T-Mobile taking advantage of the issues surrounding AT&T's DirecTV Now, by changing a promotion that offered new customers migrating from AT&T a year's DirecTV Now subscription to include a free year of Hulu.
Shortly after the launch of DirecTV Now, T-Mobile tried to tempt AT&T subscribers to its network by offering a free year of the new Internet TV service, if they switched carrier to T-Mobile. In light of the numerous problems DirecTV Now subscribers are experiencing, customers who changed over as part of the promotion are now being provided with a , as well as the DirecTV Now service.
Qualifying switchers will receive a notification from T-Mobile over the next few weeks, containing a unique code for a year of Hulu's Limited Commercials service. Both DirecTV Now and Hulu are covered by T-Mobile's offer, zero-rating streams so they do not count against any data allowances, though both services will typically stream at a low 480p resolution on T-Mobile's network due to throttling.
DirecTV Now users have complained about issues with the service , ranging from "Error 60" messages incorrectly suggesting too many video streams are in use on the account, stream interruptions during peak times, and being randomly signed out from apps. T-Mobile is using the complaints as an opportunity to attack AT&T as part of the Hulu announcement.
"It turns out DirecTV Now is barely watchable, but we've got our customer's backs," declared T-Mobile CEO and president John Legere, suggesting customers will enjoy using Hulu on the carrier's "faster, more advanced" network. "Even I can't believe AT&T spent $67 billion on DirecTV and still couldn't roll out a streaming service that worked!"
As part of the DirecTV Now launch, AT&T offered users a free if customers paid for three months of the service in advance, as well as introductory price plan discounts. Despite the issues, AT&T reports it managed to exceed within the first month of DirecTV Now's availability.