American wireless carrier T-Mobile today announced a special package to attract Verizon customers.
T-Mobile US says its Never Settle Trial enables Verizon customers to port their number to a new T-Mobile smartphone. After the trial, if they love the service, T-Mobile will pay off any of Verizon’s Early Termination Fees (ETFs) up to $650 or outstanding device payments when they trade in their phone and get a new one with T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan.
T-Mobile will also refund any trial costs from using T-Mobile and any service costs for starting back up with Verizon, like activation or other related fees Verizon regularly charges. The company said the Never Settle Trial starts on May 13, and Verizon customers can sign up through May 31.
T-Mobile is already facing pressure on ARPU due to promotional offers. T-Mobile’s total revenues for the first quarter of 2015 grew 13.1 percent due to continued growth in equipment sales revenues and service revenues. Branded postpaid Average Billings per User (ABPU) of T-Mobile fell 1.4 percent sequentially and up 2.4 percent year-over-year to $60.94 in the first quarter of 2015. Branded postpaid phone ARPU decreased sequentially 3.8 percent to $46.43, driven primarily by the net revenue deferral for Data Stash.
In the first quarter of 2015, T-Mobile branded postpaid net customer additions were 1.1 million, including 991,000 phone net customer additions – expected to be the highest in the U.S. wireless industry — and 134,000 mobile broadband net customer additions.
This is a response to Verizon Wireless’ ad campaign called Never Settle.
John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile, said: “T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network is the nation’s fastest. Not faster for the price … just faster, period. I’m so confident in our kick-ass network experience that we’re footing the bill so Verizon customers can give T-Mobile a try.”
T-Mobile’s 4G LTE covers 275 million Americans and is on pace to reach 300 million this year. The telecom service provider has nearly 57 million customers.
Earlier, T-Mobile said branded postpaid net customer additions for 2015 are expected to be between 3.0 and 3.5 million, an increase from the previous guidance of 2.2 and 3.2 million.
Capital expenditures (Capex) of T-Mobile for 2015 are expected to be in the range of $4.4 to $4.7 billion, unchanged from previous guidance.
T-Mobile US said its earlier wireless campaigns include the JUMP! device upgrade program, free international data roaming, Contract Freedom, T-Mobile Test Drive, Music Freedom, Wi-Fi Un-leashed, and Data Stash.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
