A free DIRECTV NOW promotion from T-Mobile aims to take some steam out of AT&T’s efforts to leverage the ‘mobile first’ OTT service, launched a couple of weeks ago. T-Mobile announced that not only are they adding DIRECTV NOW to their Binge On promotion (which zero rates it against monthly data allowances), but also offering a free year’s of DIRECTV NOW to customers who switch to T-Mobile.
T-Mobile will offer AT&T customers who switch to T-Mobile a $35 per month credit for twelve months, matching the entry level price for the OTT service, or a total value of $420. New customers have to activate two lines and port their number to T-Mobile to take advantage of the promotion, which begins December 16th.
In true John Legere fashion, the combative T-Mobile CEO outlined T-Mobile’s promotion in a press release.
“AT&T wants you to think DIRECTV is theirs exclusively, but that’s a load of crap. Both DIRECTV NOW and the DIRECTV apps stream free on T-Mobile with a faster, more advanced network that covers nearly every American,” he said. “AT&T is so distracted by their new businesses and DIRECTV that they continue to ignore their 110 million wireless customers. Luckily, the Un-carrier’s here to show them how to actually take care of customers!”
DIRECTV NOW will also join other video services in T-Mobile’s Binge On promotion. Binge On allows T-Mobile customers to stream video to their mobile devices without it counting towards their monthly data allowance. Heavy video users will see degradation in video quality if they truly “binge” on video throughout the month, however.
Other video services on the Binge On plan include Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and HBO Now.
DIRECTV NOW was launched with great fanfare and AT&T’s CEO reported that they have already surpassed their initial sales goals. The service has not been without technical issues though, with some high profile outages reported since its launch.
