In September, T-Mobile revealed that free lines were a tool to keep customers with them for the long haul. Most T-Mobile customers don’t love free lines any less after that revelation.
T-Mobile often runs promotions that award customers a free or discounted line for opening one or more paid lines. When asked if these free lines were converted into paid lines later on, T-Mobile’s President of Consumer Group, Jon Freier, hinted that the question missed the bigger picture.
Freier said that analysts often use free lines as a gauge for the quality of the customer base. He pointed out that the increasing postpaid service revenue showed that the customer base for strong.
Freier also revealed that free lines were a retention tool, targeted at customers contemplating moving their accounts away. This could potentially help disgruntled customers stay with T-Mobile for up to three years longer than they would have. This makes their Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) or total revenue over their time at T-Mobile go up.
–Jon Freier, President of Consumer Group at T-Mobile, September 2025
It also allows T-Mobile to upsell customers on other products or services. So, while customers may get the impression that T-Mobile is bearing the cost of their free lines, the truth is that most of them end up giving even more business to the company, so it’s a net win for T-Mobile.
Customers couldn’t care less. We polled our readers to find out if they thought the practice was shady. 4834 readers responded, and 2247 or 47 percent of them said the offer was mutually beneficial for the carrier and its customers.
While the majority of the responders were fine with free lines being used to generate more business for T-Mobile, 1406, or 29 percent found it dodgy.
Others were somewhere in between and took solace in the fact that at least they were getting something out of their additional years at T-Mobile, notwithstanding any potential increases in spending. Some shrugged it off, highlighting that free lines weren’t binding in any way.
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Do customers need to care about why a freebie is being offered?
Yes, we need to know what we are signing up for. No, as long as it isn’t conditional. No, why do we have to be so serious about everything.
Yes, we need to know what we are signing up for.
0%
No, as long as it isn’t conditional.
0%
No, why do we have to be so serious about everything.
0%
Customers understand that corporations aren’t charities and they have ulterior motives behind everything they do. What perhaps makes most of them very tolerant in this case is that they are getting a good deal in return. This is an example for companies that not only want to retain customers, but also want them to increase spending. Customers won’t mind deepening their relationship with you as long as they are taken care of.
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