Southwest Airlines to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi courtesy of T-Mobile

Southwest Airways and T-Mobile introduced at the moment that Speedy Rewards members will get free limitless in-flight Wi-Fi beginning Oct. 24. With greater than 800 plane in its fleet, Southwest turns into the most important US airline to make Wi-Fi commonplace throughout each flight. Impressively, in contrast to most earlier T-Cell perks, this one isn’t gated behind a selected wi-fi plan — it’s obtainable to anyone on the airplane.

A very customer-forward deal

There is not even actually a catch

Right here’s the way it works: anybody with a free Southwest Speedy Rewards account can go surfing throughout their flight, regardless of which service they use. That’s a giant departure from T-Cell’s earlier strategy. For years, the magenta big has pitched in-flight perks as a sweetener for its personal subscribers, first with Gogo again in 2014, then by means of offers with ViaSat and Hughesnet. These have been restricted to normally simply free messaging or a set variety of Wi-Fi periods monthly.

This new deal goes additional. T-Cell isn’t simply dangling Wi-Fi as a bonus for its personal base, it’s underwriting free service for a whole airline’s loyalty program. For Southwest, the partnership is sensible; the airline has been testing free fleetwide Wi-Fi, and buyer satisfaction spiked throughout these trials. For T-Cell, it’s an opportunity to increase branding to tens of millions of non-customers with out asking them to change carriers.

It’s additionally exhausting to not discover the timing. T-Cell has been pushing its T-Satellite tv for pc initiative, a partnership with SpaceX’s Starlink that guarantees near-universal protection. Whereas neither firm talked about Starlink by identify in at the moment’s announcement, the dimensions of this rollout strongly suggests satellite tv for pc help shall be within the combine. Different carriers have flirted with Starlink for in-flight connectivity, however right here T-Cell is positioning itself because the go-between, dealing with the customer-facing work whereas nonetheless leaning on satellite tv for pc infrastructure behind the scenes.

The transfer additionally highlights a refined shift in technique. As an alternative of hoarding perks for subscribers, T-Cell is experimenting with freely giving worth by means of third events — Southwest at the moment, possibly different journey or leisure companions tomorrow. It’s a technique to preserve the “un-carrier” story alive in a market the place limitless information and free Netflix promos not stand out.

Free Wi-Fi for each Speedy Rewards member isn’t going to make your center seat really feel any wider or magically invent one other armrest. But when T-Cell could make staying on-line at 35,000 toes as dependable because it claims, Southwest passengers will discover. And that could be sufficient to get each manufacturers a couple of extra loyal prospects on the bottom.