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T-Mobile’s new prepaid offer is a direct play for the Boost customers it sold to Dish

T-Mobile’s new prepaid offer is a direct play for the Boost customers it sold to Dish

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It’s saying the quiet part out loud

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An illustration of T-Mobile’s magenta “T” logo on a black field with color-matched graphical squares.
T-Mobile is offering customers who switch from an MVNO a discount on an unlimited Metro plan with 5G.
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

T-Mobile is introducing a new prepaid promotion with incentives for customers on other prepaid MVNOs to switch to Metro by T-Mobile, including waiving switching fees, a discount on an unlimited plan with 5G, and a trade-in offer for a new 5G phone. In other words, it’s doing exactly what it told regulators it wouldn’t do when it acquired Sprint a year ago.

The US wireless market is lousy with 5G phone trade-in offers and 5G plan upgrades these days, but this one stands out in its direct pitch to lure Boost Mobile customers to T-Mobile’s prepaid brand — the same customers it was ordered to sell to Dish network with the intention of setting the company up as a fourth wireless carrier to replace Sprint. It’s also what Dish warned might be coming in a plea to the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year.

Many Boost customers need a device upgrade by January 1st, 2022, which T-Mobile is happily offering to facilitate

The promotion also appears to specifically appeal to Boost customers on Sprint’s old CDMA network — a network T-Mobile owns and operates and announced it would be shutting down on an unusually aggressive timeline. This leaves many Boost customers in need of a device upgrade by January 1st, 2022, which T-Mobile is happily offering to facilitate if they switch to Metro:

“Get half off your unlimited line when you switch from Boost or Cricket by bringing your phone number to Metro by T-Mobile and trading in ANY working device for a limited time. Yes, any — even that old flip phone!”

This new promotion is perhaps its most obvious play yet to win back Boost customers

The deal provides customers who switch and trade in a phone with a two-year discounted $25-per-month price on an unlimited plan with 5G.

T-Mobile’s track record of keeping its Sprint merger promises is shaky at best. It has failed to create jobs it said it would, and while it has technically fulfilled its requirements to Dish Network, like selling Boost and providing wholesale network service, it hasn’t exactly been helpful either. This new promotion is perhaps its most obvious play yet to win back Boost customers — the very customers Dish will need to retain if it’s going to becoming a full-fledged carrier.