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T-mobile doesn't usually publish their unsubsidized phone plans because they want people to spend the extra money.

Generally speaking, owning your own phone will save you $20/month over someone with a contract and the same level of service.

$20 * 24 months = $480 saved over 2 years.

Most new phones cost ~$400-$500 if you buy them straight up, so you basically only end up a bit ahead if you keep that phone for 2 years.

The smart folks wait until a phone has been out for ~3 months (or more) and pay $200-$300 for it used off contract. Doing that allows you to upgrade whenever you want while paying the lower monthly fee.

Their Value plans have no phone subsidy, but they are still a contract plan. They aren't openly offering any non contract plans as they once did. Will they still allow you to bring your own device and get the unlimited plans for the same price? I am not a TM customer, but I have recently shopped them.
 
great network

Really?? You must be kidding.
If you ask me, T-Mobile is trying desperately to get their own page in the Guinness book of records with the worst and most irritating network performance ever. And not specifically in the US (my experience in the Chicago area and from friends in Florida), but also in Europe, including T-Mobile's home country Germany. Even the most cheap phone companies here in Europe, outperform them. T-Mobile promises hi-speed 3G coverage for years, but we're getting an average that is more like GPRS speed. If you ever get a connection. And it doesn't matter what brand/model phone you're using, and not even if you're paying for a premium company plan. All calls will get disconnected at least twice within 3 minutes.
 
Their Value plans have no phone subsidy, but they are still a contract plan. They aren't openly offering any non contract plans as they once did. Will they still allow you to bring your own device and get the unlimited plans for the same price? I am not a TM customer, but I have recently shopped them.

They don't openly offer the non-contract plans, but if you go in asking for service on one, then they won't refuse you.

Pretty sure that the plans are on their webpage?
http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
 
Really?? You must be kidding.
If you ask me, T-Mobile is trying desperately to get their own page in the Guinness book of records with the worst and most irritating network performance ever. And not specifically in the US (my experience in the Chicago area and from friends in Florida), but also in Europe, including T-Mobile's home country Germany. Even the most cheap phone companies here in Europe, outperform them. T-Mobile promises hi-speed 3G coverage for years, but we're getting an average that is more like GPRS speed. If you ever get a connection. And it doesn't matter what brand/model phone you're using, and not even if you're paying for a premium company plan. All calls will get disconnected at least twice within 3 minutes.

Love the great 4g coverage I get. Don't make foolish statements based on two people.
 
What goes around comes around.

Remember how T-Mo commercials have that girl pick on the iPhone guy dealing with the crappy ATT service.

Just saw a Virgin Mobile tv ad where they had their version of the T-Mo girl in the signature pink and white striped dress being informed by two Virgin Mobile people that her data plans weren't as cheap as she thought and then you see them in line for a club and when the T-Mo gets to the door the bouncer wouldn't let her in. The ad breaks away to talks about the plan and then flashes back to the T-Mo girl who is the ONLY one left in line and she asks the bouncer "Now?", to which the Bouncer replies, "Not with that dress!" :D
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yes and yes

T-Mobile unlimited call, text, data = $50 a month no contract required...
Hope that the AT&T and T-Mobile merge won't happen!!!
 
Choose the phone and carrier separately

I suspect some of you in the US don't understand the phone market as well as you should.

Here in the UK, the iPhone is available from all of the major carriers (we call them networks) and has been for some time. But when you get one it is locked to that carrier. If you want to terminate the contract early and unlock your phone there's a (hefty) fee to pay.

Of course, option 2 is to buy an unlocked phone from the Apple Store, then use the carrier of your choice with no ties. iPhones bought this way are pricey, but the carrier fees are lower.

The same is true of virtually every phone available in the UK.

But the bottom line is simple. If you do the sums over, say, a two-year period both approaches cost about the same.

Most people go for the first approach, it's easy, convenient and spreads the cost. But the savvy people go for the second approach - it's more flexible and you can change your mind if you wish; and it's usually cheaper if you keep shopping around ruthlessly for the best deal.
 
Love the great 4g coverage I get. Don't make foolish statements based on two people.

Seriously, I wish it were just small incidents. Just a couple of months before my company signed on with T-Mobile, we heard bad stories about T-Mobile too from others. And like you, I didn't really believe them. Must be just small incidents blown out of proportion.
But now after more than one year... still on a daily basis my phone and 20 other phones of my colleagues get disconnected, don't receive calls or voicemail alerts. This did not happen so often with AT&T, even less with Vodafone and a couple of other European phone companies.

Fortunately, all our contracts with T-Mobile in the US and some European countries will end in december 2011.... bye, bye T-Mobile.
 
I really hope this is true. Been a T-Mobile customer for 5 years, nothing but great things to say. Been waiting for this.
 
I suspect some of you in the US don't understand the phone market as well as you should...

Some of us understand the phone market just fine (thanks for asking).

What you should understand is that in the interest of eliminating long distance charges & network roaming fees, a few select carriers have been allowed to acquire a vast number of assets.

What you should try to keep in mind is that the UK has about 96,000 square miles to cover whereas the USA has 3.8 million square miles to cover. That is 40x more coverage. If we had 3 or 4 different carriers for every 96,000 square miles then that would be over 100 different mobile service providers trying to make agreements and handle logistics with one another.

With every advantage (simplicity of coverage) comes a disadvantage. Having such large, powerful telecom companies means that competition is stifled and enforcing policies that benefit the consumers against the wishes of the companies often takes an act of Congress.

Make no mistake, Verizon and AT&T are massively powerful companies. Just the wireless division of Verizon communications has an annual gross revenue of 27 billion dollars a QUARTER. To put this in perspective, just the wireless division of Verizon makes 1.5x as much revenue as Apple, Inc. each year.

So its not that we don't understand the industry.... its that USAians are living with a different reality.

Vodafone is in what.... like 2 dozen countries? Well, Verizon Wireless is almost as large and they are only in one country.... and AT&T is almost as big as they are.
 
Make no mistake, Verizon and AT&T are massively powerful companies. Just the wireless division of Verizon communications has an annual gross revenue of 27 billion dollars a QUARTER. To put this in perspective, just the wireless division of Verizon makes 1.5x as much revenue as Apple, Inc. each year.

You are mistaken. Apple's Q3 revenue was $28.57 billion while Verizon's Q2 revenue was $27.53 billion (Apple's Q3 and Verizon's Q2 are during the same time period).
 
so with the possible blocked merger. do you think the iphone 5 is less likely or more likely to come t-mobile?
 
so with the possible blocked merger. do you think the iphone 5 is less likely or more likely to come t-mobile?

Probably the same, the merger would take long enough and having a phone that works on those frequencies incase AT&T decides to use them are enough motivation for Apple to make one regardless of if the merger goes through or not.
 
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