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Un-carrier

marketing campaign by T-Mobile

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ24589912 ↗
Source-derived summary

Un-carrier was a marketing campaign created by T-Mobile US with Prophet, and advertising company Publicis. It debuted in March 2013, where the company introduced a new streamlined plan structure for new customers which drops contracts, subsidized phones, coverage fees for data, and early termination fees. Generally, the advertised promotions are permanent, though some become redundant with later uncarrier innovations (for instance, the unlimited music in uncarrier 6 was moot after the move to all unlimited data plans). Occasionally the promotion is dropped all together, such as with T-Mobile's "Mobile Without Borders" feature in UnCarrier 3.0. The feature provided unlimited service to customers visiting in Mexico and Canada. When T-Mobile couldn't continue to support the feature, customers were given 32 days notice that the service promotion ended, and the feature would be removed from all existing accounts. A replacement feature was available, but also required an increase in price by first changing rateplans and adding features for additional fees. T-Mobile announced the change to its customers through a press release.

Incentives

Simple Choice plans

The contract-free Simple Choice plan, also known as Un-carrier 1.0, debuted in March 2013 by offering unlimited calling and text messaging with 500 MB of unthrottled data monthly for a base price of $50. Options for 2.5 GB or unlimited data were offered for an extra monthly fee.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Un-carrier” is marketing campaign by T-Mobile. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Un-carrier, marketing and campaign, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2013—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Un-carrier, marketing and campaign is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “marketing campaign by T-Mobile” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q24589912. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Un-carrier”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Un-carrier primary sources, Un-carrier archive and Un-carrier research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Un-carrier”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Un-carrier” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.