T-Mobile Debuts ‘Connecting Heroes’ – Free 5G for First Responders

T-Mobile is launching Connecting Heroes, part of the new T-Mobile’s first Un-carrier Move: #5GforGood. And T-Mobile’s giving everyone a new iPhone SE on us or half off a flagship superphone from another top brand with eligible trade-in.

Plus, the country’s biggest 5G network is getting even bigger and better, with service now live in San Francisco, Sacramento, Tampa and Orlando.

First responder agencies face impossible trade-offs between buying life-saving equipment including PPE or funding important wireless communication. T-Mobile is helping solve that problem with Connecting Heroes, a 10-year commitment, bringing up to $7.7 billion back to first responder agencies.

Who it's for

State and local first responders who risk it all to protect us. And all essential workers … and everyone who’s had to change the way they work and live in these unprecedented times.

Not just a bigger company, a better one. T-Mobile  CEO Mike Sievert launched Connecting Heroes, the Un-carrier’s 10-year commitment to provide free service and 5G access to first responder agencies — all public and non-profit state and local fire, police and EMS departments — saving them up to $7 billion.

Interested agencies can sign up at www.t-mobile.com/connectingheroes. Plus, the Un-carrier continues to build out its industry-leading 5G network at a furious pace. T-Mobile’s 5G network is now 8 times bigger than AT&T’s and 28 THOUSAND times bigger than Verizon’s.

As a ‘thank you’ to everyone who’s shifted the way they work and live during this pandemic, the Un-carrier is giving Sprint and T-Mobile postpaid customers a new iPhone SE on us or up to half off a flagship superphone from another top brand starting tomorrow through Monday, May 25.

Customers just trade in their existing eligible device, and they’ll owe nothing but the sales tax on an iPhone SE — a powerful new smartphone in a popular design — or get up to $500 off another new superphone. No add-a-line. Nothing more to buy. Just “thank you.”

“When we’re at our most vulnerable, first responders are there for us … and they are under more pressure today than ever before. Connecting Heroes is one way we’re saying ‘thank you’ in this critical time,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “People who save lives shouldn’t have to choose between life-saving equipment and wireless service. And with Connecting Heroes, they won’t have to. We’re not limiting this program to a few months or a year … first responders can get free service including 5G access, for a full decade. THIS is the kind of impact the new T-Mobile can have in the world. THIS is the kind of difference we can make.”

State and local first responder agencies face tight budgets, year after year. So, they’re forced to make impossible trade-offs between providing them critical life-saving equipment or the communications services needed to do their jobs. Not anymore.

Connecting Heroes provides free unlimited talk, text and smartphone data with the highest network priority to every public and non-profit state and local, police, fire and EMS agency.

“Access to critical communications is vitally important for our first responders,” said Mike Mayta, CIO at the City of Wichita, KS. “The more information that we can get to them, the better they’re going to be able to serve the public. We’ve been partners with T-Mobile for well over 10 years, and what we’re seeing through this Heroes program is, they’re walking the walk and not just talking the talk.”

If all first responder agencies sign up, it’s an estimated $7.7 billion back in their budgets over 10 years. Money that can help close the budget shortfall they face year after year. Money they can put towards extra pay, lifesaving tools and better support for these brave heroes. That is #5GforGood.

5G for All

The launch of Connecting Heroes is made possible by T-Mobile’s 5G network and the massive capacity that will be unleashed from the merger with Sprint. In just a few short years, the new company will have 14 times the capacity of T-Mobile standalone, covering 99% of Americans nationwide from factories to farms.

The first step in having a reliable network is actually connecting to the network. T-Mobile customers have the best 5G availability according to Opensignal’s latest analysis — Quantifying the Global 5G Experience Across Ten Operators.

This means T-Mobile customers connect to a 5G network more often than any other U.S. provider and more than any other country in the report. And the Un-carrier’s unprecedented 5G network is only getting bigger.

5G service is now live in San Francisco and Sacramento and is starting to light up across Tampa and Orlando. T-Mobile’s 5G network now covers nearly 6,000 cities and towns and more than 225 million Americans across more than 1 million square miles. That’s on top of the Un-carrier’s far-reaching LTE network that covers more than 99% of people in the U.S. By comparison, Verizon 5G covers limited outdoor areas of 34 cities and roughly 36 square miles.