“T-Mobile just sent out invites for an upcoming event slated for Tuesday, March 26 in New York, and judging by the invite itself, it appears the carrier will finally announce some official plans for its new no-contract, one-size-fits all value plans that TMONews happen to learn more about today,” Jordan Kahn reports for 9to5Mac.
“Of course, the event also lines up with the 3 to 4 month timeframe executives quoted back in January for introducing its new no subsidy strategy in addition to beginning sales of the iPhone,” Kahn reports. “Three to four months would give us a March/April launch, meaning it’s a possibility that we might get our first glimpse at T-Mobile’s official plans for the iPhone later this month.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K. for the heads up.]
No contract sounds nice. Gotta be a hook somewhere. I had T-Mobile five or six years ago. Coverage wasn’t too good. Customer service sucked. But of course nothing in the world is as bad as AT& T customer service. And that’s what I have now. Too bad that Apple isn’t a cell provider. No, I’m not suggesting that. That would never work. It’s just that it would be nice to have Apple customer service to deal with when I have a problem with my cell service.
I’ve never had trouble with customer service at AT&T. I go to the local mall where I bought the 4S and change my plan where needed without a hiccup.
Our iPhones have been on T-Mobile for a few years now. We will have NOTHING to do with AT&T, ever! We had an AT&T executive call us and berate us for filing a complaint against their billing practices with our state attorney general. First they try to rape us and then they yell at us for reporting it!
T-Mobile provides adequate customer service, which put it a light year or two ahead of anyone else. We have a mixture of iPhones and feature phones (teenagers) on a T-Mobile family plan that runs us about $140 per month for everybody, with unlimited data on the iPhones. We get at least 3G reception nearly everywhere now. We’re satisfied and I believe T-Mobile will keep improving. What’s not to like?
The hook is you have to buy the phone for full price, not subsidized with the extra charges hidden in your monthly bill.
T-Mobile looks to be honest, like StraghtTalk has been doing.
If T-Mobile is going to separate the cost of service from the cost of the phone by not paying subsidies sanity will have arrived in the cell phone industry. Under that scenario, the cost of service might be something like $40 per month. So if you already own an AT&T compatible iPhone you can get it factory unlocked and go to T-Mobile for a total of $40 per month.
Now if they are smart they will sell unsubsidized iPhones on a payment plan and bundle that cost into the monthly bill. On a 24 month sales contract they might charge $30 per month, which would work out to $720 for the phone (including interest), and service plus the phone purchase would run about $70 per month. After the first 24 months your bill would drop from $70 to $40, since you would then own the phone. This is the way things should have been in the cell phone industry from day one. Everybody wins.
Spot on, Zeke.
Truth, Zeke! Currently, many people are fooled into thinking the phones are free while being locked into two-year contracts. And, after their contract is over, they keep paying that handset subsidy even though they already paid for the phone. It is a built-in penalty that incentivizes consumers to upgrade to a new “free” phone and another two-year contract. This is an utterly disgusting and wasteful practice, in my book.
Truth there!
That concept has been all over the media since December, 2012 and should show up at the event.
“…Four out of five customers in T-Mobile stores are already picking Value Plans, Legere said. Between 12 and 15 percent are bringing their own phones and not buying one from T-Mobile at all, including 1.7 million iPhones, he said.
Among other things, this strategy makes it easier for T-Mobile to make money on iPhones than it was for Sprint.
T-Mobile will turn a profit on its iPhones by the end of their first year of sale. The trick is those Value Plans, which don’t have the up-front device subsidies of traditional contracts…”
You can already do it with older iPhones and sales peeps in TM said they’re ‘ready’ for the event. They like the concept almost as much as I do. Friends of mine in film/tv production are on it and seem to have good service in different parts of the country. Have to see how the LTE rollout holds up, but it’s a good start, methinks.
And it won’t hurt Apple at all, either.
The unsubsidized with a payment plan is what WalMart is doing with StraightTalk. StraightTalk does, like T-Mobile will, charge a flat fee for service. WalMart will sell you the iPhone for the full retail price. If you wish to spread the payments out, they are running a promotion where you pay $25/month, no interest, when purchased with a WalMart Visa card. WalMart hopes you’ll then use the card for other purchases and the fees and interest come back to them; but that’s up to you.
I think the subsidy for the iPhone is $14-15 per month.
$18.75 ($450/24 months)