Cricket Wireless (AT&T) Launches Promotion to Attract T-Mobile US Customers

Which customer segments are at the center of marketing campaigns launched by T-Mobile US and Sprint? T-Mobile US has been picking up tablet accounts and single-line phone accounts, weighted towards the value end of the market.

Q2 2014 saw T -Mobile US book virtually all net new prepaid account growth in the U.S. market.

T-Mobile US now has increased its data offering to 2GB Long Term Evolution usage buckets for customers of its “Simple Starter” plans.

That means T-Mobile US now provides “Simple Starter” plan customers the chance to quadruple their data to a full 2 GB of LTE data, for just $5 per month. That plan was launched in May 2014 as an entry-level solution with unlimited talk and text, and 500 MB of LTE data for just $40, starting in September 3, 2014.

The move allows T-Mobile US to improve the value of its entry-level offer.

Sprint, likewise, has launched new plans aimed at single-line customers as well as a shared data plan that features double the usage bucket as comparable plans from AT&T and Verizon, for example.

Other carriers are attacking at the value end of the market.

Cricket Wireless (owned by AT&T) is offering former T-Mobile and Metro PCS (owned by T-Mobile US) customers who switch to Cricket Wireless a $100 bill, available from Aug. 24 to Oct. 19, 2014, at Cricket stores nationwide and online.  

There is no limit on the number of lines a customer can switch over to Cricket and receive the $100 bill credit for each line.

Cricket’s new offer is one more way AT&T can fight back against attacks on the value end of the market from T-Mobile US or Sprint.

The future will deliver the launch of promotions for higher value shared data plans that represent multi-line accounts as well.

Still, at the moment, it is tablet additions and phone accounts in the value segment, locked into the crosshairs of marketing attacks initiated by T-Mobile US. Whereas, Sprint appears to be the carrier with the broadest attack on shared data plan accounts that are, by definition, multi-line accounts.