“TmoNews reports that it has received a pair of photos from T-Mobile USA’s internal news system announcing that the carrier will be rolling out new training programs focused on “selling against the iPhone,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors. “The new training modules are being deployed on September 21, the rumored launch day for the next-generation iPhone in the United States.”
“T-Mobile is the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not officially offer the iPhone, hampered by its use of 3G spectrum bands that are not supported by iPhone models released to date,” Slivka reports. “That has not stopped customers from bringing their GSM iPhones to the carrier for use on its 2G network, and T-Mobile has been working to increase support for the over one million iPhones in use on its network even as it seeks to downplay the impact of its official absence to potential customers.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Good luck with that, T-Mobile.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Andrew W.” for the heads up.]
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You have to go with what you got. However, it could spell bad trouble for them if the iPhone keeps growing.
Just a thought.
They are just doing what the other US carriers are already doing.
Duh!
T-Mobile is just out of luck. They’d have had an agreement for the iPhone since 3GS, if only the iPhone radio supported T-Mobile’s 3G frequencies. As it is, there is simply no way, and they’re stuck.
Of all the four big ones (AT&T, Verizion, Sprint, T-Mobile), they may be the most customer-friendly, although that isn’t really saying much, since all of them are world leaders in nickle-and-diming customers (with Verizon being the undisputed champion by far).
And the fact that they have a million iPhones on their network is a testament to them being the least unfriendly of them all, when so many people prefer the slow 2G EDGE network on T-Mobile over the faster 3G on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
“…with Verizon being the undisputed champion …”
I wouldn’t dispute that. Actually, when I think about, I preach it.
Oh well, guess it is another year of sticking with my dumb phone. If and when T-Mo gets the iPhone and offers a similar smart phone plan that they offer for Android devices and will only cost me $10 bucks more than I am currently paying, then I will join the ranks of iPhone owners.
However, I would never more than double my expenses for A PHONE… smart or otherwise. And that is precisely what I would incur if I switched over from my current T-Mo non smart phone plan to an ATT / Verizon smart phone plan. Anyone remember the original iPhone plan with ATT and what it included? Wasn’t it $57 or $59.00 a month for a set number of talk minutes, set number of text and unlimited data. I know prices go up year after year, but have to ask, “Now what’s it costing you?”
So, basically you want an expensive premium product, but you don’t want to pay much of anything for it… Maybe $10 more than you pay for your voice-only plan… If you have to.
Since there are millions of other people who don’t feel the same as you, and are happy to pay significantly more for the value they receive from their data plans, you’re going to be waiting a long time.
Personally, I’m waiting until I can get a new BMW M3 for the price of a new Ford Taurus, and I’m not buying one until then.
Basically, you can either afford/justify the expense or you can’t.
Oh, and I had the original iPhone, and I don’t remember a plan at $59/mo. Maybe it was, but that’s not much cheaper than the new entry-level plan at $69.99/mo. The iPhone has been shipping for five years, so we’re talking about a $2/mo increase each year. That is a 3% increase but, the service has also gotten much better in that time. I’ve gone from sometimes-sketchy service with 2G to excellent 3G service with great coverage.
In fact, I’d say the service at $70/mo is now a better deal the 2G service was at $60/mo.
Now, some will complain that the providers have discontinued the “unlimited” plans, which amounts to an increase. While that’s true, the mast majority of users don’t even use half of the 3GB plan, so it’s really not an issue for most.
I haven’t looked, but I’ve heard Sprint has plans that are priced a bit more aggressively.
@ecrabb:
questioning another person’s value calculation is bad taste. Allow others to prioritize what they find useful for their own lives and move on.
As for T-Mobile, it appears that management has so thoroughly mismanaged its handset offerings that it will never be able to regain lost market share to the big 2 US mobile carriers. That’s a shame, too, because in pricing and service, the big 2 suck.
European mobile services are so much more competitive and therefore better for the consumer. In most industries, the USA’s brand of capitalism encourages duopoly and kills small businesses and regional players, and in the end the consumer has only the illusion of choice while brands A and B (in products and MDN’s other folly, politics) look increasingly similar with no substantive difference in price or performance.
T-Mobile’s current ads, where they brag about how many 4G towers they have: While the number sounds impressive, how does that compare to the competition? In my part of the country, their coverage has huge holes, and where the do have service, it’s provided by a “partner”.
You might as well be pissing against the Niagara Falls, T-Mo. Brother.
T-FAIL.
All T-Mobile has to do is push the Samsung Galaxy S phones to customers saying, “It’s just like the iPhone!”