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T-Mobile adds free in-flight texting, Wi-Fi routers, and more

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T-Mobile unleashed its next phase of the Uncarrier movment in San Francisco today, taking the time to not just announce new options for its customers, but also brag about its status as the fastest growing carrier in the United States. Here’s everything T-Mobile announced at the event.

T-Mobile continues bragging about its achievements

Bearing a Red Bull in hand and a foul mouth, T-Mobile CEO John Legere took the stage at a T-Mobile store converted into a “speakeasy” in San Francisco to announce T-Mobile’s achievements, share his continued hatred of its competitors and made several announcements. Legere announced that T-Mobile had added more customers in August 2014 than in any month ever before, totaling 2.75 million gross added customers. Legere also went on to claim T-Mobile will overtake Sprint as the third largest carrier in the U.S. before the end of 2014. He also brought on stage T-Mobile’s CTO, Neville Ray, to talk about the improvements T-Mobile has been making for its network in order to keep up with the high data demands of its customers.

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T-Mobile unleashes Uncarrier 7.0

The first major “Uncarrier” announcement to come T-Mobile was “Wi-Fi Unleashed,” a host of new features centered around giving T-Mobile customers better service overall through the Wi-Fi calling iconic to the carrier’s smartphone. The carrier also announced free in-flight texting through Gogo, a free T-Mobile personal cell router and more.

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Related: Is T-Mobile really the Uncarrier or is it all just a marketing ploy?

VoLTE and Wi-Fi calling will soon be seamless

T-Mobile is beginning to roll out a service upgrade that will allow customers to seamlessly transition from VoLTE HD calling to Wi-Fi calling if they go into a basement, attic, or another part of their home with poor service. T-Mobile didn’t detail exactly how the service will work but noted it will start with the iPhone 6 and come with other future handsets.

Free personal T-Mobile Wi-Fi Routers

For customers with Wi-Fi Calling enabled handset, T-Mobile is offering up free routers for users to put in their homes. For a $25 refundable deposit, T-Mobile customers can install an Asus 802.11ac router with special software that allows for enhanced Wi-Fi calling. Smartphones can still use their own home Wi-Fi networks to make calls if there is no service, but this router is an added option for those who want a T-Mobile router for the enhanced quality of calling. If you are not a postpaid T-Mobile customer with your information on file, you can’t get the router for free — but you can buy it for $100. T-Mobile claims the router is still a great value, as it’s exclusive to T-Mobile and would normally retail for $200, or more.

Jump open enrollment for certain devices

If you don’t already own a smartphone that’s Wi-Fi calling enabled, T-Mobile is extending is extending its Jump program to those customers if they don’t already have it. The open enrollment allows customers to come in, sign up for Jump and (if they want) upgrade immediately to a smartphone with Wi-Fi calling enabled, though the offer is only for a limited time. This news also comes as T-Mobile announces its partnership with Apple for Wi-Fi calling on the new iPhone 6.

Related: Want to trade in your old iPhone? T-Mobile will match other carriers and add $50 extra.

Free Wi-Fi calling back to the U.S.

The last major Wi-Fi announcement to come from T-Mobile is an expansion to its ongoing free international texting and data offer for Simple Plan customers. Now customers who call home to the U.S. while abroad can do so for free if they use Wi-Fi calling to do it.

T-Mobile brings free in-flight texting

The last big announcement to come from T-Mobile is its free in-flight texting and visual voicemail through Gogo. The new partnership will allow customers who setup Wi-Fi calling on their devices the opportunity in 75 percent of all domestic flights to get free texting, MMS, and visual voicemail while 30,000 ft in the air. The program requires you to configure your device to use SMS and MMS for your messaging (so no iMessage or Facebook, unfortunately), but is completely free for anyone with a compatible smartphone.

That’s all we have from the Uncarrier this time around. Is it enough to make you jump over to team magenta? Let us know what you think about these new offerings.

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Joshua Sherman
Joshua Sherman
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Joshua Sherman is a contributor for Digital Trends who writes about all things mobile from Apple to Zynga. Josh pulls his…
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