T-Mobile Excludes Nexus 7 LTE Models Purchased Before October 31st From Free Data

On October 30th, T-Mobile published a complete master list of devices that would be eligible for the carrier’s new free data promotion that coincides with the launch of the iPad Air. However, buried after the list is a footnote and a rather important one that confirms that any 2013 Nexus 7 with LTE purchased before the 31st would be excluded from the Free Lifetime Data promotion without further elaboration, while the first generation Nexus 7 tablets with 3G support are included.

As the 2013 Nexus 7 was initially launched with LTE support from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in early September, the initial idea was that customers would be able to select which ever carrier best suited their needs for data access. However, that goal was subsequently shattered as those that purchased the first wave of the tablet were shocked to find the Verizon refused to activate the tablet and the only alternative was to either seek out a pre-activated Verizon LTE SIM, or purchase another LTE tablet from Verizon, then pull the SIM after activation, leading to customer frustration.

However, the issues didn’t stop there, as the debacle essentially forced Google to “relaunch” the tablet in mid-September, this time without references to Verizon LTE support, leaving T-Mobile and AT&T as the remaining carrier partners for the tablet. Previous to announcing the current Free Lifetime Data offer for select tablets this month, the carrier offered 2GB of complimentary data access after purchase and activation of the Nexus 7 tablet on the carrier when the tablet launched in September.

At this time it isn’t clear if the exclusion is due to that promotion or another reason entirely, as the 2GB complimentary data offer is still advertised on the Nexus 7 sales page for the LTE model on Google’s Play Store with the above quoted footnote and the story is still developing, with more updates to come.