T-Mobile Aims To Shake Up Wireless Industry With Freebies

T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), the nation’s third-largest wireless carrier, has just announced a slew of new freebies aimed at attracting and retaining customers. On Monday, the company unveiled its Uncarrier 11 program, a wide-ranging customer appreciation program designed to gift customers with stock in the company, free pizza, and other goodies. Named partners in the program include Domino’s, Walmart, Wendy’s, Gilt, Samsung, Lyft, Major League Baseball and StubHub.

As part of the Uncarrier 11 program, the company said that it will give one share of T-Mobile stock to millions of its customers. T-Mobile will give each new and existing primary account holder of a post-paid voice account a single share of stock, currently worth $43.63. The company estimates that it currently has roughly 11 million to 12 million eligible customers. T-Mobile CEO John Legere claims that this is “something no other publicly traded company has done before at this scale.”

Customers have to sign up with brokerage partner Loyal3 to access the stock. T-Mobile will not issue new stock for this program, which would dilute existing shares. Instead, the company will buy stock through Loyal3 in the open market and grant them to customers. The company said there is no fee to transfer or sell the stock.

Subscribers can earn more shares by referring friends and family to switch over. Interested parties can go to the company’s site and enter up to 10 numbers at a time of people to refer. If these referrals sign up for service, the referring party gets a share. Subscribers who have been with T-Mobile for five or more years will get two shares per referral. Customers are limited to 100 shares a year through referrals.

Another part of the Uncarrier 11 program is T-Mobile Tuesday, an app that offers giveaways each week on Tuesdays. Regular offerings will include a free medium two-topping Domino’s pizza, Wendy’s Frosty, and movie rentals. Users will also be eligible for special prizes, such as movie tickets, concert tickets, shopping sprees, and electronics. T-Mobile confirmed it is paying its partners in the program, but is paying less than the face value of the prizes due to the promotional benefits of the program.

T-Mobile’s three-year-old Uncarrier initiative has shaken up the wireless industry. T-Mobile has garnered nearly all of the growth in the industry for core smartphone subscribers in the past couple of years. Starting in March 2013 with the announcement that T-Mobile was doing away with two-year contracts and subsidized phones, the program now offers unlimited video streaming through Binge On, unlimited streaming music from services like Spotify, and cheap global roaming for those traveling abroad.