For years T-Mobile has been the odd man out when it comes to offering the iPhone in the U.S. Not anymore: Today T-Mobile, billing itself as the “Uncarrier,” announced it would begin selling the iPhone 5 on its just-launched 4G LTE network ancestry April 12.
T-Mobile is selling the iPhone starting at $99 up front, no contract, followed by 20 months of $20 payments on top of periodical pre-paid data plans. This is a sharp contrast to AT& adenosine monophosphate;T, Verizon, and Sprint, which all require two-year contracts after you purchase a subsidized iPhone. You can also purchase the iPhone at in effect(p) price on T-Mobile and nix the $20 monthly fees.
In plus to the iPhone 5, T-Mobile willing begin selling a number of former(a) big-name 4G devices: the Samsung Galaxy S4, BlackBerry Z10, Samsung Galaxy Note II and HTC One. T-Mobile will also begin selling its own wireless hotspot, the transonic 2.0 Mobile HotSpot LTE.
T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network will creation in seven major markets: Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, and Washington, D.C. It will cover hundred million Americans by mid-year, and double that by the end of 2013.
T-Mobile’s announcement wasn’t entirely unexpected. Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent company, support in December that T-Mobile would begin selling apple products in 2013. The carrier also announced that it would launch its 4G LTE network this year. And a report Monday indicated that the iPhone would play a prominent role in today’s “Uncarrier” event.
The iPhone originally launched as an exclusive with AT&T in 2007. Verizon began selling the iPhone 4 in January 2011, and Sprint began selling the iPhone with the launch of the 4S in uphill passage of arms to retain subscribers. The carrier hopes that its “different” approach to selling Apple’s flagship handset — that is, with no contract and no subsidy, with customers except making a small initial payment polar with charges on top of their monthly service plan.
Is it too lowly too late? Time will tell, but with distributively new iPhone that’s announced, it anecdotally seems that more and more are defecting from AT&T to Verizon and Sprint. Now T-Mobile can get a piece of that action, too.
Materials taken from WIRED
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