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June 15, 2010

T-Mobile USA is hoping to participate on Fathers’ Day gift-buying tradition by offering any of its thirty mobile handsets free to any customers who sign up for a two-year family plan. Only offered on Saturday June 19, the promotion comes only days before Apple's iPhone 4 officially comes to market in the U.S.

“For this special day celebrating dad and his family, T-Mobile USA is excited to offer an industry-first promotion that helps all families stay connected,” said Adrian Hurditch, vice president of marketing at T-Mobile.

“This unprecedented event rewards dad and helps families stick together with the latest phones — all for free.”

T-Mobile's latest promotion requires a new 2-year contract or an additional line added to an existing contract and is only valid while supplies last.

The wireless operator also said its new promotion includes its entire stock of mobile handsets, including the MyTouch 3G Slide, which was just introduced ten days ago for $180, as well as the HTC HD2 and Garminfone, all of which normally retail for $200.

T-Mobile recently clarified its data pricing to equalize what it charges for its WebConnect wireless data offering across its Even More and Even More Plus rate plans.

The service is now $40 a month for 5 GB or $25 for 200 megabytes of data transmission on both plans.

Packages include unlimited access to the carrier’s Wi-Fi service.

In other but related news, last month, T-Mobile continued to pressure larger wireless carriers rolling out its HSPA+ network in a number of densely populated markets in the Northeast, including New York City, parts of New Jersey, areas of upstate New York, Connecticut and Providence, R.I., as well as in Memphis, Tenn. and Las Vegas, Nevada.

And there appears to be no end in sight as to what lenghts the small mobile operator is willing to go to make this happen faster.

The newly available markets join previous launches in Philadelphia and the Washington, D.C. area. In all, T-Mobile says the 21 megabit per second version of the HSPA+ standard now covers more than 30 million potential customers with plans to cover up to 100 large metro areas and 185 million pops by the end of 2010.

The wireless carrier had previously announced its HSPA+ plans at the CTIA trade show in March where it showed off a USB modem compatible with its enhanced network. At that time, speed tests using the device on a laptop computer showed download speeds of around 8 Mbps and upload speeds of around 2.5 Mbps, both comparable to what some of its larger competitors have been touting for their so-called 4G networks.

AT&T announced last week that it was updating its current HSPA service with the 14.4 Mbps version of the HSPA+ standard beginning later this year on its way to launching LTE services beginning next year.

For its part, Sprint Nextel is partnering with Clearwire to launch Wi-MAX services covering 120 million pops by the end of 2010, and already offers the service in dozens of markets providing real-world download speeds of around 6 Mbps.

Clearwire has also hinted that it could look towards other technology deployments as well, including LTE.

Verizon Wireless recently released a video of various speed tests it performed for its new LTE network in the Boston area showing downlink speeds of around 8.5 Mbps and upload speeds of 2.8 Mbps.

Verizon said it plans to cover 100 million pops in up to 30 markets with the new network by the end of 2010.

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Source: T-Mobile USA.