This Saturday, February 11th, for one day only, T-Mobile is offering all of their 4G smartphones for free with a 2-year contract. This deal includes the Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Amaze 4G, Nokia Lumia 710, Balckberry Bold 9900 4G, HTC Wildfire 4G, and more. The deal also includes a selection of tablets like the T-Mobile springBoard with Google.

The “free” part will come in the form of a mail-in rebate when you sign up for a qualifying “Classic Plan.”

T-Mobile is promoting this with an ad campaign, and you can watch the video below. Full press release is available after the clip (so you can scour it for all the little fine print).

PRESS RELEASE: In the spirit of the season, T-Mobile USA, Inc. will show consumers lots of love with another jaw-dropping promotion for its “Valentine’s Day Sale.” For one day only, Saturday, Feb. 11, T-Mobile will give customers the chance to get their hands on the latest 4G smartphones and select tablets for free, making a perfect gift for loved ones or themselves. The promotion includes T-Mobile’s fastest 4G smartphones and select tablets running on America’s Largest 4G Network® such as the Samsung Galaxy S™ II1 and the T-Mobile® SpringBoard™ with Google™.

New and existing eligible customers can take advantage of this deal receiving their device for free after a mail-in rebate card when they sign up for a new two-year contract on any qualifying Classic Plan™2 or for a $0.00 down payment after mail-in rebate card when signing up on a qualifying Unlimited Value™3 plan.

“T-Mobile has a commitment to make the 4G experience affordable and accessible to everyone, so this sweet deal on smartphones and tablets is our Valentine’s gift to consumers,” said John Clelland, senior vice president of marketing, T-Mobile USA. “No matter where loved ones live, T-Mobile wants to bring them closer with unlimited talking, photo sharing, video chatting, texting, and more.”

A recent online Omnibus survey4 with Harris Interactive found that four-in-ten (44%) of first time smartphone buyers in 2012 say the cost of the data plan associated with the smartphone is the most influential reason they have not purchased a smartphone before. The value for customers extends beyond the “Valentine’s Day Sale” as T-Mobile offers the best rate plan pricing on America’s Largest 4G Network.

The following is a sample of the exceptional devices available during the “Valentine’s Day Sale” if customers choose to sign up on a two-year Classic Plan™:

The “Valentine’s Day Sale” will be available on Feb.11 at participating T-Mobile retail stores nationwide and T-Mobile will support the promotion with a national television advertising campaign. For more information about T-Mobile’s “Valentine’s Day Sale” and details about qualifying plans, visit http://bit.ly/z36M9c.

1 Devices must be supported with the following data requirements: voice phones: 200 MB data; most smartphones: 2 GB data; 42 Mbps devices (Amaze and Galaxy S II): 5 GB data.

2Standard upgrade eligibility rules apply for existing Classic customers that stay on a Classic plan; standard migration fees will apply for existing Classic customers that switch to a Value plan and have less than 18 months contract tenure.

3 $0 down payment offer not applicable in RI, CT, or Miami-Dade County, FL; customers in these regions will be eligible for a different offer. Equipment installment plans: On approved credit and 0 percent APR. Down payment and unfinanced portion required at purchase. Remaining balance paid in 20 monthly installments. Total post-rebate price of each device equals down payment amount plus monthly payment amount times 20.

4This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of T-Mobile USA from December 20-22, 2011 among 2,573 adults ages 18 and older, among whom 235 will be first time smartphone buyers in 2012, and 988 are current smartphone users who will remain smartphone users in 2012. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact kmcfadzean@waggeneredstrom.com.

5 Mail-in rebate not applicable in RI, CT, or Miami-Dade County, FL.

Engadget is reporting that users of the handsets are claiming their Peek devices stopped working on January 30. Some users are understandably upset as they paid $299 for the device with “lifelong service” on the T-Mobile network.

Some users had received emails about the shutdown of service for Peek devices, but obviously not all of them got the memo.

Peek’s CEO, Amol Sarva, made a statement telling customers that the devices have been abandoned. They are “seriously old” after all since two years is a long time in Internet years.

To lessen the pain for those who paid $299, users still got 28 months of quality service from a machine that could only send tweets. Those who were paying $19.95 a month for the service, however, must be feeling pretty silly now

The company, as their Web site indicates, is fully committed to their new “genius cloud” service instead of the hardware market.

Sarva explains that the company could not maintain the Peek network forever for just a few users. The adoption of their software by already established phone manufacturers has made the Peek-made device obsolete. They have no plans to offer a new device to replace the old defunct ones.

A somewhat happy end to this story, however, comes from The Verge who reports that Sarva is offering free Peek devices they have lying around to interested hackers. Sarva says that the notion of “a pre-built and tested portrait QWERTY device with a jog dial, QVGA display, ARMv7 processor, and a GSM radio is, in many ways, a hacker’s dream.” He’ll even throw in some tools to sweeten the deal.

Those interested should contact Sarva himself at Amol@peek.ly. He’ll hook you up with one of the company’s developers for a free Peek.

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners has released a study today that sheds some light on the issue. According to their data, 18% of those who bought the iPhone 4S at its launch in October were switching from other smartphone platforms like BlackBerry and Android. For October, November, and December 2011 combined, that number jumps to 36%.

Additionally, CIRP’s data showed that the iPhone has had a significant impact on the market shares of the major carriers. Three of the four major carriers – AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint – carry the iPhone. The fourth, T-Mobile, does not. CIRP’s data showed that T-Mobile lost market share during the first three months of the iPhone 4S’s availability, while the other three maintained their market share.

Interestingly, the fact that 36% of new iPhone buyers were coming from other platforms seems not to have had much of an impact on those other platforms’ market share. According to an analysis released by StatCounter at the end of 2011, BlackBerry and Android continued fairly steadily in their respective trends throughout the last quarter of 2011. BlackBerry declined steadily throughout 2011, and showed no change in the rate of decline during the three months the iPhone 4S was available. Android, meanwhile, continued its steady climb throughout the year (even surpassing the iPhone in late summer), though it did show a very slight levelling off in October, around the time of the iPhone 4S’s launch.

[Hat tip, AppleInsider]

“I was not surprised by that decision given what had happened prior to the time that the application was withdrawn,” said the Congressman.

He went on to explain that the merger would have brought an “improvement that we desperately need.” If you remember, one of the goals of the merger was to bring high-speed broadband connections to 97 percent of the U.S. in 6 years, which would have nearly fulfilled President Obama’s broadband plan. Since the deal fell threw, Congressman Boucher told us that, in order for the President’s goal to still be met, the government would have to step in with an investment.

“In this era of concern about deficit spending, finding those investments is going to be very difficult,” he said.

As for AT&T, Congressman Boucher told us that he thinks the company will still try to meet the goals it set with the merger in mind, but that it would take a lot longer than 6 years to fulfill them. Through T-Mobile, AT&T would have saved significantly in its effort to enable 4G, but now, it needs to come up with the monies on its own.

“My guess is AT&T, at this point, is going to focus on strengthening its network in its core areas building out its 4th generation technology on an incremental basis of market-by-market, as it is an opportunity for that investment to realize the highest rate of return,” the Congressman explains. “Instead of it happening within 6 years on a nationwide basis, undoubtedly without the merger having occurred, that may now take a somewhat longer period of time.”

Some reports have indicated that AT&T has been talking with several owners of 700 MHz licenses and is in the process of acquiring them as part of its backup plan in case the T-Mobile deal fell threw. This may very well be true since the company is in need of more spectrum.

The Congressman is also optimistic about T-Mobile saying it is in a “very strong position to be a viable competitor.” However, he did say that it would have challenges with deploying 4G.

“The challenge that T-Mobile faces is acquiring the capital that is necessary to deploy 4th generation technology across its network,” he pointed out.

While AT&T did have to pay T-Mobile $4 billion ($3 billion in cash and $1 billion in spectrum rights), the Congressman said that T-Mobile would still need considerably more financing. What’s more is that T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, had said, prior to the merger, that it wanted to exit the U.S. market and was not going to invest in it further. If this is still the case, T-Mobile could have a tough road ahead.

Since the future of T-Mobile is still in question, there have been some speculations about whether or not AT&T will make another attempt at buying the company. Congressman Boucher told us that, at this point, it seemed that the companies were headed in two different directions.

Sprint has also been mentioned as a potential buyer of T-Mobile, but the Congressman thinks such a merger would face the same scrutiny that the AT&T/T-Mobile did.

“I think it’s gonna be very difficult for any of the major carriers to purchase T-Mobile, given the position of the Department of Justice and the FCC,” he said.

Speaking of major carriers, he said it would be “impossible” for Verizon to make such a purchase. If a carrier were to purchase it, the Congressman thinks it would have to be smaller than T-Mobile.

Another possibility would be to sell T-Mobile in parts, which is not what Congressman Boucher considers to be a good decision.

“This is a world where business dominates,” he said. “I think Deutsche Telekom will make its decision very carefully based upon the relative value of the business offers that are made.”

In terms of the mobile industry as a whole, Congressman Boucher told us that the merger not going through was negative for mobile, consumers, and the economy.

“The long term impact is that we don’t get the deployment of 4th generation technology to 97 percent of the American public within the next half decade,” he said. “I think that’s the major negative impact.”

“Wireless technology was the answer,” he added. “We were going to bring broadband to the broadband have-nots – I’m not sure what the answer is now.”

What do you think the next steps will be not only for AT&T and T-Mobile, but also the mobile industry? Please share your thoughts.

The Carrier IQ scandal broke in early December following a YouTube video by Android app developer Trevor Eckhard purported to show Carrier IQ’s software – which he called a “rootkit” – accessing a wide variety data on an Android phone. His demonstration showed the software intercepting web traffic, location data, keystrokes, and even SMS messages. Carrier IQ insisted that they had no interest in users’ personal data, and that their software was nothing more than a diagnostic tool for carriers to collect data on handset and network performance.

The scandal blossomed into a full-blown ordeal as the software was discovered on Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile phones. The scandal spawned several lawsuits and drew the attention of Al Franken, the FTC, and the FCC. As more information became available and cooler heads began to prevail, it began to look more and more likely that Carrier IQ’s protestations of innocence were right, and that their software really was simply a tool for diagnosing network and handset performance. Which means that in all likelihood Sprint and HTC are removing Carrier IQ from their handsets in order to replace it with something else, since they need the kind of data Carrier IQ likely gathered.

It looks now, though, like that might be about to change. Speaking at CES in Las Vegas, T-Mobile’s chief technology officer Neville Ray says that the next iPhone will carry a chipset that supports T-Mobile’s unique wireless network. The band of spectrum that T-Mobile uses for its phones, called AWS, is considerably different than that used by AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. That difference has presented an obstacle to bringing the iPhone to T-Mobile’s network. Ray claimed that the chipset in Apple’s next iPhone will support AWS, though he admitted that Apple may choose not to make the necessary deal to bring the iPhone to T-Mobile.

With the launch of the next iPhone still several months away, it will be some time before any possible deal between Apple and T-Mobile could be confirmed. A deal between the two companies would not be a surprise, however. Though T-Mobile is the smallest of the four major carriers, their customers still represent an untapped market for Apple. Look for more news on this front in the coming months, but a formal announcement is not likely to come before the iPhone’s unveiling later this year.

[Source: CNet]

Today in a press release, T-Mobile COO Jim Alling made it clear that the wireless provider is steadfast in offering outstanding service to their customers and highlighted a few of ways in which they’re going to prove it:

Great Value. We’re offering our best plan ever – 2 lines for $49.99 each that includes voice, text and data (including 2GB at full-speed) on each line with a new 2-year agreement. We also now offer a Monthly4G no annual contract plan that gives you unlimited talk, text, and web (including 100MB at full-speed) for $50.

America’s Largest 4G Network – now faster than ever. Whether you need driving instructions that are fast enough to keep up with your car, or want to stream a full-length movie uninterrupted, our 4G network delivers. We have expanded our 4G coverage to more than 200 million people in 208 markets and doubled speeds for nearly 180 million Americans in 163 markets.

Humorously enough, that last factoid must feel like a cream pie in the face to AT&T, who had cited their need for spectrum as one of the primary reasons for acquiring T-Mobile. Oh well.

Turns out that Verizon should’ve been taking notes from the AT&T-Mobile deal that the DoJ didn’t think too highly off because too many big moves like that attracts the kind of attention you may not like to attract. The agreement would’ve had Verizon paying $3.6 billion for the wireless spectrum only to resell the cable providers’ mobile service. From a report this morning in Reuters, the smell of the marketing arrangement in the deal is what triggered the DoJ’s keen antitrust smeller.

“My understanding is that it’s the deal that we’re looking at. We’re looking at the proposed deal,” said Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona, who declined to outline any specific concerns the Justice Department had.

“Comcast has decided not to compete and is handing spectrum over to Verizon,” the source said. “They decided to halt the buildout. Instead of us seeing facilities-based competition, it appears that we’re seeing collaboration.”

At this point, I think it’s safe to say that AT&T and now Verizon are wireless hoarders. Verizon appears to be using the same argument that AT&T used in making their case for the T-Mobile acquisition by claiming to need the additional spectrum for their customer service demands. Seeing how well the AT&T-Mobile didn’t turn out, Verizon might want to polish that argument before their day in court.

After having seen their profits decline in the last year, equipment makers are expected to begin to rebound following a spending blitz from both AT&T and T-Mobile to start out the new year (lord knows that AT&T could stand to start making money again after that giant $3 billion break up fee).

From an article earlier today:

Jeff Kvaal of Barclays Capital said equipment makers close to base station vendors would benefit most because AT&T had halted “spending around September, mostly around mobility.”

“The largest vendor beneficiaries should be AT&T’s incumbent 4G base station vendors, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. T-Mobile’s 3G suppliers are Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks,” Kvaal said.

The article goes on to cite the jump in stocks of equipment manufacturing companies, such as Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, following the demise of AT&T-Mobile. Add to this the speculation that capital spending is expected to improve over the next year and you’re probably looking toward sunnier days if you build cell phone things.

See? That AT&T-Mobile fail isn’t bad news for everybody.

Henry Blodget, Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider and Glenn Beck fan, has called the U.S. government’s denial of the merger “absurd” and doesn’t really see what the big deal would have been to have three major carriers instead of four.

So why was it even a big deal?

If you recall, nobody was really digging on the prospect of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger. The DoJ wasn’t down, the FCC wasn’t down, and other wireless carriers weren’t down. Add to that brigade the fact that, of the four major cellular providers in the U.S., AT&T customers are the least happy about their service and you’ve got a whole lotta people very unexcited about this acquisition.

One of the factors the FCC cited in its opposition to the creation of a AT&T-Mobile hydra was that such a merger would result in “the top two wireless providers having a market share of approximately 75 percent.” That sounds like a lot, but honestly, it wouldn’t have changed much from how the landscape currently is. As of the third quarter of 2011, AT&T and Verizon share 66% of the total carrier subscription shares (this is according to Chetan Sharma Consulting). Had AT&T swallowed T-Mobile’s share, the result would have left AT&T with approximately 42% and Verizon with 34%, topping out at around 76% of the total market. AT&T would’ve been the largest wireless provider in the United States by quite a bit, leaving Verizon at the number two spot and Sprint in a distant third (they have 17% of the market). Again, not a huge shift, but a shift nonetheless.

What’s interesting here is that Sprint had actually expressed interest in merging with T-Mobile before AT&T cut in. A Sprint/T-Mobile deal would’ve created a third carrier that staked 27% of the wireless. While that’s still far behind the take of Verizon and AT&T mobile, it’s still a much more evenly portioned pie than the one that an AT&T-Mobile merger would’ve served up. That’s not exactly optimal either because that still leaves the top two wireless businesses in control of most of the market, but at least Spring could remain competitive in that landscape.

In the former scenario that leaves almost 3/4 of U.S. consumers under the umbrellas of AT&T and Verizon, we basically get a two-party system of wireless providers. Having said that, I’m not even going to get into the vexations and limitations that result from a two-party system and what toll that model takes on the fluidity and progress of society in the United States.

The FCC report also didn’t find any reliability in AT&T’s claims that “merging with T-Mobile is essential for AT&T to built out its LTE network to 97 percent of Americans” and that AT&T’s “assertions that the transaction would create jobs in the United States to be inconsistent with AT&T’s internal analyses and record statements concerning cost reductions from the merger.” Basically, no better cell phone service and not good for jobs. What’s the point, in other words?

The one question that AT&T failed to answer sufficiently is The Why. Why did they want to acquire T-Mobile so badly? According to Chetan Sherma, they say that AT&T has 43% of the connected device share of the market. That’s a pretty hefty bite but maybe AT&T’s eyes were bigger than its stomach. Or it bit off more than it could chew. Or whatever gastrointestinal metaphor you want to apply.

Honestly, I don’t think AT&T make a good case to the DoJ and FCC. Buying out a major competitor is a lot different than the deliberation involved in buying the Lord of the Rings BluRay box set during an unexpected late night trip to Walmart. This merger had big ramifications that AT&T didn’t address clearly enough. As a result, they lost millions of dollars and they don’t get their T-Mobile in the end. It doesn’t have anything to do with consolidating U.S. business onto U.S. soil. And nobody forced AT&T to pursue this merger. It’s a simple case of AT&T handling this acquisition poorly. Analogously, I doubt I’d be approved for a loan of $2,000,000 if I strolled into the bank, asked for the loan and when the bank asked me why I wanted to do it I simply shrugged gormlessly and droned, “B’cuz.” No, I’d be denied, because I’d need a pretty air-tight argument to get approved. But that’s what I gather AT&T’s merger playbook looked like. Since Blodget doesn’t think AT&T needs to make a solid case for the acquisition, maybe I should just ask Blodget for my loan of $2 million since he’s so relaxed.

In the editorial I linked above to Blodget’s piece in Business Insider, he can quote stats just as well I can here but in the end it doesn’t really change anything. None of this matters. Nothing is preventing AT&T from making a second attempt at acquiring T-Mobile because, like I said, I don’t really see it drastically changing the wireless landscape. And truthfully, they’ll probably find a way to win in the end anyways so, again, this defeat to AT&T doesn’t matter. They’re just butt-hurt right now and, well, that’s to be expected.

Don’t be surprised if they go home for the holidays, polish up their act, and then make another run at T-Mobile next year. Chances are this defeat has showed them that you can’t be a lazy suitor when you’re gunning for a major conquest.