• by Danielle Oster , August 26, 2024

It’s time for more price-focused campaign battles from mobile providers.

Verizon’s all-digital wireless network Visible last week began promoting an offer guaranteeing T-Mobile postpaid customers a five-year rate of $15 per month for each line they add to the network. The brand told Marketing Daily it will be promoting the new deal across Facebook and Instagram, as well as on Visible’s website.

The effort is a response to a campaign launched earlier in the week by T-Mobile affiliate Mint Mobile. In that campaign, Mint Mobile says AT&T and Verizon customers who switch to Mint Mobile can purchase a plan at the rate of $15 per month, with up to four additional lines at no added cost.

According to Verizon, however, the actual offer provides customers a chance to purchase a three-month plan for $45, after which time the rate increases to the $40 per line retail price. In a release announcing the campaign, Verizon also claims that Mint’s advertised “unlimited” plan is “actually a 40 GB data plan that then slows down [after 40GB is exceed].” 

“While Mint is promoting this short-term deal that won’t last, we want to give people looking for a better deal ongoing savings, service and value with no hidden fees, period,” Verizon Value president Nancy Clark said in a statement.

In a release announcing its new promotion to “Switch from AT&T or Verizon and bring your family for free,” Mint Mobile promised “the best value in wireless,” and took aim at both competitors for raising prices -- part of a long-running focus on targeting AT&T and Verizon over their pricing.

“At Mint, our mission is to right the wrongs of AT&T and Verizon… who have collectively raised prices 11 times in just the last year,” Mint Mobile CMO Aron North said in a statement. “Their antics give us yet another opportunity to fight back on behalf of wireless customers. While they charge more for less, we’re giving people more for less. And you can’t get more less than free.”

The fine print of the announcement does seem to confirm Verizon’s characterization of the offer: Mint Mobile states that the “new customer offer” is for the “first 3 months only,” with “full-price plan options available” after the promotional period, and that “Unlimited customers using >40GB/mo. will experience lower speeds.”

To qualify for Visible's deal, T-Mobile customers who bring their own device to the network need to use the promo code “BYEBYETMO” when signing up, for $10 off the monthly price of $25 per line. While the brand is marketing the promotion as a price “guarantee” for 5 years, the deal is not without its own fine print calling into question that characterization -- namely, that “Visible reserves the right to change or terminate this offer at any time, with or without notice.”

Let the price-focused wireless wars continue.