You may be the winner in a price war that has erupted between major mobile phone carriers Sprint and T-Mobile.
Sprint’s latest salvo targets all T-Mobile customers by offering a minimum $200 value when they take their wireless numbers to Sprint stores and trade in their current working T-Mobile smartphones. The offer, available through April 9, can be combined with an ongoing contract buyout offer: Sprint will give eligible T-Mobile customers up to $350 per line via prepaid or reward cards to cover the costs of switching carriers before contracts are up. Sprint was already touting its cut your bill in half campaign for customers trading in phones from the No. 1 & 2 U.S. carriers, Verizon and AT&T.
The Sprint move came a day after T-Mobile launched a campaign promising smartphone equality, aimed at customers with bad credit.
“Every T-Mobile customer who’s paid their wireless phone bill on time for 12 straight months will qualify for our very best device pricing on every smartphone and tablet we sell, including zero down with no interest and no credit check,” said John Legere, T-Mobile president.
T-Mobile was already known for its anti-contract promotion, offering “the most value for your old phone … but we’ll also pay your Early Termination Fee (ETF) with a Visa® Prepaid card — and never make you sign another annual service contract.”
T-Mobile’s efforts were paying off, according to CNET, which cited a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners study that “T-Mobile’s subscriber base grew by 29 percent during the fourth quarter, easily outpacing its competitors and putting it slightly ahead of Sprint to make it the No. 3 cellular provider in the US.”
Both Sprint and T-Mobile have excess capacity, spurring not only a scramble for each others’ customers, but also spurring both carriers to look toward Google for a business boost.
When Google soon starts selling cellphone service along with its Android phones, its signals will be carried on Sprint and T-Mobile networks, according to several news reports. Google already has many pieces it needs to sell wireless, but it doesn’t own a nationwide network of cell towers, as Money Talks News reported last week.
For other tips on how to save money on your cellphone habit, watch this video by Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson. And feel free to share your savings discoveries with us in the comments below or on our Facebook page.
Add a Comment
Our Policy: We welcome relevant and respectful comments in order to foster healthy and informative discussions. All other comments may be removed. Comments with links are automatically held for moderation.