I wish I could get 100 mins and unlimited text and 5g data for $30.
I hardly ever talk on my phone anyway.
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T-Mobile USA to Cease Offering Subsidized Device Pricing Options in 2013
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I wish I could get 100 mins and unlimited text and 5g data for $30.
I hardly ever talk on my phone anyway.
But you still need a contract for that.
T-Mobile's unsubsidized phones shouldn't need a contract. You buy a phone, you pick a service you want. Don't like it? Change it or leave the carrier. No penalty. You are free to look elsewhere.
And Sprint still offering unlimited data didn't shake anything up either. If you pay upfront with T-Moblie, no commitment required. If you make monthly payments for the phone, you are committed until the phone is paid for, one way or another.
Worse. Required a contract and ETF but basically no subsidy. AT&T was still paying Apple $100-200 per phone but the ETF was more like $350. Which was going to get AT&T dinged because the ETF was justified to repay money not paid yet by customer etc. that's where the whole $200 to cx came from.
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T-mobile is doing this the right ay. By line iteming the phone 'rent to own' rates go down when the phone is paid off
I plan to use it, but if it's still cheaper to buy the phone outright (likely) I'll do that. This is still essentially a loan from the carrier, meaning it may come with interest. I like being able total plan costs.
It benefited handset makers more than anyone else. It means if your contract is up, you can still use the same phone and pay less monthly. Either manufacturers will become more aggressive on their upgrades or they'll design the things to break within 2-3 years. I'm not sure which will actually happen.
FWIW, T-Mobile's current "Bring your own phone" page says "Credit approval, $35/line activation fee, and 2-year contract with up to $200/line early cancellation fee required; deposit may apply" at the bottom.
http://explore.t-mobile.com/phone-sim-card
I bought the first iPhone on day 1 for $600. Still works And holds a charge just fine btw. It wasn't subsidized, but you STILL had to sign a 2 year contract with AT&T when you bought it.
That still required a contract. You didn't get a better rate. It was basically the same price and contract terms, but you paid the full cost of the hardware. Everything wasn't free or $49. You had blackberries, Palm, and a bunch of feature phones at the time. The "free" or $49 phones still exist today anyway. Apple even addresses that market with their older models.
I find myself using between 300 mb to 800 mb per month, on average (obviously that's a pretty wide swing). This is to check email and Facebook rather compulsively (every 20 minutes?) and occasional web browsing during the day. Maybe the occasional YouTube video or app download, but no regular audio streaming (e.g. Pandora, internet radio).
You are incorrect. Any gsm phone can be used on the $50 unlimited everything plan, including the iphone. Sprint and Virgin Mobile also offer the iPhone in the US with unlimited data, so it isn't too hard to believe. Virgin Mobile is even a better deal than T, with 300 minutes, and unlimited text and data for $30 a month off contract.
Yup people are getting screwed if they are on ATT or VZW and are going to stick with them but don't get a new phone at the first possible chance. You're essentially giving them the same amount of money every month without getting a good deal of your phone paid for.
I wish that were not the case but they do this because then people DO get another phone, and another 2yr contract to go with it. They don't really care if you stay with them or not. We don't have a lot of choices here so for every customer who threatens to take their business somewhere else another customer is signing up because of the same thing with a diffent carrier.
If I fork out $600 for a phone, get an unsubsidized price it should be worth it. I'm not going to be constantly changing carriers, and such over $5 or $10 a month. Right now, with my wife's work discount (22% on ATT) we pay about $145 a month for 6GB Mobile Share which comes with unlimited voice, text, and upgrade/setup fee's waived. If the subsidy per phone works out to $20 a month per phone that means we're paying $105 for both phones or $52.50 per line. Doesn't look like T-Mobile can beat that.
Now I would be really happy if at the end of our contract period the price went down to $105 but it won't. So we'll end up getting a new contract, and new phones thus repeating the process. We have actually been pretty happy with ATT's service. I just called up yesterday to fix a billing issue, and I got a credit to our account within minutes, and that was me calling at 4AM. We also had some rogue charge from one of those text scams a few years ago, they refunded me over a years worth of charges from that. The only real gripe I have is they ditched the yearly iphone upgrades. I went from the 3G to the 3GS to the 4 all at yearly intervals. Just got a 5 last month and had to skip the 4S.
I wish that were not the case but they do this because then people DO get another phone, and another 2yr contract to go with it. They don't really care if you stay with them or not. We don't have a lot of choices here so for every customer who threatens to take their business somewhere else another customer is signing up because of the same thing with a diffent carrier.
If I fork out $600 for a phone, get an unsubsidized price it should be worth it. I'm not going to be constantly changing carriers, and such over $5 or $10 a month. Right now, with my wife's work discount (22% on ATT) we pay about $145 a month for 6GB Mobile Share which comes with unlimited voice, text, and upgrade/setup fee's waived. If the subsidy per phone works out to $20 a month per phone that means we're paying $105 for both phones or $52.50 per line. Doesn't look like T-Mobile can beat that.
Now I would be really happy if at the end of our contract period the price went down to $105 but it won't. So we'll end up getting a new contract, and new phones thus repeating the process. We have actually been pretty happy with ATT's service. I just called up yesterday to fix a billing issue, and I got a credit to our account within minutes, and that was me calling at 4AM. We also had some rogue charge from one of those text scams a few years ago, they refunded me over a years worth of charges from that. The only real gripe I have is they ditched the yearly iphone upgrades. I went from the 3G to the 3GS to the 4 all at yearly intervals. Just got a 5 last month and had to skip the 4S.
One additional factor to consider when buying an unsubsidized iPhone: it is unlocked and can be used anywhere in the world, unlike an ATT phone which can only be unlocked after the contract is satisfied.
Another factor: unlimited data is available on many new cars as part of the wifi hotspot feature. I pay $15 on my Audi for unlimited data through T-mobile. When I am in the Audi with my iPhone, it uses bluetooth to stream audio, wifi to connect to the internet, and bluetooth to place calls through the Audi. When I am in the car, I use hardly any iPhone data, and I can use FaceTime over the T-mobile wifi connected cellular. If I only used the data connection for my iPhone while in the car, I would not need a data plan for the iPhone. I have several old iPhones that have no data plan, just a minute-based voice plan from T-mobile.
Another factor: unlimited data is available on many new cars as part of the wifi hotspot feature. I pay $15 on my Audi for unlimited data through T-mobile. When I am in the Audi with my iPhone, it uses bluetooth to stream audio, wifi to connect to the internet, and bluetooth to place calls through the Audi. When I am in the car, I use hardly any iPhone data, and I can use FaceTime over the T-mobile wifi connected cellular. If I only used the data connection for my iPhone while in the car, I would not need a data plan for the iPhone. I have several old iPhones that have no data plan, just a minute-based voice plan from T-mobile.
Yeah, or even if it's a bit more than 2 years because of the upgrade cycle.
But this provides a nice option if I'm happy to keep my existing device. Maybe I can live with it for 3 years instead of 2.
Delighted that some company is going to try to separate the phone from the plan a bit better.
$299 for the Nexus 4 no-contract is a better option than a $600 iphone no-contract on T-mobile.
If they are similar in quality.
No-contract $30 for 100 minutes, unlimited text and 5GB of 4G data.
If they are similar in quality.
No-contract $30 for 100 minutes, unlimited text and 5GB of 4G data.
Tmobile can beat that. You are on the mobile share plan so you need to compare apples to apples and use tmobile's pricing for unlimited talk and text value plan. Furthermore tmobile has the several tiers of data to choose from including unlimited. Then tack on the tmobile's corporate discount and it comes out ahead. Now if you don't need unlimited talk the delta would be even higher
What I mean was that T-Mobile could not afford to give unlimited everything to an iPhone which uses a lot of data, I know it logically can work, but cost wise it may not work for them.
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Sprint's network just stinks in general.
A friend of mine kept using up his 2GB on AT&T, and tried to fight with them about getting his unlimited plan back, needless to say he left AT&T with Good Service for Sprint, just to get Unlimited data.
Long story short, he now has to call me 80% of the time, from his work Verizon flip phone because he has little to no service with Sprint, but that unlimited data for $40 bucks a month is just wonderful now isn't it
He only chews thru 2GB because he watches youtube videos, and sits online all day, I tried to explain this to him, but he was so sure it was AT&T not calculating his data usage right. Told him to go back asap, but waited past the point of no return, now he is locked into a 24 month contract with Sprint, which he can rarely use in South Carolina....
what if T-Mobile initiative prove to be successful and AT&T and Verizon follow T-mobile example?
the phone bill will now have two separate components
1) the phone component where you are paying it off in monthly installments
2) the wireless service component
It will look like how it is done in Europe and Asia.
For T-Mobile it will look like this:
1) smartphone: $15 a month for 24 months + $99 upfront = $459 total
2) wireless service: $59.99 a month for unlimited talk/text/2GB of data
after the 2 years is over and you continue to use the phone, you just pay the $59.99 a month.
the phone bill will now have two separate components
1) the phone component where you are paying it off in monthly installments
2) the wireless service component
It will look like how it is done in Europe and Asia.
For T-Mobile it will look like this:
1) smartphone: $15 a month for 24 months + $99 upfront = $459 total
2) wireless service: $59.99 a month for unlimited talk/text/2GB of data
after the 2 years is over and you continue to use the phone, you just pay the $59.99 a month.