As part of its efforts to go through with its acquisition of Sprint, T-Mobile announced last year that it would be launching an initiative called Connecting Heroes, promising to provide free access to its network, including 5G, for first responders. Today, the company formally announced the launch of the initiative.
Interested agencies - including fire, police, and EMS departments - can apply for free service here. T-Mobile says it expects the measure to save these agencies up to $7 billion in the next 10 years, which is how long the company promised to offer the free service for.
Being that the offer includes 5G, the carrier reiterated it has the largest 5G network in the U.S., at 8 times the size of AT&T"s and 28 thousand times that of Verizon. Verizon"s 5G network has been exclusively focused on mmWave, which can only travel short distances, hence the drastic difference.
Additionally, as a way of thanking its customers, T-Mobile is offering a free iPhone SE with bill credits to Sprint and T-Mobile customers starting Friday, May 22 and until Monday, May 25. To get the new iPhone SE, you"ll need to trade in your current device and pay the sales tax on the new phone, and either be on a T-Mobile or Sprint postpaid plan or switch to one, with no requirements to add additional lines. Alternatively, you can get up to half off Samsung"s Galaxy S20 5G family, either via trade-in credit and rebate on T-Mobile or through bill credits on Sprint. The offer is available online or in retail Sprint and T-Mobile stores.