T-Mobile announced in May that it had reached a deal to purchase UScellular for approximately $4.4 billion. The deal was for the bulk of UScellular’s wireless operations, including customers and “certain specified spectrum assets.”

Given the size of the deal, and the ongoing consolidation of the US wireless market, regulatory approval could be a major sticking point. T-Mobile acquired Sprint, effectively reducing the number of nationwide carriers from four to three. While a regulators were keen to see Dish Network become a new fourth carrier, the company has failed to live up to the promise, leaving Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T as the nation’s largest carriers. While UScellular is considered a regional operation, it still has a large enough presence and user base for regulatory scrutiny to possibly be a factor.

In an effort to head off any issues, UScellular has written a letter to the FCC detailing its current condition and its prospects if the merger falls through.

UScellular representatives reviewed the company’s recent operational and financial challenges and their path forward absent this transaction, as detailed in the Public Interest Statement and the Declarations of Laurent Therivel and Michael Irizarry, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of UScellular. They explained that:

• UScellular has consistently lost subscribers in recent years despite deploying a variety of strategies to attempt to arrest that decline. 6 Subscriber losses accelerated in 2022, a year that UScellular invested heavily on promotions.7 UScellular anticipates that it will continue to lose subscribers going forward.8 The acceleration of subscriber losses is attributable to multiple factors:

• Competitive intensity has ramped up in UScellular’s footprint, with both traditional wireless providers and cable wireless providers increasing their competitive presence.9 That intensity has, in turn, led to aggressive pricing and promotions—and further challenged UScellular’s subscriber numbers and financials.
• UScellular took on significant debt to purchase the mid-band spectrum needed to compete in 5G.11 Declining subscriber revenue means that the cash to pay back that debt needs to come from reduced spending in UScellular’s operations. As a result, UScellular has reduced spending on its network12 and foregone certain other investments.
• While UScellular has been pulling back on its network investments, its competitors have been spending more to expand their networks and enhance their network quality and customer experience in UScellular’s footprint. UScellular has fallen behind its competitors and the gap is continuing to grow.
• In other words, fewer subscribers mean less revenue to spend on network improvements and the customer experience; that spend is further decreased by the need to pay back debt; and the resulting network experience in turn leads to even fewer subscribers.
• UScellular representatives noted additional challenges created by the structural disadvantages of its dispersed footprint, including its lack of scale, and described the company’s extensive review of strategic alternatives. UScellular determined that it could not reorganize itself out of these disadvantages and that its efforts to remain competitive would not materially improve its position.

The letter then goes on to tout the benefits to both companies’ subscribers if a deal goes through, providing better network coverage and data speeds. The letter also says that existing UScellular customers will have the option of staying on their existing plans or moving to a low-cost T-Mobile one.

The letter could go a long way toward alleviating regulatory concerns, as it paints a picture of a company on the verge of a death spiral.

Verizon suffered a major outage Monday, September 30. Downdetector showed a massive spike of users reporting issues. The majority of impacted users were not able to make calls, send texts, or access their mobile data.

Catch our chat on Verizon restoring service after a massive outage!

Fortunately, Verizon says it has fixed the issue.

Unfortunately, however, Verizon has still not said anything about what caused the issue, nor has the company said what it will do to prevent the issue from happening in the future.

The days of a cell phone being a convenience are long past. Today, cell phones are a necessity of life, with many relying on them for work, for family obligations, and for emergencies.

For the largest carrier to experience a nationwide outage that impacted millions, and then say nothing about the cause or the steps being taken to prevent it from happening again is, quite frankly, unconscionable. Verizon’s customers deserve better.

The only silver lining is that the outage will likely result in an FCC investigation, an investigation that will likely provide answers Verizon has failed to do.

According to Downdetector.com, users started reporting an uptick of problems shortly after 8:00 AM ET. The issues peaked shortly before noon, with more than 105,000 reports. Although the reports have begun to subside, the majority of users are still unable to connect to the network, with their phones remaining in SOS mode.

Catch our chat on Verizon’s massive network outage!

Verizon posted on X that it is aware of the issue and its engineers are working on a solution.

We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue.

— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) September 30, 2024

At the time of writing, there is no word on what caused the outage, or when it will be resolved.

In the meantime, users should enable Wi-Fi calling in their network settings so they can make calls and receive texts when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Verizon was close to a deal, although the terms were not known at the time. Given Frontier’s market valuation of more than $7 billion, any deal was clearly going to be an expensive one.

According to Verizon, the two companies have reached a definitive agreement for the nation’s largest wireless carrier to purchase the internet company for $20 billion, in an all-cash transaction. The deal will give Verizon an additional 2.2 million fiber subscribers, as well as Verizon network reach to 25 million premises in 31 states. Verizon currently only covers nine states with its Fios internet, although it has 7.4 million Fios customers.

“Connectivity is essential in nearly every part of our lives and work, and no one delivers better than Verizon,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. “Verizon offers more choice, flexibility and value, and we continuously look for ways to provide the best product and network experience to our customers as we bolster our position as the provider of choice.”

Vestberg added: “The acquisition of Frontier is a strategic fit. It will build on Verizon’s two decades of leadership at the forefront of fiber and is an opportunity to become more competitive in more markets throughout the United States, enhancing our ability to deliver premium offerings to millions more customers across a combined fiber network.”

“Less than four years ago, we set out an ambitious plan to Build Gigabit America, the digital infrastructure this country needs to thrive for generations to come,” said Nick Jeffery, President and CEO of Frontier. “Today’s announcement is recognition of our progress building a best-in-class fiber network and delivering reliable, high-speed broadband to millions of customers across the country. It’s also a vote of confidence for the future of fiber. I am confident that this delivers a significant and certain cash premium to Frontier’s shareholders, while creating exciting new opportunities for our employees and expanding access to reliable connectivity for more Americans.”

The deal represents a 43.7% premium over Frontier’s 90-day average share price, and was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies. Frontier shareholders still must approve the deal, although neither company expects opposition.

Frontier is a popular broadband provider, serving customers in 25 states in the US. According to The Wall Street Journal, talks between the two companies are in the advanced stages. Frontier’s market value is upwards of $7 billion, making any deal a substantial commitment on Verizon’s part.

As the outlet points out, Verizon sold network infrastructure to Frontier in 2016, meaning a deal would bring those assets back to the nation’s largest wireless carrier.

Verizon has been increasing its broadband business, both its Fios Home Internet, 5G Home Internet, and LTE Home Internet. A deal with Frontier would bolster the carrier’s broadband offerings and help it compete with T-Mobile’s popular home internet service, a service that has a larger footprint than Verizon’s wireless home internet options.

The deal also comes at a time when Frontier is vulnerable to a takeover. As WSJ points out, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020. Although it came out of that a leaner company, Frontier is facing an expensive upgrade cycle as it converts from copper to fiber. With the state of the economy, investors have grown increasingly concerned that the cost of the network infrastructure upgrades could lead to a repeat of 2020.

Wireless companies have been teaming up with satellite providers in an effort to improve coverage in areas where traditional cell towers are sparse, especially for emergency situations. T-Mobile partnered with SpaceX in mid-2022, and AT&T made a deal with AST SpaceMobile earlier this year.

Verizon is now joining its rivals, tapping Skylo as its satellite partner. According to the company, customers on certain devices will have access later this fall to emergency messaging, as well as location sharing, regardless of whether or not they have traditional network coverage.

“Verizon has been driving innovation in the use of supplemental satellite capabilities for years using satellite connections for cell tower rapid deployments, emergency response and temporary solutions. We are encouraged by the progress being made in satellite to device communications for consumers and are equally excited to be driving technical innovation trials in the space of satellite IoT solutions,” said Srini Kalapala, Senior Vice President of Technology and Product Development for Verizon.

“Our work with Verizon strengthens our belief in network convergence between satellite and cellular, and now this vision is a reality today for both consumers and enterprises. Satellite access isn’t just about reaching out when you’re in trouble; it’s connectivity for staying in touch with your loved ones wherever they are. We are excited to partner with the carrier known globally for its powerful performance and reliable service as we bring a new level of connectivity from space,” said Parthsarathi Trivedi, CEO & co-founder of Skylo.“

Kalapala emphasized that Verizon’s traditional network covers 99% of the US population, but the deal would help ensure people can reach the help they need in areas where there is no coverage.

“Verizon’s network boasts an exceptionally large terrestrial cellular network and covers more than 99% of the population in the United States. However, there are occasional enterprise needs for IoT devices in places where people don’t live or regularly visit. Satellite IoT in combination with Verizon’s terrestrial assets creates the perfect combination for IoT solutions in the most remote parts of the country and over land, air and sea without having to use a separate physical device,” said Kalapala.

Verizon has not provided any details on what phone will automatically be covered by the deal.

T-Mobile is the current 5G leader among US carriers but, Talk Android points out, it’s also the last one to have a functional 2G network. According to the company’s T-Mobile Network Evolution page, T-Mobile plans to start phasing out its 2G network starting in September.

Capacity and coverage of T-Mobile’s 2G (GSM) network is expected to change starting as early as September 1, 2024.

2G has historically been used to provide coverage in areas newer technologies don’t yet cover. Given how ubiquitous 4G has become, and with 5G coverage growing quickly, there is virtually no need for 2G any more.

T-Mobile announced in May that it was raising prices on some legacy plans, including those previously covered by the company’s price guarantee. In some cases, the price hike was as much as $5 per line per month, as well as $2 per line per month for connected devices.

The magenta carrier is now facing a lawsuit claiming that it reneged on its promises:

Based upon T-Mobile’s representations that the rates offered with respect to certain plans were guaranteed to last for life or as long as the customer wanted to remain with that plan, each Plaintiff and the Class Members agreed to these plans for wireless cellphone service from T-Mobile. However, in May 2024, T-Mobile, Unilaterally did away with these legacy phone plans and switched Plaintiffs and the Class to more expensive plans without their consent.

The lawsuit then goes on to quote then-CEO John Legere’s promise to customers when the Un-contract price guarantee was introduced in 2017 (before being replaced by Price Lock in 2022):

Today, T-Mobile introduced the Un-contract for T-Mobile ONE — and notched another industry first with the first-ever price guarantee on an unlimited 4G LTE plan. With the Un-contract, T-Mobile signs, and the customers hold all the power. Now, T-Mobile ONE customers keep their price until THEY decide to change it. T-Mobile will never change the price you pay for your T-Mobile ONE plan. When you sign up for T-Mobile ONE, only you have the power to change the price you pay.

Given T-Mobile’s marketing surrounding its pricing guarantee, the BBB’s National Advertising Division (NAD) recommended that T-Mobile stop using “Price Lock” to describe its plans.

In each of the challenged advertisements, the description of the “Price Lock” policy appears in text below the claim and states, with some variation, “Get your last month of service on us if we ever raise your internet rate.” NAD found that a disclosure that “Price Lock” does not lock the price but gives consumers one month of free service if certain conditions are met contradicts the main message of the “Price Lock” claim.

Following our initial coverage of the NAD’s decision, a T-Mobile spokesperson reached out to WPN to share a statement disputing the NAD’s conclusion:

We believe the challenged ads clearly communicated our generous Price Lock benefit, which offers customers on eligible rate plans the opportunity to get their final month’s service charges paid by us if their price changes and they let us know they’ve chosen to leave. We will continue to offer Price Lock to customers but will take the NAD’s recommendations for clarifying the offer into consideration.

While that may be T-Mobile’s current explanation of what the Price Lock guarantees (and the plan has changed over the years) , that is most certainly not what Legere vocalized in 2017, nor is it line with some of the company’s other statements.

“Wireless consumers pay Billions extra every year in added surcharges, taxes, monthly fees and carrier price hikes. It’s reached epidemic proportions! And, the carriers just keep inventing new ways to make their customers pay. So, the Un-carrier’s putting an end to it,” said John Legere, then T-Mobile president and CEO in a company press release.

T-Mobile’s marketing and stance was very clear: Other companies hike prices, but we won’t. What customers didn’t realize is that promise only applied until it didn’t.

Apple has been working on its own 5G chip for years, eager to end its dependence on Qualcomm. The two companies have been acrimonious partners, with a history of lawsuits between them. Despite ongoing efforts to switch to its own chips, Apple’s plans have repeatedly been delayed due to the challenges involved.

In a post on X, however, Kuo says Apple is finally ready to make the switch:

Apple is accelerating its move away from reliance on Qualcomm. In 2025, two new iPhone models will ditch Qualcomm’s 5G chips and adopt Apple’s in-house 5G chips: the iPhone SE4 (1Q25) and the ultra-slim iPhone 17 (3Q25).

Ming-Chi Kuo (@mingchikuo) | July 24, 2024

If Kuo is right, and Apple is finally able to switch to its own 5G chips, it would put a significant dent in Qualcomm’s business.

According to the FCC, some 92 million calls were blocked during the outage, including more than 25,000 attempted 911 calls. The agency said all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands were impacted.

“When you sign-up for wireless service, you expect it will be available when you need it – especially for emergencies,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “This ‘sunny day’ outage prevented consumers across the country from communicating, including by blocking 911 calls, and stopped public safety personnel from using FirstNet. We take this incident seriously and are working to provide accountability for this lapse in service and prevent similar outages in the future.”

The agency’s investigation revealed the following findings:

• The outage affected users in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. All voice and 5G data services for AT&T wireless customers were unavailable, affecting more than 125 million devices, blocking more than 92 million voice calls, and preventing more than 25,000 calls to 911 call centers.
• Voice and 5G data services were unavailable to customers of other wireless providers that regularly use or were roaming on AT&T’s network.
• It took AT&T at least 12 hours to fully restore service.
• The outage also cut off service to devices operated by public safety users of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet). AT&T prioritized the restoration of FirstNet before other services but did not notify FirstNet customers of the outage until three hours after it began, and nearly one hour after service was restored.
• The incident began after AT&T implemented a network change with an equipment configuration error. The report details numerous factors that resulted in the extensive scope and duration of the outage, and it cites the corrective actions since taken by AT&T to prevent a reoccurrence.

The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, the division that handled the investigation, has turned the matter over to the Enforcement Bureau. If the Enforcement Bureau finds that AT&T violated FCC rules, the carrier could face penalties.

The US has engaged in a long campaign to isolate Huawei and other Chinese networking companies. The US has worked to eliminate Chinese equipment and components from US networks, and US lawmakers have pressured the country’s allies to do the same, with many following suit.

According to Reuters, Germany has been in talks with its own phone carriers to phase out Huawei and ZTE equipment from the country’s networks, with the initial focus on ridding Huawei from the core network of 5G data centers in 2026. The second phase would see the company’s equipment removed from antennas, towers, and transmission lines by 2029.

“The government is acting on the basis of the national security strategy and China strategy to reduce possible security risks and dependencies,” a government spokesperson told Reuters.

Verizon’s logo has changed a couple of times over the last decade, with the current incarnation being a refinement of previous versions designed to represent the scope of Verizon’s services.

The company is introducing a new logo: a red V with a yellow glow, which anchors in the Verizon name – Veritas (truth) and Horizon (the future of possibility). The refreshed design system reflects that energy with new color palettes, photography, and new TV and digital formats that reflect the way people live, work and play. These changes will roll out across marketing, digital properties, including the website and apps, and in retail stores in the coming years. This supports the momentum in the business while staying within current investments.

The company touts its new myHome plan combines home internet and entertainment options.

Now, all Verizon Home Internet customers can also benefit from choice, flexibility and value with the launch of myHome: a one-stop shop for internet, entertainment and connected home offerings. Choose content perks from top streaming services for just $10/month. That means great value on Netflix & Max (with ads), Disney Bundle (including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+), YouTube Premium, and Walmart+ membership with an included Paramount+ subscription. Get Apple One and Apple Music Family coming later this summer. With fast, reliable home internet coverage, guaranteed pricing for up to 4 years, no hidden fees, no equipment charges and major savings on the entertainment customers love, myHome brings customers the choice, flexibility, value and most of all, simplicity.

Verizon is improving its trade-in program, accepting any smartphone in any condition as a trade-in across all myPlan unlimited tiers. The company is also launching Verizon Access, a program that rewards customers with pre-sales tickets, giveaways, and more.

Finally, Verizon Business launched an end-to-end smartphone management solution.

“Verizon is one of the most recognizable brands. By listening to our customers, we continue to significantly evolve our offerings and brand promise to connect people when it matters most on our reliable network,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. “We never stop pushing the industry forward and delivering more value to all of our customers. This next chapter is a continuation of our journey of service and innovation.”

“Verizon is a strong, trusted brand that plays a critical role in people’s lives, but most of what we do is often invisible and behind the scenes. We want to make the invisible, visible,” says Leslie Berland, Verizon Chief Marketing Officer. “The new logo, design system and creative approach pulls inspiration from the company’s heritage while infusing the energy, vibrancy, and experience of life powered by everything Verizon offers.”

According to the FCC, Verizon failed to deliver 911 calls in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee during the period in question. As a result, Verizon has agreed to the fine, as well as a Consent Decree involving a compliance plan to ensure such a failure does not happen again.

The FCC says the December failure resulted in hundreds of 911 calls not going through, and followed another outage in October 2022. Following the October outage, Verizon made improvements to address the issue, but failed to completely fix it.

“When you call 911 in an emergency, it’s critical that your call goes through,” said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “Today’s action is part of the FCC’s ongoing effort to ensure that the public has reliable communications, including access to 911.”

“The Enforcement Bureau takes any potential violations of the Commission’s 911 rules extremely seriously. Sunny day outages, as occurred here, can be especially troubling because they occur when the public and 911 call centers least expect it,” said Loyaan A. Egal, Chief of the Enforcement Bureau. “We are committed to ensuring communications providers uphold their responsibilities in providing critical 911 services to the American public.”

Moving forward, Verizon will be required to perform risk assessments and establish “enhanced processes for implementing security policy updates” in an effort to ensure such an outage doesn’t happen again.

T-Mobile announced plans in April to crack down on users that were using Home Internet outside of approved coverage areas. While the service will often work in areas the company doesn’t officially support, using it in such areas can overload the network and result in poor performance.

Despite the company’s plans to implement address verification months ago, the company reportedly held up until it could implement a new Away plan, according to The Mobile Report.

It’s still unclear exactly how T-Mobile’s location verification will work, but users that are outside of coverage will need to cancel their service or switch to the Away plan, designed for people on-the-go.

AT&T appears to be trying to force customers away from older, retired unlimited plans. As part of that effort, the company is increasing prices by $10 to $20.

We’re increasing the monthly charge on most of our retired unlimited wireless plans. This change will allow us to provide additional benefits to your plan and continue to deliver the great wireless service you expect. Starting in August 2024, you’ll see the relevant price change reflected on your August bill.

• If you have a single line of service on your plan, your monthly plan charge will increase by $10.
• If you have multiple lines on your plan, your monthly plan charge will increase by a total of $20. This is the total monthly increase, not per line increase.

The good news is your plan isn’t going away. You’ll be getting added high-speed data and hotspot data, and you can continue to enjoy your existing benefits, including unlimited talk, text, and data in and between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and AT&T ActiveArmorSM mobile security.

While the company says the old plans aren’t going away, it does spend a considerable portion of the webpage highlighting the benefits of its new plans. Clearly, the company wants to move customers to its new options, and is increasing prices of the old plans as an incentive.

T-Mobile has made a big deal of its “Price Lock” guarantee. The only problem is, the company has recently raised prices, including on plans it had previously guaranteed it would never raise prices on. AT&T challenged T-Mobile’s advertising and the NAD agreed.

The NAD made note of how pervasive T-Mobile’s use of “Price Lock” is in the company’s advertising.

The challenged “Price Lock” claim appeared in print, online, and television advertising, including in a television commercial featuring actors Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Jason Momoa performing a humorous musical number promoting the beneficial features of T-Mobile’s internet service.

The NAD then recommended that the magenta carrier stop using the term, or clarify what it actually means.

In each of the challenged advertisements, the description of the “Price Lock” policy appears in text below the claim and states, with some variation, “Get your last month of service on us if we ever raise your internet rate.” NAD found that a disclosure that “Price Lock” does not lock the price but gives consumers one month of free service if certain conditions are met contradicts the main message of the “Price Lock” claim.

To avoid conveying a misleading message, NAD recommended that T-Mobile discontinue the “Price Lock” claim or modify it to explain, as part of the main claim, that “Price Lock” is a policy that promises customers a free month of home internet service if T-Mobile raises the monthly price and the consumer promptly notifies T-Mobile that they are cancelling their service.

T-Mobile reached out to WPN to share the following statement:

We believe the challenged ads clearly communicated our generous Price Lock benefit, which offers customers on eligible rate plans the opportunity to get their final month’s service charges paid by us if their price changes and they let us know they’ve chosen to leave. We will continue to offer Price Lock to customers but will take the NAD’s recommendations for clarifying the offer into consideration.

T-Mobile has been rolling out its 4G/5G Home Internet for several years, giving customers in underserved areas a viable option for high-speed access. The company is now applying its Home Internet network to providing households with a way to stay connected when their traditional internet goes down.

The company explains in on its site:

Nearly 20% of U.S. internet users said their internet goes out at least a few times a month, according to data from CivicScience. It’s something nearly everyone has experienced — at the most inconvenient time, the internet goes down and all productivity is lost. With T-Mobile’s new Home Internet Backup plan, cable and fiber internet customers can get peace of mind knowing they have a way to stay online during those unexpected outages.

The plan comes with 130 GB of 5G data per month, more than enough to stay connected during occasional down times. The company provides a 5G gateway for not extra cost or monthly fees.

The services costs $30 per month with AutoPay enabled, or $20 a month for T-Mobile voice customers.

Rumors started swirling three weeks ago that T-Mobile and Verizon could be interested in carving up UScellular. At the time, it was believed a deal with T-Mobile was closer, with a likely value of more than $2 billion. In contrast, a deal with Verizon was seen as uncertain.

T-Mobile says it has reached a deal with UScellular to pay roughly $4.4 billion for UScellular assets, “in a combination of cash and up to $2.0 billion of debt to be assumed by T-Mobile through an exchange offer to be made to certain UScellular debtholders prior to closing.”

The deal will give T-Mobile control of “substantially all of UScellular’s wireless operations,” including the company’s customers and “certain specified spectrum assets.”

T-Mobile says UScellular’s spectrum help it improve its rural coverage.

“With this deal T-Mobile can extend the superior Un-carrier value and experiences that we’re famous for to millions of UScellular customers and deliver them lower-priced, value-packed plans and better connectivity on our best-in-class nationwide 5G network,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “As customers from both companies will get more coverage and more capacity from our combined footprint, our competitors will be forced to keep up – and even more consumers will benefit. The Un-carrier is all about shaking up wireless for the good of consumers and this deal is another way for us to continue doing even more of that.”

“T-Mobile’s purchase and integration of UScellular’s wireless operations will provide best-in-class connectivity to rural Americans through enhanced nationwide coverage and service offerings at more compelling price points,” said Laurent Therivel, CEO of UScellular. “The transaction provides our customers access to better coverage and speeds, as well as unlimited texting in more than 215 countries, content offers, device upgrades and other T-Mobile benefits.”

T-Mobile is well-known for its Uncarrier initiative, giving customers the features they want at a reasonable price. As a result, the company’s announced price hike was unexpected, as the T-Mobile has not raised prices on legacy customers for years.

Unfortunately, the company is now raising prices on those accounts $5 per line per month, and $2 per line per month for connected device plans, such as tablets and wearables.

The company was quick to point out that this is the first such price hike in nearly a decade, and that it is still cheaper than its competitors.

We’re committed to offering the best value in wireless.

Even with these changes, T-Mobile customers still pay less, saving an average of approximately 20% vs AT&T and Verizon for comparable services and streaming.

?You’ll keep all the benefits you currently enjoy, including access to America’s largest and fastest 5G network, and no further action is needed from you.

It’s a common practice within the wireless industry to give new customers incentives to switch. Often, however, existing customers are left in the cold, unable to benefit from those deals despite their loyalty to the brand.

Metro is looking to change that with its new Metro Flex plan.

“Think about this, if two people walk into a prepaid store and one is brand new and the other is a five-year customer, only one of them gets the best deal on a new smartphone … and it’s not the longtime customer! Talk about some major yada yada,” said Jon Freier, President, T-Mobile Consumer Group. “Prepaid customers have been taken for granted for far too long, so we’re taking a stand today with Metro Flex. Now, customers get a free phone when they join and the same great phone deals as new customers when they stay — and it’s all because Metro is the only prepaid provider that values your business.”

Under the new plan, customers can switch to Metro and receive a free 5G phone. Existing customers can trade in their phone every 1, 2, or 3 years and take advantage of the same Metro Flex deals available to new customers.

That’s all there is to it. Just bring your current number and ID and get our best deals on devices from top brands like Samsung, Motorola and REVVL (more on that in a minute!). Plans start at $50/month with AutoPay ($55 today and $50 after that when you sign up for AutoPay). You’ll have the comfort of knowing that when it’s time for a new phone, you’ll get the same great deals as new customers on select devices, because it’s all part of the plan.