Over the top promotions are nothing new in the cell phone carrier battles, but T-Mobile took these to a new level this week with its "Three Days of the Un-Carrier" campaign that ran this week.
The slate of deals began on April 9 with the launch of T-Mobile's Simple Starter Plan, continued the following day with Operation Tablet Freedom and came to a head on Friday with a the carrier offering a special Samsung Galaxy S5 deal. All of these centered on T-Mobile's earlier promise to pay the termination fee for anyone who wishes to leave a competing carrier and move over to T-Mobile.
Most of the announced deals go into effect April 12.
The $40 per month plan gave customers free talk and text and a 500MB capped data plan. Those interested can grab a plan starting today with a pre-paid version rolling out on May 7. The company attacked its competitors by comparing its capped data plan to those they have that end up charging consumers when they go over their data limit, a practice T-Mobile executives consider downright evil.
"I don't think it's overstating it to call them a bait and switch," said T-Mobile Chief Marketing Officer Mike Sievert.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere was even harsher saying, CEO John Legere . "It's wrong. And I personally want to drive those ridiculous schemes out of this industry."
The next stop on the promotions parade was Operation Tablet Freedom. This deal, also available starting April 12, allows the owners of cellular-ready tablets to add their tablet to a postpaid voice plan for free and receive almost 1.2-GB LTE data each month for the rest of 2014. As with the other plan it will pay the termination fee for people to move over to T-Mobile.
T-Mobile's goal with this plan is two-fold. First to grab customers from the other carriers, and secondly to push the sales of cellular-ready tablets. Wi-Fi connected tablets dominate the market with only a few people opting to by a truly wireless model. The huge number of Wi-Fi hotspots has all but negated the need for a cellular connection, but Legere hopes that by offering a free data plan it will convince people to take the plunge.
"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 Legere.
The final piece of the promotional puzzle was put in place on Friday when the company opened its stores early to help push the new Galaxy S5 smartphone. The official deal offers a Galaxy S5 for zero money down (with 24 monthly payments), with no annual service contract, zero overages charges and zero hidden devices costs, the company said.
The end result of this blitz will not be seen immediately, but it shows that Legere and his crew of mayhem makers are not afraid to duke it out with Verizon and AT&T.
