AT&T, T-Mobile fight over which carrier copied the other
How competitive is the wireless industry in the U.S.? Both AT&T and T-Mobile, the nation's second and third largest carriers respectively, are arguing over which of the two was the first to offer the recent round of perks to their customers. T-Mobile's T-Mobile Tuesday app, which delivers freebies to the carrier's customers each Tuesday, was announced on June 6th. It didn't get off to a great start as Dominos pulled out of the promotion. But T-Mobile added a new partner and is trying to right the ship.
Meanwhile, AT&T announced yesterday the launch of its previously announced AT&T THANKS program. Starting yesterday, its postpaid customers were able to go online and reserve a free movie ticket for every Tuesday this summer at participating Regal and AMC Theaters across the country. Like its rival, AT&T has other perks included in its program.
The similarities of the two plans has each company fighting back and forth. AT&T originally unveiled its THANKS plan on June 2nd, a few days before T-Mobile introduced T-Mobile Tuesdays. But that didn't stop T-Mobile CEO John Legere from claiming that AT&T THANKS was a hastily conceived copycat put together in response to rumors about T-Mobile's upcoming announcement. While we can't prove that one way or the other, we can point out that rumors about T-Mobile's giveaway program were the subject of a story we published on May 5th. That is nearly a month before AT&T revealed that it had a rewards plan coming.
As far as we can tell, whenever two major carriers are fighting, it's the customers that usually win.
source: FierceWireless
The similarities of the two plans has each company fighting back and forth. AT&T originally unveiled its THANKS plan on June 2nd, a few days before T-Mobile introduced T-Mobile Tuesdays. But that didn't stop T-Mobile CEO John Legere from claiming that AT&T THANKS was a hastily conceived copycat put together in response to rumors about T-Mobile's upcoming announcement. While we can't prove that one way or the other, we can point out that rumors about T-Mobile's giveaway program were the subject of a story we published on May 5th. That is nearly a month before AT&T revealed that it had a rewards plan coming.
Of course, AT&T had its own comment to make, and in a statement a spokesman accused T-Mobile of copying AT&T. "T-Mobile clearly rushed to put out an app that is riddled with problems," said the statement.
"I think that the AT&T announcement is the funniest thing that I've ever seen. That was the most shoddy, quickly thrown-together task force-oriented thing that stuck a 'Tuesday' on it because of a rumor and a leak that they heard."-John Legere, president and CEO, T-Mobile
"After four straight weeks of missteps, seems like the pressure is on TMO to build an app their customers can actually use. After announcing our AT&T Thanks program first, TMO clearly rushed to put out an app that is riddled with problems. You can't have your pizza and eat it too."-Steven Schwadron, spokesman, AT&T
"After four straight weeks of missteps, seems like the pressure is on TMO to build an app their customers can actually use. After announcing our AT&T Thanks program first, TMO clearly rushed to put out an app that is riddled with problems. You can't have your pizza and eat it too."-Steven Schwadron, spokesman, AT&T
As far as we can tell, whenever two major carriers are fighting, it's the customers that usually win.
source: FierceWireless
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