It looks like AT&T isn’t the only carrier planning to offer their customers an option to use one phone number across different devices. Following AT&T’s initiative, T-Mobile has confirmed its plans to provide their own customers this option. But without going into any specifics, T-Mobile promises they will go beyond what AT&T will be offering.
On Wednesday, AT&T made an announcement that they were working with different manufacturers to make this new feature a possibility. Once they are successful, they will be able to allow their customers to use a single phone number across different devices; whether it’s a tablet or a wearable. The company has been working hard on this new offering and has now called it NumberSync technology. A year ago, it was still a plan they had given a codename for Cascade.
It seems their hard work has paid off quite well as AT&T is ready to announce the first device to support the new technology. They plan to make the announcement soon as more devices start supporting the NumberSync technology. In the future, AT&T plans to provide support for connected cars and also be able to share different smartphones with one phone number.
Mike Sievert, T-Mobile’s operating chief, has confirmed that their company is also working hard to provide this option to their customers. Taking a look at the different strategies employed by each company, Sievert shares that T-Mobile continues to “ask customers” on what they what and need before they start building it. They compare this with AT&T’s strategy of building things before doing their best to convince their customers that they asked for it in the beginning. With regards to the NumberSync technology, T-Mobile promises that what they will offer will make AT&T’s look small.
Out of all the four major carriers, it is interesting to take note that T-Mobile is the only one that doesn’t offer shared data buckets across multi-device accounts. While both AT&T and Verizon pushes shared data plans for their customers, Sprint only offers shared data options for their family plans with an unlimited plan available for individuals. By being able to share data across several devices and use just one phone number, it definitely looks like a strategy to get customers to have more devices.