T-Mobile Announces “Contract Freedom,” Will Pay Early Termination Fees On Up To 5 Lines

T-Mobile’s campaign to brand themselves as America’s “un-carrier” started last year at CES in Las Vegas, so it makes sense that the company introduced “Uncarrier 4.0″ this afternoon at the same event.

“One of the biggest evils in this industry is the family plan…a family plan is nothing more than a contract on super-steroids,” explained T-Mobile’s magenta-clad, party-crashing CEO John Legere. Instead of one line, a family plan is really multiple lines with different contract end dates, “a contract into perpetuity.”

What the company wants to do, according to Legere, is “eliminate pain points.” Like what? The biggest pain point for Early Termination Fees. ETFs are really part of what he calls the “industry scam” of keeping customers locked in to plans. “Customers should be able to pick up and leave,” he told the crowd.

That’s why, as we heard earlier today, T-Mobile is paying the ETF for postpaid customers of other carriers who port their numbers. They’ll pay out for five lines on the same account, then offer up to $350 to trade in your phone.

Oh, and what are the other pain points in the mobile phone industry? It’s not as painful as being smacked with a high ETF, but many people want to escape their current carriers in order to avoid slow data or bad networks in their region. T-Mobile showed off real data from Speedtest.net tests performed yesterday by their customers that indicates that T-Mobile’s LTE speeds are the fastest and most consistent compared to other carriers, which will probably improve once Big Magenta starts using that new spectrum that it recently purchased from Verizon.

Break Up With Your Carrier [T-Mobile]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist