You can pay for the whole thing upfront and they will unlock the phone. That is my understanding.
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T-Mobile USA Launches iPhone, Rolls Out New TV Ad
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You can pay for the whole thing upfront and they will unlock the phone. That is my understanding.
It's interesting how little apple has actually mentioned this launch. I recall them doing something when Verizon did. Even on apple site to order the phone it looks like an after thought and clumped in w/ unlocked. also more importantly how little the apple stores know that this version tmo iphone 5 is different than the unlocked one they sold last dec. it picks up their faster band. Very odd the stores I called all think this is the same exact 5 as the factory unlocked of dec 2012. Apparently it's not. Which means anyone that wants the faster tmo speeds has to rebuy one
Did they come out with revised versions of the 4S and 4 too? It appears as though T-Mobile is selling both, in addition to the iPhone 5.
No, I believe that Apple only modified the iPhone 5 to support the 3G T-Mobile bands.
It would be even better if we still didn't have plans which make Europeans laugh.
Well, that's pretty stupid of them to offer the 4 and 4S, then... Only a small portion of their network has been refarmed!
I think that once you put in your location information, T-Mobile adjusts what is available, so if you don't live in an area that has been refarmed, or is planned on being refarmed in the near future, they won't list them as available to you.
But...but you can be on TMobile's superior blazing fast EDGE network. That's basically all you run on anyways, even with a 5
On A1428's that were purchased prior to 12 April.. but the new 5's will work just fine on all of Tmo's networks.. It is a shame that Edge and 1900mhz 4g is all the old ones get.. But like I said, I'm pretty certain that Tmo will only be selling the 4's and 4S iPhones to people in markets with refarmed 1900mhz 4G.. people who port their own phones over in other markets will get what they get..
Offer not available everywhere.
Long time lurker, first time poster. I thought I would share my experience I had today with T-Mobile and this "offer".
One word comes to mind "horrible".
After explaining how great this "offer" was to my spouse, I recieved the green light to move our two iPhones from AT&T to T-Mobile. I left the house today at 1400, with my 32 GB iPhone 4 and her old 3GS (just to move the data over to the new phone). In speaking with the nice sales representative who neither her nor any of the other staff had heard of this offer, I was told that.
1. They would only be able to provide the 16GB models. No store currently has any of the higher capacity's stocked. (and they only had the white models left).
2. They would not be able to honor the trade in offer due to Maryland state law, in that they would need a modification to their business license that allows them to buy back devices from their customers. (She explained it like how a "pawn shop" operates). This means not only not getting $120. credit towards the second higher capacity device I wanted to purchase, but also not forgoing the no down payment on the 16GB version I wanted to acquire as well.
3. Their solution was for me to sell my iPhone 4 at Gamestop, and use that money to buy the new iPhones. (which would actually come out to be less then if they had honored the trade-in program).
After spending about 90 minutes at this T-Mobile store (not preferred reseller), I decided to call T-Mobile from home directly to see why they were advertising something they couldn't apparently fill in my state. The first lady had no knowledge of this program, so I was put on and off hold for 40 minutes while she found out. She then attempted to pass us on to another department that actually led to another employes voice mail box that was full and hung up on us. So I called back getting another employee who had never heard of this program either. She took my information and checked to see if I was a "Well-Qualified" customer (i.e. favorable credit check) in which I was, she then successfully forwarded me on to sales, and this is where the hill going down turned into a cliff.
The gentleman who took my call, had just heard about the program by reading the link to their newsroom passed on from the previous service representative I was speaking with. So he too had never heard of it previously, in which I thought was very odd considering how much effort the other carriers went through getting their employees educated on not only the iPhones themselves but how the plans their respective companies offered worked as well when they first started offering iPhones. Anyhow, he puts me on hold and comes back after awhile telling me there is no way for them to honor it and the most he can do is give me 15% off a subsidized 2 year contract (I thought the whole point was to move away from those?). I asked him if he could tell me where the nearest store was that could honor the trade-in offer, he told me he had no way of finding out. I then asked to speak with his supervisor, after a short hold I was able to speak with him as well.
He told me that the sales department is incapable of finding out this information due to not having the correct troubleshooting tools to do so, in that they were unable to interface with the customer that way. (I am still trying to figure out how that makes any sense). I then asked him why T-Mobile has an official offer out there they obviously cannot honor. He said that is dictated higher up at corporate, I said it was tantamount to "False Advertising". With that, I thanked him for his time and concluded the call, it was 1920, I had kids to get ready for bed. Over five hours wasted just to find out the following things:
1. T-Mobile seems to have a big communication problem in their corporation. You have Chief Marketing Officers making offers that apparently the company cannot honor.
2. T-Mobile seems to have a difficult time in effectively communicating the availability and eligibility of their offers. If they would have said, "Offer only valid in the following States, all stores will only stock 16GB models initially" I would have really no reason to be sour over this whole mishandling of events.
3. Uncarrier will never succeed as long as you have your sales department pushing the same old subsidized model down the customers throat due to a clumsy roll-out attempt of a new product.
That said, I really wish they could have honored this offer. I would have liked to gotten away from AT&T while staying on a GSM phone. I wonder if Deutsche Telekom knows what a Charley Foxtrot the American T-Mobile is doing with this roll-out.
Long time lurker, first time poster. I thought I would share my experience I had today with T-Mobile and this "offer".
One word comes to mind "horrible".
After explaining how great this "offer" was to my spouse, I recieved the green light to move our two iPhones from AT&T to T-Mobile. I left the house today at 1400, with my 32 GB iPhone 4 and her old 3GS (just to move the data over to the new phone). In speaking with the nice sales representative who neither her nor any of the other staff had heard of this offer, I was told that.
1. They would only be able to provide the 16GB models. No store currently has any of the higher capacity's stocked. (and they only had the white models left).
2. They would not be able to honor the trade in offer due to Maryland state law, in that they would need a modification to their business license that allows them to buy back devices from their customers. (She explained it like how a "pawn shop" operates). This means not only not getting $120. credit towards the second higher capacity device I wanted to purchase, but also not forgoing the no down payment on the 16GB version I wanted to acquire as well.
3. Their solution was for me to sell my iPhone 4 at Gamestop, and use that money to buy the new iPhones. (which would actually come out to be less then if they had honored the trade-in program).
After spending about 90 minutes at this T-Mobile store (not preferred reseller), I decided to call T-Mobile from home directly to see why they were advertising something they couldn't apparently fill in my state. The first lady had no knowledge of this program, so I was put on and off hold for 40 minutes while she found out. She then attempted to pass us on to another department that actually led to another employes voice mail box that was full and hung up on us. So I called back getting another employee who had never heard of this program either. She took my information and checked to see if I was a "Well-Qualified" customer (i.e. favorable credit check) in which I was, she then successfully forwarded me on to sales, and this is where the hill going down turned into a cliff.
The gentleman who took my call, had just heard about the program by reading the link to their newsroom passed on from the previous service representative I was speaking with. So he too had never heard of it previously, in which I thought was very odd considering how much effort the other carriers went through getting their employees educated on not only the iPhones themselves but how the plans their respective companies offered worked as well when they first started offering iPhones. Anyhow, he puts me on hold and comes back after awhile telling me there is no way for them to honor it and the most he can do is give me 15% off a subsidized 2 year contract (I thought the whole point was to move away from those?). I asked him if he could tell me where the nearest store was that could honor the trade-in offer, he told me he had no way of finding out. I then asked to speak with his supervisor, after a short hold I was able to speak with him as well.
He told me that the sales department is incapable of finding out this information due to not having the correct troubleshooting tools to do so, in that they were unable to interface with the customer that way. (I am still trying to figure out how that makes any sense). I then asked him why T-Mobile has an official offer out there they obviously cannot honor. He said that is dictated higher up at corporate, I said it was tantamount to "False Advertising". With that, I thanked him for his time and concluded the call, it was 1920, I had kids to get ready for bed. Over five hours wasted just to find out the following things:
1. T-Mobile seems to have a big communication problem in their corporation. You have Chief Marketing Officers making offers that apparently the company cannot honor.
2. T-Mobile seems to have a difficult time in effectively communicating the availability and eligibility of their offers. If they would have said, "Offer only valid in the following States, all stores will only stock 16GB models initially" I would have really no reason to be sour over this whole mishandling of events.
3. Uncarrier will never succeed as long as you have your sales department pushing the same old subsidized model down the customers throat due to a clumsy roll-out attempt of a new product.
That said, I really wish they could have honored this offer. I would have liked to gotten away from AT&T while staying on a GSM phone. I wonder if Deutsche Telekom knows what a Charley Foxtrot the American T-Mobile is doing with this roll-out.
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FAQ on T-Mobile web site....
What are the technical trade-offs if I bring my own iPhone?
There are a couple trade-offs.
iPhones on our network today will operate at 2G speeds, but this is changing as we introduce 4G service in our iPhone-friendly spectrum.
Apples visual voicemail service will not function on these unlocked iPhones. That said, we are working on an iOS version of our T-Mobile Visual Voicemail application.
What are the technical trade-offs if I bring my own iPhone?
There are a couple trade-offs.
iPhones on our network today will operate at 2G speeds, but this is changing as we introduce 4G service in our iPhone-friendly spectrum.
Apples visual voicemail service will not function on these unlocked iPhones. That said, we are working on an iOS version of our T-Mobile Visual Voicemail application.
1. By sure where I heard/read it, but I know that it has been publicly acknowledged that the stores would initially only have the 16GB models.
2. Trade ins are a convenience thing. If their GameStop option wasn't good enough for you, you could have contacted AT&T to get them to unlock your iPhone, then sell it yourself on Craigslist. It would take a little more work, but you'd get more money out of it.
3. I believe every carrier has had hiccups when the iPhone has first been introduced to their networks, and it's clear that TMo is no exception.
4. When dealing with a long term deal that would save you a lot of money in the long run, you might want to consider being willing to deal with a few bumps in the road at the front end.
5. A little patience for such things would have put you in a better space, being on TMo's "uncarrier" plan, so you could easily switch back to AT&T anytime you wanted if their service after signing up continued to be as unsatisfactory as your experience with trying to sign up.
Fr what it's worth, my wife and I switched to TMo in January in anticipation of the release of the iPhone, and while there are some things that have been a little "bumpy", there's not really been any more than we experienced with AT&T...
Good luck with your iPhone adventures.
And that's why, when I select the 4 or the 4S, the T-Mobile site tells me these are not available in my area and please to select the 5. Even though my 3GS shows me 3G coverage pretty much all around Dallas/Ft Worth.
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Apple's VMM works just fine on our two unlocked 3GSs.
I've had an unlocked 4S for a long while now on T-Mobile. On April 12, I was prompted on my phone whether I would like to update my carrier settings. I now have 4G where I normally had EDGE!
I'm guessing T-Mobile has caught up a bit but old habits die hard. Especially large corporate habits. When Goldman Sachs wants to give its 30,000 employees cell phones, trust me they weren't considering T-Mobile. The large corporate accounts usually picked between AT&T and Verizon. Also folks that I knew in NYC often picked Verizon if their cell service was really important (like they used it for business so wanted a clear call). But this might change quickly. I'm sure technology marches on and T-Mobiles voice quality is probably fine in most places.
Agreed that at some point streaming data doesn't matter. Once you can stream video, what more do you need?
As of this morning, it is now possible to have your iPhone display as your phone being used in your MyT-Mobile account page.
Make sure it has the carrier update. When my girlfriend got hers they did it there. She is getting 4g and 3G.