Sprint Nips At AT&T’s Heels With ‘Free’ Year Of Service For DirecTV Subscribers
It appears that AT&T isn’t the only wireless company celebrating its acquisition of satellite TV provider DirecTV. Earlier this month, AT&T courted DirecTV customers currently attached to other wireless carriers with the promise of up to $500 in account credits if they signed up for wireless service.
Sprint, now finding itself in last place among the “big four” U.S. wireless carriers, is also looking to exploit the “odd couple” pairing of AT&T and DirecTV. Sprint is promoting a one-time offer that gives DirecTV customers that switch to Sprint a full year of service for free. That’s right folks, Sprint is digging down deep into its reserves to reclaim third place from T-Mobile.
Of course, there are more than a few strings attached if you choose to switch to Sprint (in addition to Sprint’s less than stellar nationwide coverage). For starters, you have to both be a current DirecTV customer and add a new line of service using Sprint Lease, iPhone Forever, Sprint Easy Pay. You can also take advantage of the promo if you are a DirecTV customer and a current Sprint customer when adding a new line of service.
If you don’t take advantage of one of the aforementioned leasing programs, you’ll have to pay full price for whatever smartphone you select. In addition, customers are on the hook for a one-time activation fee of $36.
So what level of service are you actually receiving for free? Well, Sprint says that customers will receive unlimited talk, text, along with 2GB of monthly data. That’s a rather paltry amount of monthly high-speed data, but you can’t put up too much of a fuss over the “free” service. If the offer still sounds appealing to you, it’s worth nothing that it is available starting today through September 30th.
With that being said, Sprint appears to be taking a page from T-Mobile’s playbook by kicking a little dirt in AT&T’s eyes when announcing the promotion. “DIRECTV customers love their TV service – but they shouldn’t have to settle for AT&T wireless,” said Kevin Crull, Sprint chief marketing officer. “Why not build the perfect bundle by combining with Sprint wireless? We’re winning awards across the country because our network has never been stronger, faster or more reliable, and our customers have never been more satisfied.”
While the language used isn’t laced with profanity commonly used by T-Mobile CEO John Legere, it’s interesting to see that Sprint is becoming a bit more “colorful” when describing its competitors.
