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U.S. Cellular targets Verizon, AT&T with better plan guarantee

U.S. Cellular guarantees a better plan than Verizon Wireless or AT&T Mobility or it pays $50

Regional wireless operator U.S. Cellular is targeting rivals AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless with a new promotion offering $50 to customers if the carrier can’t provide a “better plan” than the nation’s two largest operators.

U.S. Cellular, which is the domestic market’s No. 5 largest mobile operator controlling its own network, said the promotion applies to monthly recurring price plans only and is open to both consumers and enterprises. The carrier noted the $50 payment is in the form of a debit card.

If customers do find the U.S. Cellular offer more compelling, they must port their number from Verizon Wireless or AT&T Mobility and select one of U.S. Cellular’s Share Connect plans with an accompanying device financing option. The device financing option requires customers to only pay tax on a device at the point of sale, with the full price of the device spread over a 20-month period.

Customers can also take advantage of U.S. Cellular’s offer to pay off early termination fees or remaining device balances for leaving their current carrier. That program does required customers to select a Shared Connect plan with device financing and a device insurance plan, turn in their current device and send in their final bill.

“At U.S. Cellular, we’re confident that we offer the best shared data plans available for a wide variety of customer needs, so we wanted to go a step farther and guarantee it,” said Joe Settimi, VP of marketing for U.S. Cellular.

U.S. Cellular has recently shown some fight in competing against larger rivals. The carrier said it added 21,000 net customers during the first quarter of the year, which was a strong turnaround from the 80,000 customers it lost during the same quarter of 2014. The latest results included 9,000 postpaid net additions and 13,000 prepaid net additions, with the carrier ending the quarter with 4.775 million customers on its network.

U.S. Cellular had previously announced plans to add more than 600 LTE cell sites this year as it looks to expand coverage to 98% of its customer base across 10 states. The expansion is set to include 2,000 towns in areas of California, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia. Much of that will include work with King Street Wireless, which controls the 700 MHz A-Block spectrum assets U.S. Cellular uses to power some of its LTE network.

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