The brief appearance of a T-Mobile banner discovered by Droid Life appears to confirm that T-Mobile will cover an entire family's Early Termination Fee (ETF) if they switch to its network. It's long been rumored that T-Mobile's eccentric CEO John Legere would use his company's CES press conference to announce a plan that will make it easy to switch from rival carriers. Given the company's ongoing spat with AT&T, many assumed the offer would be limited in some way to would-be switchers with AT&T lines, but the banner ad, if genuine, dispels that theory.

There are a couple of caveats to consider

Under the terms of the rumored offer, customers switching up to five lines from AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint will have their ETF covered. As you'd expect, there are a couple of catches. First, you'll have to hand over all the devices tied to your existing contracts. Second, you won't be able to bring your own phone and pick up a cheap contract — you'll have to choose a device directly from T-Mobile's range. Droid Life suggests there may be an upper limit on how much T-Mobile will pay per line, but we'll have to wait until the company's press conference later today to ascertain exactly what that limit is.

The caveats are understandable, but if you plan on taking T-Mobile up on the purported offer, you'll want to do the math to ensure your termination fee adds up to more than the value of the device you're about to hand over to T-Mobile.