T-Mobile CEO John Legere began teasing Uncarrier 4.0 last week. He hasn’t gone into specifics, but did take to Twitter to once again poke at AT&T. Legere touched on how the next phase will be about eliminating “another customer pain point.” That leaves quite a bit of room for interpretation, however it looks like some details may have recently been leaked.
Details coming from TmoNews brings talk of Uncarrier 4.0 addressing the early termination fee (ETF). They received a tip talking about something called Project Houdini. Basically, it looks like this will help customers switch to T-Mobile with less to worry about in terms of paying an ETF. It doesn’t appear as if T-Mobile will be covering the entire cost, but it looks like a dent could be made.
It was said that switchers could get up to $350 in credit for moving to T-Mobile. The catch is the ‘up to’ portion and it seems that T-Mobile may be putting focus on family accounts. The details mentioned how “emphasis will be on families switching up to 5 lines regardless of contract end dates.” In that respect, the $350 may not sound all that high.
Some official details will be the only way to see just how good this would be for the family looking to switch, but it does have some potential. Take my family account as example, we have four lines and each of those four lines have a different upgrade date — therefor we are never really sitting at a point where the whole family is contract-free and able to switch without multiple ETF fees.
That aside, remaining details on Project Houdini included talk of how those new T-Mobile customers would receive an instant credit when they trade-in their old smartphone and a bill credit when they submit a final bill showing the termination fee from the old carrier.
I called it. It was the next logical step to pay ETF fees. At&t and Verizon can’t hold people with contracts anymore. Got to love tmobile