“Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile USA will start selling the Apple Inc. iPhone in about three to four months and will enforce its plan to get rid of cellphone subsidies in a similar timeframe, according to Chief Executive John Legere,” Sinead Carew reports for Reuters.
“Legere declined to disclose details about the company’s agreement with Apple, except to say that T-Mobile USA’s timing for selling the smartphone would be sooner rather than later, along with its subsidy elimination plan.,” Carew reports. “‘They’re all, I would call them, in three to four months as opposed to six to nine months,’ Legere told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.”
Carew reports, “T-Mobile USA said late last year it would eliminate handset subsidies in 2013 to give customers more flexibility and lower service prices. It said at the same time that it will also sell the iPhone, making it the last U.S. mobile provider to do so.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
T-Mobile CEO: We currently serve 1.9 million Apple iPhones and are adding 100,000 iPhones every month – January 8, 2013
T-Mobile USA adds 14 new iPhone-compatible metro areas – December 20, 2012
T-Mobile USA to kill subsidies entirely, charging full price for phones, including up to $849 for Apple’s iPhone 5 – December 7, 2012
T-Mobile USA to finally get coveted Apple iPhone in 2013 – December 6, 2012
Can’t wait until 10/7 when my AT&T contract expires. I’ll be jumping off the AT&T bandwagon, and on to the T-Mobile horse cart.
Tim Cook is expanding and taking Apple’s ubiquity and distribution model where no man has gone before. This is his expertise.. coupled with Apple’s DNA it will be monumental.
The empire expands to that make it’s new corporate spaceship offices worthy…
Check out:
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/08/walmart-and-straight-talk-wireless-now-carrying-iphone-5/
Eliminating subsidies will only work if they let customers buy phones on layaway or installments.
http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/08/walmart-and-straight-talk-wireless-now-carrying-iphone-5/
They’ve already said they would finance the phones (installments). That’s what subsidies do. The difference is that with subsidies you don’t know the terms and the payments never stop.
Great news! Record smartphone sales reported from AT&T, and T-Mobile announces it will begin selling the iPhone in the U.S., meaning the iPhone will be available on all 4 major U.S. carriers.
And AAPL stock drops, of course. How long will the AAPL discount sale last?
So increased chatter about cheaper iPhone.
Chatter about bi-anual release schedule.
T-Mobile talking about April May iPhone and cheaper plans with no subsidy.
Now I want to see how low T-Mobile’s monthly rates are. If I can’t get talk/data/text plus taxes all for less than $60 a month, I’m better off just staying with AT&T and accepting their $450 iPhone subsidy once every 24 months.
T-mobile is already offering all-you-can-eat plans starting at $50 per month (plus nothing but your state’s sales tax). In fact, there is even a $30 plan with unlimited data and text, plus some 150 minutes of talk.
Looks like Walmart drew first blood.
This could end up as the best thing for customers in a long time.
FAIL: only a small minority will want to pay the full upfront cost for an iPhone, even if in the long run it makes more economic sense.