Free Phone Fridays to Hit Best Buy in October

Free phones on Fridays? That's what Best Buy announced on Tuesday at its Holiday Preview event in New York. Free Phone Fridays will run every Friday in October, and starts Oct. 1st. It's not just about lame devices either: one of the devices in the first group: the Samsung Fascinate on the Verizon network.

Each Free Phone Friday will include a device from each of the big 4 U.S. carrier (T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and Verizon). This week's selections:

• Samsung Fascinate (Verizon)
• BlackBerry Curve (Sprint)
• HTC Aria (AT&T)
• Samsung Gravity 3 (T-Mobile)

Except for this initial week, the weekly deals will be announced in stores and online, including Best Buy Mobile’s Facebook page and Twitter account, at 1 p.m. CT on Thursday. The free phones require a new, upgrade or add-a-line activation with a two-year agreement. Not that you expected it, but there will be no rain checks.

We would expect the iPhone 4 to not make this promotion, but Best Buy does say that each week will feature "at least one high-end, in-demand smart phone." We'll take a wild guess and say the Fascinate is this week's in-demand phone (certainly not the BlackBerry Curve).