Skip to main content

T-Mobile 'Get Out of the Red' campaign takes the pain out of switching carriers

one unlimited 55+
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Self-coined “un-carrier” T-Mobile is making it easier for customers to switch the competition — specifically Verizon. Its newest campaign, Get Out of the Red, lets eligible subscribers migrate from Verizon, keep their phone, and avoid having to pay a hefty fee (ETF) for terminating their contract.

“Switching is a pain! It’s expensive to pay off their phone and a huge hassle to trade it in and transfer their life — contacts, apps, photos and more — to a new device,” said T-Mobile. “And it’s all unnecessary. The truth is, the latest iPhones and Pixel phones work great on T-Mobile now.”

Recommended Videos

Starting May 31, Verizon customers with an iPhone 6s or newer (or one of Google’s Pixel-branded phones) can switch to T-Mobile by visiting any of the carrier’s brick-and-mortar stores. T-Mobile said it’s aimed at the 14 million Verizon customers who say they would switch carriers if they could keep their phone and didn’t have to pay a fee.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

But the carrier’s not leaving Sprint and AT&T customers out in the cold — for a limited time, its waiving early-termination fees and device payments. And to celebrate the campaign’s launch, T-Mobile’s offering customers with two or more lines two additional lines for the price of one.

Get Out of the Red launches on the heels of T-Mobile’s un-carrier moves. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the carrier replaced its capped data plans with the T-Mobile One plan, which starts at $70 and includes unlimited talk, text, and 4G LTE data. As part of the One plan’s rollout, T-Mobile introduced the “One-plan guarantee,” which locked in prices for new customers, and KickBack, a new plan benefit that refunds subscribers for data they don’t use.

And in December, T-Mobile announced Digits, a new service that provides a single phone number that works across smartphones, tablets, computers, and even wearables. Subscribers can answer and place calls from any device, and access call history, messages, and voicemail from the online Digits dashboard.

“The Internet wasn’t meant to be metered in bits and bytes,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in January. “[It] was mean to be unlimited, and at T-Mobile, we believe that everyone should have unlimited mobile internet.”

T-Mobile’s next frontier is 5G. In May, the carrier said it will deploy next-generation high-speed networks across the U.S. “[It’ll] position T-Mobile to deliver a 5G network that offers both breadth and depth nationwide,” T-Mobile chief technology officer Neville Ray said in a blog post. “We’re going to run at it and run hard.”

Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
T-Mobile still has the fastest 5G, but its rivals are catching up
T-Mobile smartphone.

For most of 2023, we’ve seen median 5G speeds among the big three carriers remain fairly stable, leading us to believe that things were beginning to reach a plateau. However, it now seems that this may only be true at the very top end of the 5G speed race.

Today, Ookla released its latest market research on 5G speeds for the third quarter of 2023, and it’s an interesting mix of surprising and not-so-surprising developments in the 5G market.

Read more
T-Mobile’s huge lead in 5G speeds isn’t going anywhere
OnePlus Nord N300 5G speed test.

It looks like 2023 could shape up to be the year that we reach "peak 5G." While T-Mobile still enjoys a very healthy lead over its rivals, we're no longer seeing significant speed increases from any of the big three U.S. carriers.

That's not surprising for T-Mobile and Verizon since they now cover more than two-thirds of the U.S. population. AT&T still has room to grow, yet it seems to be in a resting phase rather than an expansion one right now.

Read more
The 5G speed race is over and T-Mobile has won
Cell phone tower shooting off pink beams with a 5G logo next to it.

Every few months, a new market analysis comes out comparing the top 5G performance and availability among U.S. carriers. Each time, we wonder if the latest report will finally topple T-Mobile, which has held a commanding lead over rivals AT&T and Verizon for years. Yet, with each new report, T-Mobile pulls farther ahead while AT&T and Verizon are left in the dust.

With that in mind, Opensignal's latest 5G Experience Report doesn't bring too many surprises, at least in broad strokes. T-Mobile continues to deliver 5G download speeds that are more than twice those of any other carrier and more than twice the 5G availability. This means you won't just get faster performance on T-Mobile's 5G network, but you're more likely to be able to find a 5G connection.

Read more