T-Mobile launched a new promotion today aimed at vulnerable Boost Mobile subscribers, as well as Cricket subscribers. The move comes in the wake of Boost owner Dish’s new deal that calls for AT&T to replace T-Mobile as Dish’s MVNO services provider.
Many customers using the Boost prepaid service have phones that only work on CDMA and T-Mobile plans to shut down its CDMA network in early 2022. Customers that use AT&T’s Cricket prepaid offering may be less vulnerable but vulnerable nevertheless, as T-Mobile is offering a strong promotion.
T-Mobile Boost Promo
The promotion offers Boost or Cricket customers half off an unlimited line when they port their phone numbers to the Metro by T-Mobile prepaid offering. The customers also get a free 5G phone when they trade in any working cellular device for a limited time.
Boost and Cricket customers who switch “can get unlimited talk, text and data with 5G included for just $25/month for one line with monthly taxes and fees included—and you’ll keep that best in class price for the next two years,” T-Mobile explains in a press release.
In February, it was revealed that the “majority” of Dish’s Boost customers were using CDMA devices, and with T-Mobile planning to shut down its CDMA network by early 2022, that leaves little time for Dish to upgrade those customers, particularly at a time when manufacturers are experiencing supply chain delays. The shift to AT&T doesn’t solve Dish’s problem because AT&T doesn’t have a CDMA network.
In an April FCC filing, Dish argued that T-Mobile’s decision to shut down the CDMA network in early 2022 is anti-competitive and in an email to Telecompetitor, a Dish executive called it “an attack” on the low-income consumers that use Boost.
T-Mobile used its typical taunting language in announcing the new promotion.
“Our smartphones are our lifelines, and yet a generation of prepaid customers are being left behind in the 5G era by providers and plans that keep them locked on old technology and slow, over-priced connections,” said T-Mobile Executive Vice President Jon Freier in today’s press release. “If Cricket or Boost won’t upgrade their customers to 5G, Metro by T-Mobile sure will.”
