Broad Rollout of iPhone to Small U.S. Carriers Coming on April 20

[Ping Guo]

Originally Posted by taylortm

This is great news!!! Where can I get the $30/month for voice and data? My contract with at&t is up (no etf) next month. I want to switch!

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

That's the one I use, unlimited text and data for $30/month. You prepay by the month, can cancel any time, and can switch plans by logging into their website. It says the "first 5GB is 4G speed", and while I don't know exactly what that means, I never had a problem doing emails and watching the occasional Youtube vid.

[BiggAW]

Originally Posted by Ping Guo

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

That's the one I use, unlimited text and data for $30/month. You prepay by the month, can cancel any time, and can switch plans by logging into their website. It says the "first 5GB is 4G speed", and while I don't know exactly what that means, I never had a problem doing emails and watching the occasional Youtube vid.

Have fun with GrooveIP. Not going to work without HSPA+ and a good signal, and T-Mobile doesn't have much of either of those.

This is not disruptive at all, it's just T-Mo scraping for anything they can.

Also, why are we talking about a plan that isn't compatible with the iPhone on an iPhone/Mac forum?

[Diode]

Originally Posted by BiggAW

No. GSM vs. CDMA is irrelevant. The vast majority of users are buying phones made for that service, and no SIM-swapping into phones they got off Ebay.

The only part of that argument that is remotely true is foreigners.

I don't think prices would be lower. There would still be only two companies with good networks. And that's not because they're evil. You can't have 5 good networks with good coverage. As it is, Verizon and AT&T aren't both universally good, it depends on the area.

Having to buy a new device to switch carriers is a HUGE barrier of entry to consumers and results in higher plan prices.

[CFreymarc]

Originally Posted by SBlue1

great news

And the launch date for this is 4-20. Dude!

[SystemHasFailed]

Originally Posted by URFloorMatt

T-Mobile quickly becoming the only carrier that doesn't offer the iPhone. Ironic.

And positively sickening...

Thanks Robert Dotson for leaving T-Mobile with that legacy... "The carrier that doesn't iPhone"..

Jerk.

[BiggAW]

Originally Posted by Diode

Having to buy a new device to switch carriers is a HUGE barrier of entry to consumers and results in higher plan prices.

Right now there's only one device that works on both AT&T and T-Mobile, and neither carrier subsidizes it, so your theory about GSM makes no sense.

[Diode]

Originally Posted by BiggAW

Right now there's only one device that works on both AT&T and T-Mobile, and neither carrier subsidizes it, so your theory about GSM makes no sense.

Exactly - why would AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc want one device that would allow a consumer to simply switch and keep the same phone?

CDMA technology technically allows a Sprint phone to work on Verizon but the carriers purposely block this from happening. Like I said they don't want consumers to easily switch between carriers. More fluidity would result in lower plan prices. Keep believing prices can't be lower - they enjoy their fat margins.

But I don't fully understand your point.

[BiggAW]

Originally Posted by Diode

Exactly - why would AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc want one device that would allow a consumer to simply switch and keep the same phone?

CDMA technology technically allows a Sprint phone to work on Verizon but the carriers purposely block this from happening. Like I said they don't want consumers to easily switch between carriers. More fluidity would result in lower plan prices. Keep believing prices can't be lower - they enjoy their fat margins.

But I don't fully understand your point.

You implied that there is more competition between AT&T and T-Mobile because of GSM. There's only one phone that can go between both, so that theory is wrong.

That, and AT&T and T-Mobile don't compete in the same market space anyways. AT&T and Verizon do.

[Diode]

Originally Posted by BiggAW

You implied that there is more competition between AT&T and T-Mobile because of GSM. There's only one phone that can go between both, so that theory is wrong.

That, and AT&T and T-Mobile don't compete in the same market space anyways. AT&T and Verizon do.

I still don't understand what you are taking from my original argument but I'll try to summarize it again. I was trying to respond to another poster who was asking why prepaid doesn't really exist in the US like it does elsewhere.

The prepaid market relies on the ready availability of phones that can easily work between carriers. Prepaid markets have high turnovers with customers usually switching from one to the other based on prices.

In the US, where the only two GSM carriers are on two incompatible 3G GSM technologies makes prepaid almost non-existent here. GSM for prepaid matters because the mass majority of phones produced overseas are GSM. Not to mention its easier to switch carriers - you just need to throw in a SIM and go.

Add that only other large wireless provider, Verizon, does not use GSM (thus requiring you to purchase a Verizon device to use their prepaid service), and the fact that AT&T essentially has a stranglehold on the GSM market in the US, translates to a wireless market in the US where prepaid does not exist.

T-Mobile does put some downward pressure on AT&T - but the fact that their 3G is not compatible with a majority of the AT&T phones really hurts how effective that is.

If T-Mobile's gamble pays off and they can refarm and enable 3G on 1900 (thus allowing unlocked AT&T phones to work on T-Mobile) - you can bet competition will heat up between the two.

You can also bet that if both Verizon and AT&T used GSM - prices in the US would be a lot lower.

[yeah]

Originally Posted by Ping Guo

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-plans

That's the one I use, unlimited text and data for $30/month. You prepay by the month, can cancel any time, and can switch plans by logging into their website. It says the "first 5GB is 4G speed", and while I don't know exactly what that means, I never had a problem doing emails and watching the occasional Youtube vid.

It means 5GB is 4G speed, after that, you can use all the data you want, but speeds will be slower.

[BiggAW]

Originally Posted by Diode

I still don't understand what you are taking from my original argument but I'll try to summarize it again. I was trying to respond to another poster who was asking why prepaid doesn't really exist in the US like it does elsewhere.

The prepaid market relies on the ready availability of phones that can easily work between carriers. Prepaid markets have high turnovers with customers usually switching from one to the other based on prices.

In the US, where the only two GSM carriers are on two incompatible 3G GSM technologies makes prepaid almost non-existent here. GSM for prepaid matters because the mass majority of phones produced overseas are GSM. Not to mention its easier to switch carriers - you just need to throw in a SIM and go.

Add that only other large wireless provider, Verizon, does not use GSM (thus requiring you to purchase a Verizon device to use their prepaid service), and the fact that AT&T essentially has a stranglehold on the GSM market in the US, translates to a wireless market in the US where prepaid does not exist.

T-Mobile does put some downward pressure on AT&T - but the fact that their 3G is not compatible with a majority of the AT&T phones really hurts how effective that is.

If T-Mobile's gamble pays off and they can refarm and enable 3G on 1900 (thus allowing unlocked AT&T phones to work on T-Mobile) - you can bet competition will heat up between the two.

You can also bet that if both Verizon and AT&T used GSM - prices in the US would be a lot lower.

You were trying to argue that CDMA vs. GSM matters to the customer. News flash: it doesn't.

Prepaid is alive and well in the US. America Movil is like the 5th or 6th largest cell phone company, and every major company has prepaid brands as well.

T-Mobile's joke of a network doesn't compete with AT&T. Practically no one knows what PCS or AWS is. Verizon does compete with AT&T. What is putting competitive pressure on AT&T is Verizon's super fast rollout of 4G LTE.

[Diode]

Originally Posted by BiggAW

You were trying to argue that CDMA vs. GSM matters to the customer. News flash: it doesn't.

Prepaid is alive and well in the US. America Movil is like the 5th or 6th largest cell phone company, and every major company has prepaid brands as well.

T-Mobile's joke of a network doesn't compete with AT&T. Practically no one knows what PCS or AWS is. Verizon does compete with AT&T. What is putting competitive pressure on AT&T is Verizon's super fast rollout of 4G LTE.

The technology doesn't matter between carriers but the fact they can't switch between carriers without buying a new phone does. This results in in them most staying with one carrier. There is little turn over in the market and this allows carriers to charge more.

American Movil uses AT&T network. You can bet they are at the mercy of AT&T in regards to pricing.

[BiggAW]

Originally Posted by Diode

The technology doesn't matter between carriers but the fact they can't switch between carriers without buying a new phone does. This results in in them most staying with one carrier. There is little turn over in the market and this allows carriers to charge more.

American Movil uses AT&T network. You can bet they are at the mercy of AT&T in regards to pricing.

There is still a fair amount of churn. It might be lower than in other countries where you can switch phones, but it's still there.

America Movil uses T-Mobile the most, but has Tracfone on T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon, and has other offerings on those carriers plus Sprint. Net10 started all AT&T, I'm not sure what they are now, ST started all Verizon, and now covers all four carriers with unlimited, and at least Verizon with the $30 plan.

[iamb4]

Originally Posted by mctape

I want to see Credo get access to the iPhone. Credo operates on Sprint's network so it's not like there's a technical hurdle as iPhones are already available on Sprint.

Check it out, there's a petition on change.org already!


http://www.change.org/petitions/appl...n-credo-mobile