Oh yea, don't get me wrong I see what you are saying. It's just that I have a iPhone 5 and I'm happy with it, and it would just be nice if I didn't have to sell it to get the incentive, that's all.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
T-Mobile to Expand 'Un-Carrier 4.0' Initiative, Offer Switch Incentives to U.S. Cellular, Regional Customers
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Oh yea, don't get me wrong I see what you are saying. It's just that I have a iPhone 5 and I'm happy with it, and it would just be nice if I didn't have to sell it to get the incentive, that's all.
Sorry bout your experience but I guess 30+ million don't think it's "ghetto wireless." AT&T must not think that to come out with the mobile value share, a direct response to tmobile.
Probably very little, they are gaining tons of new customers and selling plenty of full price devices with no subsidy they have to pay.
US Cellular??
I like a lot of what TMO is doing, stirring up the pot and all. The competition with the bigger carriers will bring prices down, which is great. And John Legere is certainly entertaining. But exactly who is going to switch from USCC?? USCC's niche is they serve rural areas -- the exact areas where TMO lacks coverage. TMO's coverage in Iowa blows. They're only decent in Des Moines proper. They have coverage in Ames, but if you go to the west side of town, you'll have to get in a bucket truck to get a signal. I pulled off I-35 between Des Moines and Ames recently to look at Maps, and the data was GPRS!
If you leave the Des Moines/Ames area, you are outside of TMO native coverage. You'll be on iWireless, which is partly owned by TMO. iWireless coverage is not bad, although much of it is EDGE. In some markets, they have DC-HSPA+ on the AWS band. The problem is that even though TMO is part owner of iWireless, iWireless is still considered roaming. So you get little or no data, depending on your plan. But voice and text are no problem.
By contrast, USCC is rather expensive, and can be a PITA to deal with (I've heard from several friends about billing problems) but both they and Verizon Wireless have 850 Mhz spectrum in Iowa and USCC's coverage is generally as good as, and in some places better than, VZW.
I like a lot of what TMO is doing, stirring up the pot and all. The competition with the bigger carriers will bring prices down, which is great. And John Legere is certainly entertaining. But exactly who is going to switch from USCC?? USCC's niche is they serve rural areas -- the exact areas where TMO lacks coverage. TMO's coverage in Iowa blows. They're only decent in Des Moines proper. They have coverage in Ames, but if you go to the west side of town, you'll have to get in a bucket truck to get a signal. I pulled off I-35 between Des Moines and Ames recently to look at Maps, and the data was GPRS!
If you leave the Des Moines/Ames area, you are outside of TMO native coverage. You'll be on iWireless, which is partly owned by TMO. iWireless coverage is not bad, although much of it is EDGE. In some markets, they have DC-HSPA+ on the AWS band. The problem is that even though TMO is part owner of iWireless, iWireless is still considered roaming. So you get little or no data, depending on your plan. But voice and text are no problem.
By contrast, USCC is rather expensive, and can be a PITA to deal with (I've heard from several friends about billing problems) but both they and Verizon Wireless have 850 Mhz spectrum in Iowa and USCC's coverage is generally as good as, and in some places better than, VZW.
What is the benefit?
For $200 iPhone 5s with contract at ATT, you terminate the contract after 3 months with ATT $295 termination fee . Now, you bring that phone to T-mobile for $280 credit and get the same phone, T-mobile iPhone 5s for $600 which will cost you extra $320 out of pocket for switching. WTF?
T-moble, this only works if you allow me to keep ATT phone or at least give me a better trade-in value (like $$450-$500). Otherwise, I'll stay with ATT.
BTW, T-Mobile coverage sucks.
For $200 iPhone 5s with contract at ATT, you terminate the contract after 3 months with ATT $295 termination fee . Now, you bring that phone to T-mobile for $280 credit and get the same phone, T-mobile iPhone 5s for $600 which will cost you extra $320 out of pocket for switching. WTF?
T-moble, this only works if you allow me to keep ATT phone or at least give me a better trade-in value (like $$450-$500). Otherwise, I'll stay with ATT.
BTW, T-Mobile coverage sucks.
NO the story does NOT say they are taking any phone, it says they have expanded to except phones with some damage. Please stop spreading B.S because they are still only accepting phones on the list.
Settle down there sparky. You are right, I misread that. However, they are taking many kinds of old phones now that many might have in a drawer or can buy for next to nothing, even if they're are damaged. So yes, technically they won't take ANY phone, but if you look at the current list, it includes just about every phone people may of had the last few years.
Speaking as somebody who has actually done this. I can't imagine at this point that they are going to turn anybody away at the store who comes in to switch because he/she has an old phone that's not on their list. Since it seems that are willing to take even virtually worthless phones that are damaged and they will obviously just throw away.
I have been on T-Mobile for 8 years in Ann Arbor Michigan. I have traveled throughout the State as well as other states. The coverage for me is great in terms of voice and texting. Data speeds are great most of the time in areas I frequent.
Your example with the trade in is meaningless without considering price differences between comparable plans between AT&T and T-Mobile. By my estimation it would cost me $40 more a month to get similar service on AT&T. I pay about $84 a month on Tmobile, but this included a roughly $24 a month loan repayment on the phone. So when the phone is paid off after about a year for me, my bill goes down to $60 a month. A similar plan, lacking some features, costs about $120 a month on AT&T. Do the math, over the two year contract term on AT&T you would likely save money on T-Mobile.
It is worth noting when AT&T first got the iPhone its network sucked for about two years. When AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile, Tmobile didn't improve its network. Since that deal failed, T-Mobile gained spectrum from AT&T, Verizon, and metro PC. Its network is better than Sprint and in many areas is competitive with Verizon & AT&T.
No it doens't, the list doesn't include a single dumb phone on it. Only phones with Android, iOS, Windows, or BB OS, and only ones from the past 3 years. Yes they are turning people away, because I know multiple people who have been turned away.
Ok, we can argue about the details, but there are phones on the list that you can buy used for $10 or less.
For example AT&T GoPhone ZTE Z431. I've seen them on eBay for $9.95
There are other phones on the list that you buy dirt cheap. I didn't check them all, but I checked a few others that were in the $20-30 range. Also, if it's true that they are now taking damaged phones, they would be even cheaper.
My original point is still valid: You can easily find a dirt cheap phone to trade in and sell your current one for a nice profit.
You know "several" people who were turned away? What phones were they trying to trade in? I have a hard time believing that they would let a customer who is ready to move all of their business over to them walk because he didn't have the right phone to trade in. They obviously don't care at this point about getting the trade-ins. Do you really think they are going to make any money on most of these phones? I guess it would depend on the store and the salespeople.
Although you are spot on about Ghetto Wireless, since T-Mobile's customers are far lower quality than AT&T's or Verizon's, and their coverage is absolutely horrible, what you are saying about price is incorrect. T-Mobile gets cheaper compared to AT&T the more lines you get. Of course you get more phone with crappy service on Ghetto Wireless.
Exactly. Stealing from Sprint makes sense. One Ghetto carrier to another. Maybe a few people will defect from AT&T or Verizon if you lower the price enough to make crappy coverage worth it. But USCC makes ZERO sense since they're not in Chicago anymore.
You really don't know what you are talking about, these people even called tmobile and again the rep said the phones must be on the list. They cannot accept any phone on the list. You keep talking about stuff you know nothing about.
The phone still has to be from their carrier, they can't turn in an AT&T phone if they are switching from sprint. Their are some used sprint phones on ebay for $30, but too much trouble to buy them. T-mobile should let people trade in any phone. FYI they wanted to trade in their Samsung Array, M400, and some other phones.
Last edited:
Have you actually switched to T-mobile? I've done it and the phone does NOT have to be from your current carrier. At this point, it does have to be on the list, but you can pick up several of the phones on that list for next to nothing.
If you think that it's too much trouble to spend $30 or less to get a phone to trade in instead of trading in a phone worth $600 that they will give you $280 for, then I don't know what to say.
By the way, i came from AT&T and I bought an iPhone 4 on CL that was from another carrier to trade in. They took it with no problem.
It's true. They have worse credit, pay late more often, etc, etc. There's a reason they are attracted to cheap service that only works well in the ghetto.
Lol ok man. It seems this ghetto service is good enough for sprint and AT&T to change their plans and offerings. Don't worry if tmobile keeps going verizon will too. Not bad for a ghetto network with a bunch of low quality customers huh?
AT&T is sending the wrong message. They shouldn't be engaging T-Mobile, they should just be advertising about how much T-Mobile's network sucks (outside of the Ghetto).
Or maybe they realize they're losing customers to tmobile. If tmobile gained over 4 million customers I gotta believe some of them are from att.
Now AT&T offers a 6 month upgrade. Hmm wonder why lol. Oh yeah even verizon does a 12 month edge program now. Gee I wonder why that is lol.
You should be thanking tmobile for making these carriers change
AT&T is playing into T-Mobile's game. They shouldn't play into it, they should just run some ads about how bad their network is.
I just thought I would mention that their list now includes a number of "dumb" phones. Nokia 6350 flip phone, Nokia 1661, Motorola E398...
The list seems to change every day.