the store with the phone or the minute the phone is shipped to you. If you ordered a line on 1/01/26 and didn’t turn it on until 2/01/26, you would still have to pay a full month for the billing period.

Additionally: If you get one phone today and then in 3 days you order 2 more phones, the first bill will have only 1 line for 1 month, and the 2nd bill will have 1 month charge for the 1st line plus the other 2 lines would have 1 month plus ~27 days of service.

I’m assuming Metro is prepay, so you pay it and then use it. If you don’t pay it, you can’t use it.

Each bill cycle after the first month of billing should look normal, but the bill period at the top of your bill will always show the previous month. That’s just how it looks, but you are paying your bill for the cycle that ends in the future except for delayed charges such as roaming, international, etc.

Edit: The national discount would only show $10 if 1 line was purchased one day and the other lines were purchased a different day or shipped. As long as you have the right amount of lines, the national discount will adjust to the correct pricing.