Pebl freed at T-Mobile USA as holiday pricing war intensifies

SEATTLE-It’s the holiday season and, naturally, there’s a bug going around.
Only the bug in the wireless world, at least in the United States, is one that compels carriers to dangle free phones like so many Christmas ornaments in front of consumers’ faces, hoping they’ll take the bait. After all, if you’re giving a gift to someone, including yourself, “free” is good, right?
Specifically, T-Mobile USA Inc. made its $50 Motorola Inc. Pebl phones “free,” down from $50-a price that buys a lot of phone this season. Sprint Nextel Corp. also dropped the price of its i670 phone from $50 to “free” as well. Both require two-year contracts, of course-thus the annoying quotation marks around “free” (there’s no such thing).
The price drops evidently are part of a seasonal orgy of competition among carriers in a last-ditch effort to lure subscribers (and pump up carrier net adds) who may be tempted to give a shiny gadget to someone-and, possibly, pay their subscription fees. This annual rite appears to be intensifying in fourth-quarter 2006 above past such efforts.
The question is: when the orgy is over and the clock strikes New Year’s, what’s the next gambit? Could $50 be the next free?