Sprint on Thursday announced a special offer designed to help it poach DirecTV customers from under AT&T’s nose.
For the next month, DirecTV customers switching to a Sprint mobile service will be offered free voice, SMS and some data for a year.
"DirecTV customers love their TV service, but they shouldn’t have to settle for AT&T wireless," said Sprint’s chief marketing officer Kevin Crull.
"Why not build the perfect bundle by combining with Sprint wireless?" he added. "We’re winning awards across the country because our network has never been stronger, faster or more reliable, and our customers have never been more satisfied."
He neglected to mention that in the latest Rootmetrics U.S. mobile networks survey published last week, Sprint turned in a good performance but came third behind AT&T.
To qualify for the offer DirecTV customers must join Sprint via its Lease, Easy Pay or iPhone Forever schemes, or pay full retail price for a smartphone. They will have to pay a $36 activation fee, but will then qualify for unlimited voice calls and SMS, and up to 2 GB of data per month.
After the first year customers will be automatically charged $50 per month for the same service.
In an unusual choice of words, Sprint insisted it is "celebrating the merger of DirecTV and AT&T," which closed in July.
Adding DirecTV customers to its own mobile customer base is a key tenet of AT&T’s strategy.
At its updated financial guidance presentation earl ier this month the telco noted that there are 15 million existing DirecTV customers that do not have an AT&T mobile service, and said it intends to take advantage of that.
It has already launched its ‘All in One’ plan, a converged TV and mobile tariff, and separately offered DirecTV customers up to $500 in incentives for switching to its mobile service.
