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The Soon-to-be-New iPhone and T-Mobile...

R

Rai Saix

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 17, 2009
89
0
So I've seen this discussion before, and it's almost an obligatory topic with the new iPhone presumably days away. I want to talk about T-Mobile.

Now, there have been a lot of rumors about the iPhone going to Verizon once the exclusivity contract is up, and I won't be suprised if they come true. But I want to ask why its so unlikely that the next iPhone will come to T-Mobile. For me, it would seem an obvious choice since both it and AT&T are GSM carriers. Now I know they operate at different frequencies, so some internal components will have to be tweaked, but that still seems a lot easier than switching over to a CDMA network. And yet still it seems unlikely that the iPhone is destined for us anytime soon. Why is that?

I know you're asking why I wouldn't just switch to Verizon of AT&T. It's simply due to contract problems, and how expensive AT&T is compared to our unlimited data and text plan right now. I don't claim to be an expert on anything, so if this is an obvious answer than please be kind. I'd also like to make it know that I did use the search, but didn't come up with much relevant to this update.

In short, can we get a discussion going on either the likelihood of the iPhone coming to T-Mobile in this update, or in the future however far off?
 
Sounds plausible, but T mobile uses different frequencies. This may be easy for Apple to change the phone for.
 
iphonetic said:
Sounds plausible, but T mobile uses different frequencies. This may be easy for Apple to change the phone for.
Click to expand...

You basically restated exactly what the OP said. Nice.

I completely agree with the TMobile argument though.

I still don't understand the benefits of exclusivity for Apple. I understand that at the beginning they were getting subsidies from AT&T so more customers could get the iPhone in their hands, but is this still necessary?

I wish Apple would open up the iPhone to all major carriers that way AT&T's network can be relieved of the pressure it currently faces.

It would be nice to have some extra bandwidth even now and then.
 
I wondered what the advantage of exclusivity was ever since its introduction. I of course see it's initial advantages now, but I am still bewildered as to why it's still helping Apple...
 
Rai Saix said:
I wondered what the advantage of exclusivity was ever since its introduction. I of course see it's initial advantages now, but I am still bewildered as to why it's still helping Apple...
Click to expand...

Easier for them to control being on one carrier to start... apple is very restrictive.
 
Rai Saix said:
I wondered what the advantage of exclusivity was ever since its introduction. I of course see it's initial advantages now, but I am still bewildered as to why it's still helping Apple...
Click to expand...

Because ATT pays for the exclusivity. Basically Apple gets money for NOT making more phones.

Plus, since T-Mobile's coverage is much more spotty, we'd probably be hearing a lot more complaints about the iPhone, which Apple certainly doesn't want.
 
IlliniDude said:
Because ATT pays for the exclusivity. Basically Apple gets money for NOT making more phones.
Click to expand...

Ok, that sounds plausible (I really have no idea) but wouldn't apple more money if they went with T-Mo, i.e., selling phones. Plus could apple negotiate a lucrative deal with t-mo?

I'm just thinking how the exclusive deal is helping AT&T but is offering very little in exchange, at least financially.
 
steve said last night the fact that they dont want to change the way the phone works for one carrier already puts this down. maybe if they made their 3g work with the iphone instead the other way around.
 
goobot said:
steve said last night the fact that they dont want to change the way the phone works for one carrier already puts this down. maybe if they made their 3g work with the iphone instead the other way around.
Click to expand...
That can't happen. T-Mobile has to use the frequencies they own licenses for. They can't just make their 3G work with the iPhone.
 
maflynn said:
Ok, that sounds plausible (I really have no idea) but wouldn't apple more money if they went with T-Mo, i.e., selling phones. Plus could apple negotiate a lucrative deal with t-mo?

I'm just thinking how the exclusive deal is helping AT&T but is offering very little in exchange, at least financially.
Click to expand...

It's good business to stay with ATT. I don't know how to explain it...well, it's like playing a card you don't have to play you know? Apple is extremely successful with ATT, everything is going GREAT with them and the iPhone, and to top it all off they still have an ace in the hole (the ability to expand to different carriers). In Countries around the world including here in Canada they've expanded to pretty much all the carriers but that's only because our population is so tiny, we don't have a really large number of people using 1 carrier.

ATT pays for exclusivity, the iPhone is still super successful, and when the time is right they'll play the expansion card and become even more wildly successful than ever. Pretty smart for a lot of reasons to save it until it's necessary. Verizon missed the boat, Apple wanted to go with them, they rejected the iPhone so they went with ATT. I'm sure there was a grudge really early on as well. Stick it to em and be successful at the same time.
 
It seems some people do not know the iphone is already in use in European countries. I'm not sure of the specifics, but Tmo has it.

I know someone who uses a jailbroken iphone on Tmos network right now, so that's not the issue. I'm not sure what generation of iphone it is, so that may be part of the reason if the new iphone would not work on Tmo's network.

Also .... just take this with a grain of salt ..... I personally spoke with a CSR at Tmo to help my girlfriend's bill get situated (me being a former wireless carrier CSR), and the rep told me they were going to get the new iphone around June. That was about 2 months ago. The CSR couldn't give me the specifics but did say the exclusivity agreement was ending, so they would be able to sell it. He could not give me specific details but told me to check forums, if I didn't believe him. Obviously, I think we would have heard something by now if that was true. Nonetheless, the CSR was pretty convincing at the time.

I certainly, and whole-heartedly, would welcome Apple's iPhone on Tmo! :)
 
Soon-to-be-new? This is the Apple iPhone we're talking about, it should be soon-to-be-outdated iPhone :p
 
Wasn't the contract extended to 2012 recently?? That kinda sucks for non AT&T users. Hopefully that isn't the case and it will release on other carriers this summer with the release of the 4G iPhone. In Canada Rogers never had an exclusive deal with Apple to carry the iPhone, they were just the only GSM based carrier in Canada that could support the iPhone. But when Bell and Telus released their new HSPA+ network this past November the iPhone was immediately released on November 4th 2009 for Bell and November 5th 2009 for Telus. Now the 4 main carriers in Canada (Bell,Telus,Fido and Rogers) carry the iPhone. I believe most of the main carriers in Europe carry the iPhone as well.

In the end Apple is only hurting themselves because when the iPhone first came out, every phone wanted to be like it and have similar features etc. Now present times you have all the Android stuff and HTC this Nexus that. People aren't going to wait forever for the iPhone to be released on their Carrier and instead will opt for those other phones instead of the almighty iPhone.
 
That would be great.
Tmobile has good coverage and just boosted their 3G speeds in my area.
Also their plans are cheaper. If they did release it for tmobile all they gotta do is include their 3G frequency. It would work and do everything the AT&T iphone does.
Alot easier than making a whole new CDMA iphone for Sprint and Verizon.
 
IlliniDude said:
Because ATT pays for the exclusivity. Basically Apple gets money for NOT making more phones.
Click to expand...

Must be a damn good sum cause you're also losing the market of millions stuck in contracts for the next two years. Exclusivity(?) as a whole is just a terrible business concept in my opinion
 
The biggest difference between Verizon and T-Mobile is the number of customers. Verizon is the largest cell provider in the U.S. and, therefore, could be very appealing for Apple. T-Mobile only has about half as many customers, so unfortunately is probably not worth the extra effort.

As others have previously mentioned, the iPhone is available on T-Mobile in other countries. This is because elsewhere T-Mobile uses the worldwide standard 3G frequencies (this is also what makes AT&T such a good fit for the U.S. market...Apple can manufacture one version of the phone that can be used in almost all of the world's major markets). The original iPhone (and presumably all of the others for 2G only) works on T-Mobile US because they use the international 2G frequencies, but their 3G frequencies are unique to the entire world.

GS
 
Sprint is the sleeper pick, they don't rip on apple or Att. I say sprint on 6/7/10 release date 6/18/10 @5:00 pm,
 
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