T-Mobile today announced a new deal that gives free LTE data to tablet owners who already have a voice plan and encourages customers to upgrade their Wi-Fi tablets to LTE-enabled devices for no charge.
In the second of a series of news announcements to be made over the next three days, the Bellevue-based wireless carrier today launched “Operation Tablet Freedom,” which goes into effect on April 12th.
The deal allows customers to add a tablet to their voice plan and receive 1.2 GB of free data — although that deal only until the end of this year, though, and will cost $10 per month after that.
T-Mobile is also offering 4G tablets at the same price of the Wi-Fi model if you purchase a postpaid tablet plan of at least 1GB (which is free until the end of this year). In addition, the company will allow people to trade-in their Wi-Fi tablet to a 4G model for nothing down and pay your early termination fee if applicable.
“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,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a statement. “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.”
Yes — Big Blue, Bad Red and Bumbling Yellow refer to T-Mobile’s three biggest competitors in the U.S. Legere, not shy to lambast his opponents in the wireless space, details the rationale behind the new promotion here. He said that no one has “cracked the code,” for allowing customers to use their tablets like phones in terms of data plans.
“You can’t count on the stumbling, arrogant guys to do it,” Legere wrote. “They’re more about charging you overages on your data to maximize their profit – and impose more pain. They’re about suffocating change. The Un-carrier is about building the movement and fueling the revolution.”
On Wednesday, T-Mobile launched a new monthly “Simple Starter” plan that will cost $40 per month for unlimited calls, texting and up to 500MB of data on T-Mobile’s LTE network, with the promise that customers won’t be surprised with unexpected costs for exceeding their monthly data allotment.
The “Day 3” announcement will come on Monday.
Related: T-Mobile exec: ‘Our competitors know that we cleaned their clocks in Q1’
