T-Mobile USA Claims Next iPhone Chipset Will Support Carrier's AWS Bands

[chandra.hp]

Look again, that should be $65/line, or $130/2 lines. So the calculations should be:

T-Mobile Value Plan for two lines:
2 4Ss: $1300
$130/month (5GB data cap) for 24 months: $3120
Total: $4420

I am on a T-Mobile family plan but it is an older grandfathered My Faves plan, and I have looked into the Value plan to see if it would save us money but it would actually cost more even on a monthly basis. Plus we would pay full price for the phones (I am the only one out of 5 lines with an iPhone).

My mistake. I had assumed it was $65 for the two lines. Didn't realize it was per line per month. Then yeah... it's a waste.

Looking at it more closely their Value plans become a better deal as you add lines. $110 for 4 lines with 2 gigs of data. Not bad if you can score a phone for less than $400.

 

[cvaldes]

i love how the US has all this different bands yet none seem to work perfectly ^^ why not just stick to one and try to make it better like the rest of the world

Too late. The FCC has already sold these frequencies to various carriers.

The real root of the problem was the FCC letting multiple cellular technologies proliferate, rather than imposing some sort of industry standard.

The EU made a wise decision in stipulating that GSM/UTMS would be the cellular technology deployed. Note that there will always be various frequencies in various parts of the world as legacy services may be occupying any particular part of the spectrum.

The 700MHz North American spectrum (ultimately acquired by Verizon and AT&T) was freed up after analog television terrestrial broadcasting was legally ended.

 

[chrmjenkins]

Too late. The FCC has already sold these frequencies to various carriers.

The real root of the problem was the FCC letting multiple cellular technologies proliferate, rather than imposing some sort of industry standard.

The EU made a wise decision in stipulating that GSM/UTMS would be the cellular technology deployed. Note that there will always be various frequencies in various parts of the world as legacy services may be occupying any particular part of the spectrum.

The 700MHz North American spectrum (ultimately acquired by Verizon and AT&T) was freed up after analog television terrestrial broadcasting was legally ended.

Plus, there's only so many users you can fit in a given frequency band.

 

[marcusj0015]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I think it's great that T-Mobile is talking up the iPhone but why would apple allow a sinking ship to carry it?

Sure in the end it's about profits but look at sprint who practically put themselves with a big debt burden to get it.

Tmobile just doesn't seem like they could afford it and I highly doubt DT is going to pump even more money into the US considering they still haven't been paid back for the debt that's still owed

WTF? So Apple shouldn't sell the iPhone just because t-mobile is dying? wtf are you on man.

 

[doctor-don]

I don't think so, because it sounds like it's a physical HARDWARE change that will be going into the iPhone 5.

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Well, there is some truth to the question. A few weeks ago people on T-Mobile were reporting getting 3G service in the southwestern United States in small parts. People have speculated it's because of a bandwidth/spectrum restructure from all the bonus revenue that came in from the failed merger with AT&T. Screen captures and speed tests seemed to verify that they were operating at 3G speed. Who knows?

So you seem to imply that when I see 4G on my phone's (Sensation / T-Mobile) display, I am not getting 4G speed.

 

[doctor-don]

My mistake. I had assumed it was $65 for the two lines. Didn't realize it was per line per month. Then yeah... it's a waste.

Looking at it more closely their Value plans become a better deal as you add lines. $110 for 4 lines with 2 gigs of data. Not bad if you can score a phone for less than $400.

My Family Plan ($49.99 for 600 minutes - more communicating is done via e-mail and texting since it doesn't impinge on the recipient's time) has 4 lines (add $20 for the additional 2 lines), one Data at $30 per month with a 5 GB cap, $20 for unlimited texting for all lines, and the total bill is $137 this month. That leaves $17 per month for taxes, fees and payoffs to governments.

P.S. I have been a customer since 1997. That may be the primary reason I do not own an iPhone.

 

[jasomill]

AT&T roaming

Another interesting open question for existing iPhone T-Mobile users is whether the recently-announced (i.e., as the merger was called off) 3G roaming agreement will allow T-Mo iPhones to roam on AT&T 3G in areas where T-Mobile AWS 3/4G is available. If I had to guess, I'd say yes, because AT&T needs to load-balance 3G on T's PCS spectrum a whole lot more than T needs to roam on AT&T where they already have 3/4G deployed, and T's million+ existing iPhone users are unlikely to be of the "data hog" type, given that we tolerate EDGE.

This is another reason I'd guess the PCS refarming won't be as limited as some seem to think — it'll probably happen in most markets where T has ample PCS spectrum (currently used only for GSM/EDGE).

 

[dontwalkhand]

Judging by the LTE statements, I think that an AT&T T-Mobile roaming agreement is in order, where the networks can load balance each other. I think that if T-Mobile ever gets LTE, it'll be in the form of an AT&T roaming agreement at first. (Kind of like Sprint & Clear)

 

[chrmjenkins]

Judging by the LTE statements, I think that an AT&T T-Mobile roaming agreement is in order, where the networks can load balance each other. I think that if T-Mobile ever gets LTE, it'll be in the form of an AT&T roaming agreement at first. (Kind of like Sprint & Clear)

If T-mobile stays around, they have to go to LTE eventually. LTE-advanced will be capable of 100+ mbps speeds (the original standard for '4G') which I don't think you're ever going to get existing WCDMA 3G standards to, no matter the modulation scheme. 84 Mbps has been talked about, but I simply don't think they'll have the backhaul any time soon to come near that. LTE is superior for high data rate mobile applications.

 

[yeah]

Apple, if your hearing this, please don't upset your future iPhone costumers.
MILLIONS of people are patiently waiting for the iPhone to come to T-Mobile (including me).

 

[pilot1226]

So you seem to imply that when I see 4G on my phone's (Sensation / T-Mobile) display, I am not getting 4G speed.

My response was more about EDGE vs. 3G for iPhone users on T-Mobile. I am not familiar with your phone or phone setup.

 

[JediZenMaster]

WTF? So Apple shouldn't sell the iPhone just because t-mobile is dying? wtf are you on man.

Okay so its obvious you haven't had your reality pill. How much sense does it make to allow a carrier which said that LTE is not important to carry the iPhone?

The company has no sense of direction at all.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Okay so its obvious you haven't had your reality pill. How much sense does it make to allow a carrier which said that LTE is not important to carry the iPhone?

The company has no sense of direction at all.

They were fine until AT&T almost killed them entirely (thanks to DT). T-Mobile USA needs to get FAR AWAY from DT as humanly possible. DT is killing them.

I remembered in 2001 T-Mobile was a FINE network, and they had a roaming agreement with Cingular to allow for Verizon-like coverage, then ATT came along and killed Cingular, and now they want to kill T-Mobile too.

 

[Mr. Blonde]

This would rock~ Go T-Mobile!

 

[Chris CA]

Big thumbs up for this. Would be great to have a nicely priced competitor like T-Mobile with the iPhone. My bill would be $40 less than Sprint for 2 lines on the Value family plan, with unlimited minutes and texts and unlimited data throttled after 2GB. I'd take that in a second.

That's assuming T-Mo wouldn't raise the price when they get the iPhone (bet they will/would).

 

[rumz]

That's assuming T-Mo wouldn't raise the price when they get the iPhone (bet they will/would).

IMO, the only thing T-Mobile would have to change is their ETF to cover the higher subsidy on the iPhone, just as Sprint did. (Doesn't mean they wouldn't bump up their plans a bit if they expected increased cost of operating their network or something along those lines, I guess...)

The way their current value plans work, if you want a subsidized phone, that's a separate part of your bill-- you sign an agreement to pay $x for 20 months to pay for the subsidized portion of the phone's value, and that contract is independent of your rate plan / contract.

(So, hypothetically speaking, for a 16gb iPhone 4S, you'd have an additional $22.50 / month payment just for that phone-- but then when the phone is paid off after 20 payments, you no longer have that $22.50 payment-- just your base rate plan. On other carriers, it doesn't matter if or when you take advantage of your phone upgrade eligibility-- your overall rate stays the same unless you change your whole plan, and usually it's not going to get cheaper.)

 

[blue22]

T-mobile is underrated...

When the iPhone 4S launched I did a comparison chart of similar individual plans between the big 4 USA telecoms to see which one offered the better value overall, and strictly speaking on total cost of operating service T-Mobile USA is by far the least expensive carrier to use, between 20%-40% less over 24 months. Now, if they can manage to get it working at 3G speeds I don't see how this isn't a compelling argument to strongly consider using T-Mobile with your iPhone.

 

[dontwalkhand]

Image

When the iPhone 4S launched I did a comparison chart of similar individual plans between the big 4 USA telecoms to see which one offered the better value overall, and strictly speaking on total cost of operating service T-Mobile USA is by far the least expensive carrier to use, between 20%-40% less over 24 months. Now, if they can manage to get it working at 3G speeds I don't see how this isn't a compelling argument to strongly consider using T-Mobile with your iPhone.

I think you just gave T-Mobile a graphic to use on their website if they come out with the iPhone...make sure you get paid for this

 

[blue22]

I think you just gave T-Mobile a graphic to use on their website if they come out with the iPhone...make sure you get paid for this

Thanks. They need all the help they can get, right?

 

[marcusj0015]

Okay so its obvious you haven't had your reality pill. How much sense does it make to allow a carrier which said that LTE is not important to carry the iPhone?

The company has no sense of direction at all.

Dude, sorry, unlike you I don't read everything these bickering companies do and say, sorry, I'm not into reality TV.

 

[vikingjunior]

If I was T Mobile just to piss Apple off I would put all my 3g/4g on PCS 1900 and watch the masses come into the T mobile store with there unlocked fully paid iphones.

 

[rumz]

If I was T Mobile just to piss Apple off I would put all my 3g/4g on PCS 1900 and watch the masses come into the T mobile store with there unlocked fully paid iphones.

I fail to see how this would piss off Apple. It would just mean they sell a few more phones and don't have to do anything special to sell them (vs having to create a penta-band phone or alternate hardware for T-Mo). I mean, Apple sells a factory unlocked phone-- there are few reasons to do that other than for selling phones that will work on other carriers, be they domestic or foreign.

The only people who would not care for this scenario are the ones who want T-Mobile to subsidize their iPhone purchase up front-- they'd rather have iPhones available to purchase from T-Mobile.

 

[twoodcc]

the more carriers that the iphone is on, the better! so i hope the iphone does come to t-mobile

 

[romickla]

about time. 'Nuf said.