T-Mobile Looks to Shake Up Cellular Industry Again With 'Un-carrier 8.0' Announcement Tuesday

[MacRumors]

T-Mobile today announced that it will be broadcasting a "fireside chat" with CEO John Legere and Yahoo Tech's David Pogue tomorrow. During the live webcast, Legere will announce the terms of "Un-carrier 8.0" and answer questions about the latest chapter in the company's ongoing Un-carrier initiative to differentiate itself from the other major U.S. providers.

Details on the changes T-Mobile plans to introduce have not yet been revealed, but the carrier teased the announcement was "so big we had to keep it under wraps."

In the past, the company's initiatives have produced market-wide changes in the cellular industry, including contract-free service plans and generous bonuses for switching carriers. The most recent Un-carrier announcement back in September focused on Wi-Fi calling and texting as well as a partnership with Gogo in-flight wireless.

The Un-carrier 8.0 webcast will begin on Tuesday, December 16 at 10:30 AM Eastern / 7:30 AM Pacific. It will be broadcast from newsroom.t-mobile.com with a link to the stream available starting Tuesday morning.

Article Link: T-Mobile Looks to Shake Up Cellular Industry Again With 'Un-carrier 8.0' Announcement Tuesday

 

[taptic]

Free cellular?!

 

[Crosscreek]

Love my $30 a month plan and great coverage in Florida.

 

[brendu]

Love my $30 a month plan and great coverage in Florida.

Ditto. I thought about switching my wife over to T-Mobile and putting us together on the new uimted data plan but my $30 / month plan gives me plenty of data and it's cheaper than anything else.

I can't wait to see what T-Mobile is gonna do next. They have been bringing great competition to the wireless market in the US.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I'll be happy with a discounted device price tag.
I don't really care about moving away from T-Mobile. I've been very happy with their service since they were VoiceStream Wireless.

 

[iansilv]

John Legere is ****ing awesome. Seriously- the guy gets it. As cellular coverage inevitably improves, and infrastructure investment is paid off, the industry is going to hit a wall where people don't really care about much higher speeds. He is prepared for that by coming in with plans that shake the industry. And just like Apple made the iPhone a success by breaking the old industry tactics of handset makers at the time with things like wifi data use and no-carrier-branding, T-Mobile will be positioned to take a market lead.

It is not about who has the best network- it is about that point where the network is good enough, and the price can come down. Verizon can wave their arms and say "We have coverage in the middle of the rain forest in Hawaii, or the top of a ski run in Park City all they want, but the fact is most people will take price and a lack of contractual obligations over coverage in areas they wish cell phones wouldn't work anyway.

And regardless, the network is catching up. I don't think anyone is going to care about "5G" or "6G" or "27G", they just care that their phone works where it reasonably should and their bill is cheap.

 

[soheilk]

Once again, John Legere to the rescue,,,

 

[KPOM]

It is not about who has the best network- it is about that point where the network is good enough, and the price can come down. Verizon can wave their arms and say "We have coverage in the middle of the rain forest in Hawaii, or the top of a ski run in Park City all they want, but the fact is most people will take price and a lack of contractual obligations over coverage in areas they wish cell phones wouldn't work anyway.

T-Mobile still has a ways to go before they are "good enough." They need more low-frequency spectrum. I'm getting EDGE in downtown Chicago right now on my iPad, while both AT&T and Verizon get LTE.

 

[nikon1]

As someone in the southern part of New Jersey - I have tried T-Mobile several times over the past 10 years and found their coverage completely lacking where I live.

IF they were to improve the coverage - I'd jump from AT&T, but until that date, I have to live with AT&T's service & pricing!

Here's hoping that T-Mobile gets some of that low frequency bandwidth next year and improves my local coverage.

 

[J. Jizzle]

Pricing isn't everything. To me coverage is more important, especially if your cell phone is the only phone you have. T-Mobile's coverage just doesn't stack up against AT&T.

 

[rigormortis]

T-Mobile still has a ways to go before they are "good enough." They need more low-frequency spectrum. I'm getting EDGE in downtown Chicago right now on my iPad, while both AT&T and Verizon get LTE.

if t-mobile rolled out "more low-frequency spectrum" you would need a new iPad, because not even the iPad air 2 has channel 12, all the low-frequency stuff t-moble has been rolling out is 700 mhz channel 12


they say on Facebook that every place that has edge today should have 4g/lte in six months

 

[Saucesome2000]

John Legere is ****ing awesome. Seriously- the guy gets it. As cellular coverage inevitably improves, and infrastructure investment is paid off, the industry is going to hit a wall where people don't really care about much higher speeds. He is prepared for that by coming in with plans that shake the industry. And just like Apple made the iPhone a success by breaking the old industry tactics of handset makers at the time with things like wifi data use and no-carrier-branding, T-Mobile will be positioned to take a market lead.

It is not about who has the best network- it is about that point where the network is good enough, and the price can come down. Verizon can wave their arms and say "We have coverage in the middle of the rain forest in Hawaii, or the top of a ski run in Park City all they want, but the fact is most people will take price and a lack of contractual obligations over coverage in areas they wish cell phones wouldn't work anyway.

And regardless, the network is catching up. I don't think anyone is going to care about "5G" or "6G" or "27G", they just care that their phone works where it reasonably should and their bill is cheap.

In theory I could agree with you, but it's hardly about rain forests and ski runs. I'm of the understanding that T-Maybe gets good coverage in Florida where it's flat, but it's not worth a free phone, data, bonuses, or any other tricks Legere has up his sleeves in Tennessee.

We're talking about cellphones here, and for people who go to more than one place during the week, it is about who has the best network. Otherwise you holding an iPod touch.

 

[Plutonius]

Love my $30 a month plan and great coverage in Florida.

It is not about who has the best network-

Terrible coverage where I need it. I'm hoping the Un-carrier 8.0 announcement is greatly improving their network coverage in the near future.

 

[DEFabio]

IF they were to improve the coverage - I'd jump from AT&T, but until that date, I have to live with AT&T's service & pricing

Don't worry, what ever 8.0 brings will undoubtedly trickle down and force other carriers to alter plans

 

[kmil]

The cable industry needs a John Legere. End of story.

 

[itr81]

In a race to the bottom you tend to sacrifice quality for quanity. I rather pay bit more for quality network and not worry if I'll have coverage or not if I stray too far from the interstate.

 

[kmil]

Pricing isn't everything. To me coverage is more important, especially if your cell phone is the only phone you have. T-Mobile's coverage just doesn't stack up against AT&T.

Agreed. As a T-Mobile subscriber I have areas that I can't reach, however, I like what they have done for the industry. At least people now have choices between price/speed/coverage/customer service/etc... T-Mobile for me has all but coverage, but I don't really have an issue with it because it's 2 days out of the month.

Now only if the cable industry would pickup on this. This is why competition is good.

 

[KPOM]

if t-mobile rolled out "more low-frequency spectrum" you would need a new iPad, because not even the iPad air 2 has channel 12, all the low-frequency stuff t-moble has been rolling out is 700 mhz channel 12


they say on Facebook that every place that has edge today should have 4g/lte in six months

They have PCS band LTE here. So it is an LTE area but it doesn't penetrate buildings very well.

 

[itr81]

I can't speak for verizon, but last week att told its entire staff the future is the merger with dtv and allowing customers of Uverse and dtv to stream to all mobile devices without any extra charges or against their data plans. Att has said they will be competitive, but will not get into a race to the bottom. So whatever price cuts that do happen at T-Mobile it will only probably reduce plans by a few buxs at most.

 

[JackieInCo]

Pricing isn't everything. To me coverage is more important, especially if your cell phone is the only phone you have. T-Mobile's coverage just doesn't stack up against AT&T.

Coverage is everything and that is why I am with T-Mobile. AT&T and Verizon could not get me at first 3G and now LTE to my house. T-Mobile has been the only carrier to be able to do that.

I actually broke my AT&T and Verizon contracts two years ago to move to T-Mobile due to bad coverage.

 

[furi0usbee]

Pricing isn't everything. To me coverage is more important, especially if your cell phone is the only phone you have. T-Mobile's coverage just doesn't stack up against AT&T.

Just tried T-Mobile's WiFi calling yesterday. It was perfect. Home location is out in country and only used to get one bar. With the WiFi option turned on, it was as clear as the fastest cell network. If using as a home phone, this is the way to go.

 

[cmwade77]

Pricing isn't everything. To me coverage is more important, especially if your cell phone is the only phone you have. T-Mobile's coverage just doesn't stack up against AT&T.

It really depends on where you are. As a general rule, in Los Angeles area, my wife (has T-Mobile) will have full 4G LTE when I (AT&T) have nothing and this happens A LOT. The same is true for most of Arizona, as we discovered while driving through there.

Southern Utah outside of the big cities has Verizon with the best coverage apparently.

 

[furi0usbee]

In a race to the bottom you tend to sacrifice quality for quanity. I rather pay bit more for quality network and not worry if I'll have coverage or not if I stray too far from the interstate.

I think we all would pay a fair price for good quality. However, these carriers have taken so much advantage of us customers that it's hard to find anyone who actually trusts these guys.

Verizon and AT&T could give us plans such as 400 minutes 4GB 4G/LTE for $40/month. No fees, no gimmicks, bottom line price, and just good service. A 400/4/$40 plan and I would jump on that right now. Instead you end up paying twice that for less.

Right now I'm with VM at $30/month. I don't talk much, so want to switch to the Wal-Mart Tmobile plan for iPhone 6 $30/month for 100 min and 4GB high speed data. I'm just waiting to get the phone.

 

[macduke]

For the longest time my data was stuck at around 2GB. Earlier this year it was bumped up to 3GB for free. Then there was a promotion to get a free 1GB/mo when upgrading my iPhone in september which I took advantage of. Then Verizon called me up, raised my data to 6GB (+1GB so 7GB total per month) and then lowered my bill by $15/mo. I'm definitely loving the competition lately but we still have a long way to go to catch up to other parts of the world. Can you imagine what would have happened if AT&T had bought T-Mobile? My data cap is finally to the point where I don't stress about streaming a few videos or downloading some bigger apps.

 

[avanpelt]

It is not about who has the best network- it is about that point where the network is good enough, and the price can come down. Verizon can wave their arms and say "We have coverage in the middle of the rain forest in Hawaii, or the top of a ski run in Park City all they want, but the fact is most people will take price and a lack of contractual obligations over coverage in areas they wish cell phones wouldn't work anyway.

I really like what Legere is doing because it's putting pressure on the industry; but there's no way in hell I'd switch to T-Mobile until they fundamentally transform their network in its entirety.

Just the other day, I was looking at their network map and there are many, many places in this country where they offer either no service or only 2G service. 2G...are you kidding me?! It's nearly 2015!

Also, I found several areas where they offer LTE close to an urban core, but if you get more than 20 or 30 miles beyond that and the coverage drops to either 3G or worse...2G.

Also, I disagree with your last sentence that I quoted. I want my phone to work *everywhere*. I understand that it can't/won't work everywhere; but I want it to be able to. Being with Verizon, my iPhone 6 works a lot more places than it would if I stuck a T-Mobile SIM in it right now. If I don't want to be reachable, I'll turn my phone off. I am plenty capable of controlling my reachability. I don't need/want my carrier to do that for me.