AT&T, T-Mobile fight over which carrier copied the other
How competitive is the wireless industry in the U.S.? Both AT&T and T-Mobile, the nation's second and third largest carriers respectively, are arguing over which of the two was the first to offer the recent round of perks to their customers. T-Mobile's T-Mobile Tuesday app, which delivers freebies to the carrier's customers each Tuesday, was announced on June 6th. It didn't get off to a great start as Dominos pulled out of the promotion. But T-Mobile added a new partner and is trying to right the ship.
Meanwhile, AT&T announced yesterday the launch of its previously announced AT&T THANKS program. Starting yesterday, its postpaid customers were able to go online and reserve a free movie ticket for every Tuesday this summer at participating Regal and AMC Theaters across the country. Like its rival, AT&T has other perks included in its program.
The similarities of the two plans has each company fighting back and forth. AT&T originally unveiled its THANKS plan on June 2nd, a few days before T-Mobile introduced T-Mobile Tuesdays. But that didn't stop T-Mobile CEO John Legere from claiming that AT&T THANKS was a hastily conceived copycat put together in response to rumors about T-Mobile's upcoming announcement. While we can't prove that one way or the other, we can point out that rumors about T-Mobile's giveaway program were the subject of a story we published on May 5th. That is nearly a month before AT&T revealed that it had a rewards plan coming.
Of course, AT&T had its own comment to make, and in a statement a spokesman accused T-Mobile of copying AT&T. "T-Mobile clearly rushed to put out an app that is riddled with problems," said the statement.
As far as we can tell, whenever two major carriers are fighting, it's the customers that usually win.
source: FierceWireless
The similarities of the two plans has each company fighting back and forth. AT&T originally unveiled its THANKS plan on June 2nd, a few days before T-Mobile introduced T-Mobile Tuesdays. But that didn't stop T-Mobile CEO John Legere from claiming that AT&T THANKS was a hastily conceived copycat put together in response to rumors about T-Mobile's upcoming announcement. While we can't prove that one way or the other, we can point out that rumors about T-Mobile's giveaway program were the subject of a story we published on May 5th. That is nearly a month before AT&T revealed that it had a rewards plan coming.
"I think that the AT&T announcement is the funniest thing that I've ever seen. That was the most shoddy, quickly thrown-together task force-oriented thing that stuck a 'Tuesday' on it because of a rumor and a leak that they heard."-John Legere, president and CEO, T-Mobile
"After four straight weeks of missteps, seems like the pressure is on TMO to build an app their customers can actually use. After announcing our AT&T Thanks program first, TMO clearly rushed to put out an app that is riddled with problems. You can't have your pizza and eat it too."-Steven Schwadron, spokesman, AT&T
"After four straight weeks of missteps, seems like the pressure is on TMO to build an app their customers can actually use. After announcing our AT&T Thanks program first, TMO clearly rushed to put out an app that is riddled with problems. You can't have your pizza and eat it too."-Steven Schwadron, spokesman, AT&T
As far as we can tell, whenever two major carriers are fighting, it's the customers that usually win.
source: FierceWireless
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