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T-Mobile USA Executive Offers Letter to Customers Regarding Lack of iPhone

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Apr 12, 2001
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With Sprint set to join AT&T and Verizon in offering the iPhone in the United States, T-Mobile appears to be the last of the four major carriers that will be without the device. While a few rumors had allowed those looking for an iPhone on T-Mobile to hold out hope, an internal news posting revealed that the carrier's Chief Marketing Office Cole Brodman had confirmed at a company town hall meeting that T-Mobile USA would not be offering the iPhone 5 this year.

t-mobile_usa_logo.jpg



Brodman has now followed up with an open letter to T-Mobile customers, thanking them for their loyalty and making clear that the carrier is interested in carrying the iPhone.
We've heard from many customers who love their T-Mobile service, but are disappointed that we don't carry the iPhone. To these customers, first, thank you for your business. Please know that we think the iPhone is a great device and Apple knows that we'd like to add it to our line-up. Today, there are over a million T-Mobile customers using unlocked iPhones on our network. We are interested in offering all of our customers a no-compromise iPhone experience on our network.
Click to expand...
Brodman offers no additional details on the state of negotiations between T-Mobile USA and Apple, instead promoting the company's latest Android handsets and positioning them as able to "rival or beat" any other smartphone on the market, "including the iPhone."

AT&T is in the process of trying to acquire T-Mobile USA, although it has run into opposition from the U.S. government and rival carriers. Regardless, AT&T has indicated that T-Mobile USA would be operated independently from AT&T for some time after the completion of the merger, so it is unclear how quickly T-Mobile might be able to gain the iPhone even under that scenario.

Article Link: T-Mobile USA Executive Offers Letter to Customers Regarding Lack of iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/27/t-mobile-usa-executive-offers-letter-to-customers-regarding-lack-of-iphone/
Typical corporate BS.

T-Mobile, being on the ATT network, should have logically been the first in line. I suspect their corporate management is just not tuned into their customers.
 
How about you show you can compete WITHOUT the iPhone first, your business is not failing because you lack the iPhone.

Why would Apple want to add even more frequencies to its phones just for a company that will not exist in five years. No matter what the outcome of the AT&T acquisition.
 
It's odd to acknowledge but then not address the issue in any meaningful way. In business you never say "sorry" unless it's blatantly your fault, and you never bring up a shortcoming unless you aim to deflect it properly.

This just seems... weird.
 
i use my 3GS on t-mobile...

quite frankly, i LOVE not being required to have a data plan. Everywhere has wifi these days, and when I REALLY want to use the net on the go, I tether to my iPad. I personally think it's TOTAL CRAP that carriers require a seperate data package for each of your devices, and am glad that I can use my iPhone how i want, with whom I want.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

T-Mobile will not be offering the iPhone 5 this year? Neither will anyone else.
 
Well, all they have to do is bend all of their customers over and empty their pockets the way AT$T, VZW and now Sprint are doing and they will instantly be iPhone worthy.
 
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ptysell said:
Pick the common GMS frequencies and you might get the phone next time.
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+1, I agree. It was the same thing when everyone on Verizon was bitching about not having the iPhone. Guess what, the US is not the only market, so obviously Apple is going to support the common GSM frequencies before the odd-ball networks that Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are all on. Maybe these carriers should instead do what Telus and Bell did in Canada, and switch over to the common frequencies!
 
Why do they talk of bringing phones to their carrier that'll rival the iPhone? They don't get it. People stay with the iPhone because of iOS and the App ecosystem, not because it's the "best" device out there. It just happens to be a nice piece of hardware too.

;)
 
I hope the iPhone 5 ends up supporting the T-Mobile frequencies even if T-Mobiel doesn't officially end up carrying the iPhone. By my math, buying an iPhone unlocked outright and coupling it with T-Mobile's cheaper plans saves me a few hundred over AT&T and Verizon (over the course of a 24 month contract).
 
ptysell said:
Pick the common GMS frequencies and you might get the phone next time.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile does have "common GSM frequencies." Their GSM/Edge network is 100% 1900Mhz. But there is only so much spectrum to go around and the big 3 gobbled it all up. That is why T-Mobile was nearly 2 years late launching 3G. They didn't have enough spectrum. So, the government offered up 1700Mhz AWS spectrum and T-Mobile led the charge along with Cricket and Metro PCS in the auction.

T-Mobile isn't using 1700Mhz as it's "choice." It's all that is left. But hell... Apple made a special CDMA iPhone 4 for Verizon... why not make an AWS iPhone for T-Mobile?

Even then... AT&T is gobbling up T-Mobile for their 1700mhz spectrum to deploy LTE on it. So it is "good enough" for AT&T. And I am sure that when the 2012 iPhone launches with LTE, Apple will support 1700Mhz LTE for AT&T along with both sides of the 700Mhz spectrum for Verizon and AT&T both.

And Sprint? Sprint is currently running WiMax at 2500 Mhz spectrum. When they convert to LTE (not "if"... "WHEN"), then we will have LTE 2500Mhz too.

Like Samsung, HTC and Moto learned a long time ago... you have to learn to accept it all.
 
ZipZap said:
Typical corporate BS.

T-Mobile, being on the ATT network, should have logically been the first in line. I suspect their corporate management is just not tuned into their customers.
Click to expand...

So Apple- the "seller"- can't have any responsibility here. In this, he readily admits they- the "buyer" wants it on their network. Often when you have a buyer/vendor wanting to carry your wares, you make a deal with them to do so.

This "corporate management" wants the iPhone. Apple apparently doesn't want them to have it yet. Or perhaps Tmobile just won't pay up enough to get it yet? If they did, perhaps they could carry it by passing on the added cost they have to pay to Apple to us consumers. Yes, that it- just make sure Apple gets paid. That's all that matters.
 
ZipZap said:
Typical corporate BS.

T-Mobile, being on the ATT network, should have logically been the first in line. I suspect their corporate management is just not tuned into their customers.
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? T-Mobile operate their own network, it's in fact why ATT wants to buy them - they want the piece of the spectrum T-Mobile has the rights to.
 
dmcaudio said:
quite frankly, i LOVE not being required to have a data plan. Everywhere has wifi these days, and when I REALLY want to use the net on the go, I tether to my iPad. I personally think it's TOTAL CRAP that carriers require a seperate data package for each of your devices, and am glad that I can use my iPhone how i want, with whom I want.
Click to expand...

This is my backup plan. If i dont' like the iPhone 5, I will stick to my 3GS (I am out of contract already), unlock it (it is mine I can do whatever the hell I want with it) and use one of t-mobile's affordable plans. I am gettign a Mifi spot for other reasons so the iPhone can tag along
 
Tsaxmafia said:
Why would Apple want to add even more frequencies to its phones just for a company that will not exist in five years. No matter what the outcome of the AT&T acquisition.
Click to expand...

Um. Tmobile has a lot of customers who want an iPhone so bad that they are apparently buying unlocked or used versions. They are the 4th largest carrier which means they have a lot of potential iPhone buyers. Apple might want to sell to that hungry crowd rather than pointing them to Android or elsewhere.

If I'm not mistaken, Tmobile has more customers than a number of countries that are getting/has got the iPhone. Apple apparently cares about even the smallish numbers of potential buyers in those countries. Why not Tmobile too?

This should not take the well-worn frame of <any other company> (Tmobile in this case) vs. Apple. This is a company wanting to help sell more of an Apple device(s). They are NOT the enemy. They want to offer the iPhone to their millions of customers. See it for what it is (which is not one company is totally wrong and Apple is all in the right). This reads very much like if Apple would let them have it, they would sell it to their base.
 
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