T-Mobile USA to Cease Offering Subsidized Device Pricing Options in 2013

[Syk]

Originally Posted by gotluck

Tmobile's $30 100 minute 5 gig data will certainly attract customers.
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans

I wish I could get 100 mins and unlimited text and 5g data for $30.
I hardly ever talk on my phone anyway.

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by Sora

This is going to shake things up.

Like Sprint offering unlimited data while everyone else has caps?

[skellener]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

Like Sprint offering unlimited data while everyone else has caps?

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.

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by skellener

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.

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

They tried. The first iPhone was supposed to be (I think) $699 and not offered on a contract with subsidies.

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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Originally Posted by quagmire

They should give customers options.

Subsidized phones, but pay higher monthly rates.

Unsubsidized phones, and pay lower monthly rates.

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

[thekev]

Originally Posted by charlituna

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.

Originally Posted by blackhand1001

Moving to the european pricing model. This will definitely benefit google far more than apple as Apple relies on carrier subsidies heavily to get sales in the US market.

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.

[aristobrat]

Originally Posted by skellener

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.

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

[Amblydoper]

Originally Posted by stayblunted

just back from making a great salami sandwich and i read this! im already on tmobile w. my unlocked iphone 4s in nyc. this is awesome for people who want to save money. its my birthday today so I feel like its a coincidence

Wait, its your birthday, AND you have a salami sandwich? Best birthday ever!

[bretm]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

They tried. The first iPhone was supposed to be (I think) $699 and not offered on a contract with subsidies. But people weren't ready for that yet, and the double whammy of no subsidies and a more expensive phone than your typical "dumb phone" had a predictable reaction. Remember how your typical phones were "free" or maybe $49 on contracts back then?

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.

[thekev]

Originally Posted by notjustjay

They tried. The first iPhone was supposed to be (I think) $699 and not offered on a contract with subsidies. But people weren't ready for that yet, and the double whammy of no subsidies and a more expensive phone than your typical "dumb phone" had a predictable reaction. Remember how your typical phones were "free" or maybe $49 on contracts back then?

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.

[XboxMySocks]

Originally Posted by chiefsilverback

I'm not really sure how this changes anything, instead of paying $80/month you pay $60/month for your service + $20/month for the device!?!?!

They already address the difference in the handset costs with the amount they charge for the handset hence why a 64GB iPhone 5 costs considerably more on a subsidised contract than a lesser handset.

After you pay off the device your contract is $60.

[notjustjay]

Originally Posted by Michael Scrip

Do we know how much data the *average* person uses?

There are always a few people on these tech forums who use 10GB a month... but what about moms and dads and other non-techie people?

Even if there is a 2GB cap... only a tiny percentage of people come close to using the full 2GB.

If every customer used the full 2GB... I bet the network would collapse.

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).

[nickn]

Originally Posted by Wicked1

That will never work on an iPhone any model

Imagine all you can eat data voice and text for $50 per month, there is no way they can survive that hit to their network

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.

[Belmont31R]

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.

[AdonisSMU]

Finally T-Mobile is playing to win! Good for them. Most people would've bought the iPhone outright and if they had to wait a bit longer, so be it.

[clibinarius]

Originally Posted by blackhand1001

Moving to the european pricing model. This will definitely benefit google far more than apple as Apple relies on carrier subsidies heavily to get sales in the US market.

So Apple lowers their prices a tad to compete. Big deal?

[fithian]

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.

[Le Big Mac]

Originally Posted by dashiel

At the end of two years you’re paying $60 a month, currently you would continue to pay $80 a month despite having “paid off” the phone. So if you’re the type of customer who likes upgrading more frequently the net result is the same, if you couldn’t care less and keep your phone for more than 2 years you end up ahead of the game.

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.

[EbookReader]

$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.

[Gasu E.]

Originally Posted by stayblunted

just back from making a great salami sandwich and i read this! im already on tmobile w. my unlocked iphone 4s in nyc. this is awesome for people who want to save money. its my birthday today so I feel like its a coincidence

Made me smile.

[JAT]

Originally Posted by AppleScruff1

Like Sprint offering unlimited data while everyone else has caps?

Call me when their coverage is worth while.

[unlimitedx]

Originally Posted by Belmont31R

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.

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

[Wicked1]

Originally Posted by nickn

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.

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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Originally Posted by Verbatim Cookie

Aren't Sprint users (however much their plan costs) experiencing this problem now?

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....

[AppleScruff1]

Originally Posted by JAT

Call me when their coverage is worth while.

Sprint's unlimited data didn't shake anything up. And this move by T-Mobile probably won't either.

[EbookReader]

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.