US Mobile has what appears to be its first publicly placed ad. Twitter user @JayAngelLatigo recently spotted an ad placement on a New York City subway. The ad touts US Mobile's $15 - 5GB plan and $25 unlimited plan. Not noted in the ad is that in order to get unlimited for $25/line with US Mobile, you must have 3 or more lines of service.
The ad also depicts that someone is yelling with the letters "AAAAAaAAAaAA" written out followed by "is how we feel when we hear people overpaying for wireless." An offer of first month free is then presented and subway riders are told they can get a free month by texting NYC to the number 44352. You can check out what the full ad looks like in the tweet shown below or by following this link.
US MOBILE ad in the subway train @stetsondoggett @SneedTech @carlostech702 @thetechxtremist @Techlife32 pic.twitter.com/kf5W5HJcjE
— Jay Angel Latigo (@JayAngelLatigo) October 16, 2021
I reached out to a US Mobile representative for comment on the new ad. A spokesperson told me that the ad went up just this past Tuesday, on 10/12/21. It's possible we'll soon see more ads in more locations. The US Mobile spokesperson said for now it's "just NYC to start off with."
US Mobile, Putting Its $11.5M In Venture Capital Funding To Use
In July of 2021, it was announced that US Mobile would receive $11.5 million in funding from the growth equity firm Volition Capital. US Mobile's founder, Ahmed Khattak, told BestMVNO at that time that some of the funding could be used for some TV and radio advertising over the next few quarters. However, he also emphasized that most of the capital spend objective would be on engineering, followed by product development with marketing coming in last. And that may be exactly what's happening.
US Mobile currently has more than 25 job openings available with 1/4 of them being in the engineering and software fields. However, several marketing jobs have also been posted. Most of the job openings are in the NYC area with a small number available in Toronto with remote work also possible.
An ad on a NYC subway is certainly much cheaper than a nationally airing TV ad. That certainly fits the bill for keeping the advertising budget on the lower end. Interestingly, when Volition Capital released a blog post entitled "Why We Invested In US Mobile" they made a reference to US Mobile advertising on subways. To quote the article:
"Imagine being in the subway and seeing a US Mobile advertisement, scanning the ad’s QR code on your phone, and instantly unlocking a 1-week free trial of US Mobile service." --Volition Capital Blog Post
While US Mobile does not yet offer eSIM phone plans, it is a feature the company has been talking about. And given the newly launched NYC subway ad, we are now one step closer to the theoretical situation described by Volition Capital.
More About US Mobile
US Mobile is an MVNO that operates on the T-Mobile and Verizon networks. The company was founded in 2014. US Mobile phone plans start at less than $10/month.