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T-Mobile to Expand 'Un-Carrier 4.0' Initiative, Offer Switch Incentives to U.S. Cellular, Regional Customers
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Parasprite
macrumors 68000
Yeah! My iPhone is just as capable of passion as any other device! 😡
It's okay...I won't let them hurt you...
HUH? USCC and regional carriers are serving small, rural, underserved markets that have little to no T-Mobile coverage. This makes NO SENSE. A lot of the small carriers are LTEiRA partners, and if the market is lucky, it has Faux G from AT&T, and many markets have no credible competition at all.
About those data transfer speeds, I really think they're faked. All they have to do is give you extra bandwidth when you're doing a speed test. AT&T "gives" me 50mbps up and 50mbps down where I am, in a city area, but there is absolutely no way it's loading any faster than 2mbps when I actually use it for web browsing. Noticeably slower than the 20mbps up/down connection I used to have at home.
To be certain, I'll do a test of my own sending data to my home as soon as possible / as soon as I remember.
Didn't know her name, but you must be referring to the pretty spokesmodel for T-Mobile, my guess is she was let go because a marketing campaign based around a pretty spokesmodel is old fashioned and kinda cheesy. 😎
acctman
macrumors 65816
it depends on what phone you are buying. 1. you'll save a lot more on your monthly bill 2. if you have an iphone 5 sell it on ebay or somewhere else get a lessor value phone for 50$ then switch to tmobile and they'll still give you something for that $50 phone. 3. take the money you got for you iphone sale and buy the phone you want. 4. overall you're save on your monthly bill and have more data
If you get a new iPhone from AT&T, it will be locked to AT&T. I don't know if they will be willing to unlock it if you pay them the early-termination fee to legally break your contract.
T-mobile are not idiots. You will not get any trade off value for your old non-smart phone from them. Your risk is that you may end up without a phone that works on T-mobile. You will have to research if AT&T will unlock your phone once you pay your early termination fee. You should be prepared to be without a phone for some time even if AT&T will agree to unlock your phone. You will also need to come up with the money out of pocket to pay the early-termination fee to AT&T before being reimbursed by T-mobile later on in order to expedite the process.
I would say you will be subjecting yourself to logistical hell.
Incidentally, now that AT&T introduced value plans, giving those whose phones are not subsidized (or no longer subsidized) $15 off their bill for each unsubsidized handset on the account, AT&T monthly fees are comparable with T-mobile's. If you have more than two phones on the account, it makes sense to go with AT&T vs t-Mobile. Even with only two phones, I prefer paying AT&T a little more for their superior network and service.
AT&T has a much better network and LTE coverage than T-Mobile. For example, at my house (in an Atlanta suburb), I'm consistently getting 57 Mbps down and 17 Mbps up on the AT&T LTE network with 45 ms of RTT ping to a server in Atlanta. With Verizon (on the same iPhone 5s) I'm getting 47 Mbps down and 10 mbps up with 75 ms of RTT ping to the same server. T-Mobile speeds are 35 Mbps down and 7 Mbps up from the same location to the same server. Also, T-Mobile has non-existent customer service. I went to their store trying to get their free 250 MB of data for the iPad, and I was horrified with what I experienced and witnessed their customers had to go through during the 1.5 hours I spent at the store. I have only one name for them - Ghetto Wireless.
With any luck this initiative will kick the other carriers hard and they will have to sort out their contracts and pricing structures, which will then benefit you guys too. Also it gives T-Mobile more users so more revenue to enable them to roll out better coverage in more areas. Competition benefits everyone but huge greedy monopolistic companies.😉
tardman91
macrumors 65816
Only people that are bad at math. 😀
Whether or not this is a good deal depends on a ton of different variables and everyone's case will be slightly different. How far are you from the end of the contract? Do you have an old grandfathered plan? How much is your current phone worth on trade-in? What will your new bill be compared to the old once you factor in buying a new handset? That's just a start…
Some people will save a ton, others not so much, and some still might pay more. The ones who will save in the long run far outweigh the other groups though.
You could switch now, get an iPhone 5s, then signup for JUMP! and at iPhone 6 launch, get that one.
Not really, no one has been doing this. Their are are no featured phones on the list.
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You must turn in a dumb phone on tmobiles list, people who currently have dumb phones are not eligible for this deal.
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You are 100% wrong, the phone MUST be a smart phone on Tmobiles list. Please get your facts straight.
What $30 phone, none of the phones on Virgin or Boost, the two prepaid carriers in my area are near $30.
Went to sign up for this and because they force you to trade in your phone and buy a new one (we have a 5s and a 5) my bill would actually be MORE than I'm paying with Verizon right now. If they actually gave us a decent amount of money for the phones, it would be a different story but they offered under $300 for a 32 gig 5s.
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
Actually, it's more like the really quick-witted "cool" kid on the playground. Everybody laughs with him because he's so smart and clever, but he then gets his @$$ kicked b/c he has nothing to back it up.
T-Mobile can come up with all of the clever tactics in the world, but the fact that their cell coverage and data speeds are so laughably horrible in many areas trumps any marketing ploy they could ever concoct.
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enough people live in the well covered areas that we don't care
that's why T-mo is cheaper, they only serve the more populated areas
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
Yes, I wish that I were one of those, unfortunately, spotty coverage and 2G data just don't cut it in AR/MO/TN, but cheers to those who can get it.
Good point about possible contribution to ability to undercut the prices of Ma Bell and Big Red.
Sadly T-mobile has ｓｈｉｔｔｙ signal in Milwaukee. US mobile and ISP services are really miserable... and expensive...
parseckadet
macrumors 68000
A lot of the concerns brought up in this thread were addressed by John Legere during his interview with David Pogue.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/david-pogue-interview-john-legere-210000725.html
He discussed how this doesn't really lose T-Mobile any money. He also acknowledged that coverage is an issue for T-Mobile and committed to taking steps to address it this year. Given the nature of the problem, I wouldn't expect their coverage to suddenly be stellar by this time next year, but it's still good to hear the CEO say they are taking concrete measures to improve the situation. That's more than we've gotten out of any T-Mobile CEO in the past.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/david-pogue-interview-john-legere-210000725.html
He discussed how this doesn't really lose T-Mobile any money. He also acknowledged that coverage is an issue for T-Mobile and committed to taking steps to address it this year. Given the nature of the problem, I wouldn't expect their coverage to suddenly be stellar by this time next year, but it's still good to hear the CEO say they are taking concrete measures to improve the situation. That's more than we've gotten out of any T-Mobile CEO in the past.
HIMAN1998
macrumors 6502
I already did the switch, I came from Verizon. The plan owner has good enough credit that I got the $0 down, along with the other 3 devices. Even with the monthly payments on those, it's cheaper to be at T-Mobile than Verizon. It will be down to $140/month after the devices are paid off. The devices are an LG G2 ($25/month), HTC One ($25/Month) Xperia Z ($20/Month), and a Nexus 5 ($20/month).
Exactly. I'm on TMo but the wife is on AT&T. She has the iPhone 5. They offered $228 for the phone and she has a $210 ETF. The way I look at it is I'm getting $438 for the 5 from T-Mobile. I watched the same phone with Apple care just sell for $350 on eBay and would still have to pay the $210 ETF. So I'm losing out on $88 if I sell it on my own plus auction fees. We may be paying the same as we did on AT&T, but we are getting more for the same price. Unlimited talk, text, 4g data, Jump, 2.5gb tethering, HD Voice, and international roaming.
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laurim
macrumors 68000
I switched from Sprint to T-Mobile recently. My Sprint contract was done so I didn't get this incentive. Did a speed test with my iPhone 5s comparing the cable "Blast" internet wi-fi in my house (advertised as "up to 50 Mbps" but rarely get it) with the LTE on T-Mobile. The LTE speed was over three times as fast, 36 vs 12 Mbps. I was amazed. The only downside was my upload speed was a lot faster with cable.
The proof whether the switch was worth it will come when I go to Europe in April. I specifically switched to get the unlimited data/messaging and cheap calls when I travel in Europe. With Sprint, I couldn't even do an expensive roaming call because no network would connect to my CDMA phone. I could have put a local GSM sim in my phone while over there but I much prefer just having the capability from the start. Last time I used an italian SIM it was a pain because all the instructions and messages were in italian and I couldn't figure out how to get to the english version and keep it there.
As far as the cost of my plan goes, even with the cost of my iPhone 5S my monthly cost is very similar to my previous Sprint plan. With Sprint, I had 400 min talk and unlimited data (that I only once went over 500 MB in a month). With T-mobile, I have no contract, unlimited talk and text with 500 MB data in the US (which only throttles if I go over) and tethering so I'm actually better off now, even before I pay off my phone and my bills go down.
I had T-Mobile before Sprint and I thought the coverage was fine and I travel a lot for my work. All major cities, though. The only reason I switched to Sprint was to get an iPhone so I'm glad to be able to switch back.
The proof whether the switch was worth it will come when I go to Europe in April. I specifically switched to get the unlimited data/messaging and cheap calls when I travel in Europe. With Sprint, I couldn't even do an expensive roaming call because no network would connect to my CDMA phone. I could have put a local GSM sim in my phone while over there but I much prefer just having the capability from the start. Last time I used an italian SIM it was a pain because all the instructions and messages were in italian and I couldn't figure out how to get to the english version and keep it there.
As far as the cost of my plan goes, even with the cost of my iPhone 5S my monthly cost is very similar to my previous Sprint plan. With Sprint, I had 400 min talk and unlimited data (that I only once went over 500 MB in a month). With T-mobile, I have no contract, unlimited talk and text with 500 MB data in the US (which only throttles if I go over) and tethering so I'm actually better off now, even before I pay off my phone and my bills go down.
I had T-Mobile before Sprint and I thought the coverage was fine and I travel a lot for my work. All major cities, though. The only reason I switched to Sprint was to get an iPhone so I'm glad to be able to switch back.
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Okay, I see what you are saying. But at the end of the day you still have to purchase a smartphone from Tmobile. I guess most people are just wishing that it didn't have to work this way.
phpmaven
macrumors 68040
As this story states, T-Mobile is now reportedly taking any phone as a trade in. Trade in an old phone or buy some crappy old phone and trade that in and sell your current phones on CL. Of course, things seem to change with T-Mobile every day, but at this point, it's crazy to trade in any phone that has value to them.
I did my deal with them on Sunday, and at that point the store would only take certain phones that had value. I went out and bought an iPhone 4 from somebody on CL for $80 and traded that in instead on my unlocked 5S. When I found out yesterday that they had changed the deal to accept any old phone, I called CS and complained that I had spent $80 needlessly, they are crediting me the $80.
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Most carriers charge an extra data fee for having a smartphone that is least as much or not more than your monthly payment for a new phone would be with T-Mobile. It really is a no-brainer, unless T-Mobile sucks where you live.