AT&T goes for T-Mobile's jugular, labeling the latest 'Un-carrier' moves 'marketing stunts'

by Adrian Diaconescu / Nov 08, 2019, 6:27 AM

AT&T goes for T-Mobile's jugular, labeling the latest 'Un-carrier' moves 'marketing stunts'

While T-Mobile is usually the one that likes to verbally assault its main rivals, with CEO John Legere drawing parallels between the nation's top two wireless service providers and the protagonists of a classic 1994 comedy starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels on a number of occasions, the tables seem to have turned on the heels of yesterday's majorly hyped-up New T-Mobile Un-carrier 1.0 announcement.

Magenta actually made several announcements in the lead-up to a December 6 nationwide 5G rollout, and AT&T representatives were far from impressed with a couple of T-Mobile's customarily bombastic promises. Although the "Un-carrier's" plans to offer free 5G access to first responders across the entire country for at least 10 years, as well as free service altogether to 10 million households over five years to help "eradicate the homework gap", certainly sound honorable and heartwarming, there's one thing that might prevent T-Mo from fulfilling its noble goals.

Namely, pretty much every move and initiative unveiled yesterday hinges on the completion of T-Mobile's union with Sprint, which makes these things look an awful lot like "marketing stunts", at least in AT&T's view. The second-largest mobile network operator in the US claims to have a "deep and genuine commitment to connecting first responders and using technology to enrich education", which T-Mo does not as long as it's not willing to roll out its own programs designed to improve these areas with "no conditions or questions asked."

Even the most hardcore T-Mobile fans may have to admit AT&T's argument here makes a lot of sense, especially coming from a carrier that kicked the FirstNet platform into high gear long before Magenta introduced its first plans designed specifically with first responders in mind. Obviously, AT&T is pointing towards FirstNet as a "critical lifesaving tool" rather than a bargaining chip used by T-Mobile to help convince a bunch of states opposed to the Sprint merger said $26.5 billion deal will indeed be good for the industry and consumers in general.

Now let's wait and see how long it takes John Legere to deliver one of his trademarks snappy comebacks. Our guess is no more than 24 hours.

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12 Comments

1. Mreveryphone

Posts: 1841; Member since: Apr 22, 2014

Att needs to fix the fake 5Ge icon they slapped on everyone's phone... No way the iPhone 8 Samsung S9 and their flip phones are getting 5G service all the sudden... That's not how it works... That's not how any of it works...

posted on 4 days ago, 6:37 AM 3

7. tuminatr

Posts: 1158; Member since: Feb 23, 2009

That was their strategy with 4g and it worked so why change, T-Mobile did the same thing with HSPA calling it 4g

posted on 4 days ago, 9:54 AM 0

11. Mreveryphone

BUT your phone had a H+ symbol not a fake 4G/LTE symbol...

posted on 4 days ago, 12:55 PM 1

12. Plutonium239

Posts: 1239; Member since: Mar 17, 2015

AT&T never had a fake LTE symbol. The LTE symbol was distinct from that of the 4g symbol.

posted on 4 days ago, 5:55 PM 0

2. Eprius

Posts: 8; Member since: Jan 22, 2018

John sounded like a con man yesterday by bribing the politicians. "We will give you free stuff and cheaper prices only if you allow us to merge.". Meanwhile AT&T jacks up pricing to it's customers across the board from Mobile Share ($10 a month) to Direct now At&T now ($15 a month). AT&T should be in favor of this because it makes less competition for them on paper.

posted on 4 days ago, 6:38 AM 0

8. tuminatr

And they are getting subsidized to offer those households for free and reduced prices, but so are the other providers they just didn't turn it into a publicity stunt. Typical T-Mobile

posted on 4 days ago, 9:55 AM 0

9. LordDavon

Posts: 168; Member since: Sep 19, 2011

I've seen nothing about them accepting subsidies for this. I think this is more to sway the politicians and collect tax deductions.

posted on 4 days ago, 10:41 AM 0

4. emvxl

Posts: 142; Member since: Sep 29, 2009

Nice. AT&T with their 5Ge network.

posted on 4 days ago, 8:11 AM 1

5. inFla

Posts: 165; Member since: Aug 17, 2018

T-Mobile is touting 5G when there are many areas that their 4G coverage is poor.

posted on 4 days ago, 8:12 AM 0

6. LordDavon

I can't wait for T-Mobile to come back at ATT on this one. Since FirstNet was a contract won by ATT, it is something they are paid to work on. T-Mobile is offering free service to first responders. This is ATT saying, "Oh, you are going to give out free service... well, we are getting PAID for it!"

posted on 4 days ago, 9:28 AM 1

10. MsPooks

Posts: 206; Member since: Jul 08, 2019

ATT should really focus more on itself.

posted on 4 days ago, 12:31 PM 2

14. Vokilam

Posts: 1343; Member since: Mar 15, 2018

I've been on ATT, and Verizon now, havent tried T-mo, or Sprint. But from my experience with blue and red, theyre both full of hot air. I wish they stopped with micro-fees everywhere, confusing "free, discounted, or back-credited device" offers that sometimes endup costing more anyway.