T-Mobile launched its second Un-carrier initiative in as many days with the rollout of Operation Tablet Freedom.
This plan kicks off on April 12 and will allow the owners of cellular-ready tablets to add the tablet to their postpaid voice plan for free and receive almost 1.2-GB LTE data each month for 2014.
"With this announcement, T-Mobile's launching a full-on assault against the restrictions and pain points that keep tablet owners from experiencing life beyond the Wi-Fi zone," said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. "The Un-carrier is all about solving pain points, and today we're eliminating every reason to be stuck on an unconnected Wi-Fi-only tablet. There's no longer any need to limit the use of your tablet because you're intimidated by Big Blue, Bad Red or Bumbling Yellow."
Today's news is the second installment in what T-Mobile promised to be a three part Un-carrier promotion. Yesterday T-Mobile announced a $40 per month calling, texting and 500-MB data plan with a guarantee the customer would never be charged for going over their data limit.
"Yesterday I told you the Un-carrier would be launching a series of rapid-fire moves that are all part of our battle plan to revolutionize a broken, arrogant and stupid wireless industry. Now that we've addressed that pain point, we're moving to the topic of totally un-leashing tablets," Legere said in his blog today.
T-Mobile is hoping Operation Tablet Freedom will not only get current 4G LTE tablet owners onto their plan, but to boost the number of such tablets in consumer hands. The majority of consumers have Wi-Fi-only models, with businesses tending to purchase those with cellular capability.
"If you're stuck on Wi-Fi, you can now come to T-Mobile and upgrade to a 4G LTE-enabled model for nothing down and pay no more than you'd pay for the cheaper Wi-Fi-only model, with any postpaid activation on a 1-GB or more mobile Internet plan with no annual service contract," the company said.
Here are two of the deals T-Mobile is offering. Pay the Wi-Fi price of $499 instead of $630 for the 4G LTE-enabled 16-GB iPad Air. Or pay the Wi-Fi price of $200 instead of $312 for the 4G LTE Samsung Tab 3. Voice customers adding the 1-GB tablet plan for free for the rest of 2014 also fully qualify for these reduced prices.
T-Mobile is also continuing its deal of paying for people to get out of their contracts with other carriers and on April 12 it will start a program where it is giving $10 off some data plans, which will run through the end of the year. This means voice customers get 1-GB for free, plus the 200 MB that is already included with each plan.
Legere closed today's announcement by telling his blog readers to follow him on Twitter or check back to his blog on April 11.
