T-Mobile UK Offers "Free Texting for Life"

It appears a "free text messages for life" promotion lead to the highest-ever single-month gain in new subscribers for T-Mobile UK in September 2009.

T-Mobile UK gained an estimated 100,000 net new subscribers in September, compared to a net loss of 200,000 subscribers in the first six months of the year.

The promotion runs month to month, allowing any users that tops up a prepaid subscriber information module to £10, in any month, unlimited texting the next month. So the promotion requires subscribers to top up their prepaid accounts to that level, every month, to keep the "unmlimited texting" feature.

Growth in T-Mobile UK's prepaid business accounted for most of the increase in the month, but the company says there was also a "healthy increase" in the number of contract customers in the period.

The thing about mobility is that it is a multi-product business, allowing service providers a number of options for "merchandising" features to enhance new customer acquisition, retention, revenue or profit margin. In this case, T-Mobile UK has opted for merchandising of text messaging to boost customer acquisition and retention.