In what’s being billed as an effort to “untie” the dads of America, wireless carrier T-Mobile will make every phone model in selected stores free this Saturday—the day before Fathers Day– for customers who sign up for a two-year contract on a new family calling plan or additional family line.
The free-phone offer, which applies only to T-Mobile owned and operated retail locations, has interesting timing beyond Dad’s commemorative day: It comes five days before Apple begins selling its new iPhone 4G model.
The T-Mobile offer will include the carrier’s menu of smartphones running on the Google android operating system, including the HTC HD2, the HTC myTouch 3G Slide and the Garminfone, which integrates with Garmin’s navigation platform—a T-Mobile exclusive model. All three smartphones normally sell for about $180-$200 with a two-year service contract.
Shoppers will be able to get a free phone for each line they add to their T-Mobile family plan two-year contract, up to a limit of 5 phones.
T-Mobile claims to have found through company research that more than half of U.S. fathers have received Father’s Day gifts they didn’t want, and in fact that 53% of dads can’t remember what they got last year.
According to the T-Mobile survey, 74% of fathers polled said they would be happy to get a new phone for Father’s Day, and in fact 56% said they would trade all the ties in their closet for a new phone.
“For this very special day celebrating dad and the entire family, T-Mobile is thrilled to offder an industry-first promotion that helps families stay connected,” T-Mobile USA marketing vice president Adrian Hurditch said in a release.
The one-day free-phone offer will extend while supplies last. Shoppers can get a list of T-Mobile stores taking part in the promotion.
T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, ranks fourth among U.S. wireless carriers, behind AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. AT&T so far has the exclusive carrier rights to Apple’s iPhone models and is already accepting pre-orders for the new 4G handset.
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