AT&T on T-Mobile's New Rate Plans: Whatever

AT&T on T-Mobile's New Rate Plans: Whatever

T-Mobile spent much of its press conference on Tuesday attacking traditional carrier economics and bashing as misleading the pricing of its rivals.

The company reserved its most pointed attacks for AT&T, which not too long ago it hoped to merge with.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said that the so-called “subsidized” phones from rivals actually add up to hundreds more in costs over a typical two-year contract.

“This is the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” Legere said.

AT&T, meanwhile, shrugged off the attacks.

“Whatever,” an AT&T representative told AllThingsD. (AT&T did attack T-Mobile in a recent series of ads.)

Sprint, for its part, said it offers a range of contract and no-contract options through its Sprint-branded service as well as prepaid brands Boost and Virgin Mobile.

“Sprint gives its customers the best of both worlds with Truly Unlimited 4G LTE data on smartphones and the best value for customers with a savings of $ 110 over T-Mobile when comparing the total cost of ownership over two years for the 16 GB version of the Samsung Galaxy S III,” Sprint said. “In addition, true no term contract options are available with Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile and Sprint As You Go.”

Verizon touted both its plans and the breadth of its LTE network, which is available in areas covering 273 million people.

“Verizon Wireless customers have for years enjoyed the ability to purchase a phone at full retail price on month to month contract,” it said in a statement. “Phones on our website are offered at full retail price as well as the discounted price to give customers a choice in how they purchase their mobile devices.”