Are you sick and tired of being tied in by phone contracts, watching your monthly data, or just the current structure of major cellular companies? Well, T-Mobile is assuming that you are and at its "Uncarrier" event on tuesday, it hoped to give you your answer.
While GDC(Check out our coverage here) was the main focus of the week in San Francisco for gaming and tech news, T-Mobile took some time way across the nation in New York City to roll out its new vision to get itself out of 4th place in the mobile world. T-Mobile's biggest push is for choice and simplicity to drive new customers and incentives to pay monthly fees on the phone you want (even if you eventually leave). The changes have been in the works for some time now, and will no doubt being an evolving process (like how their prepaid service will turn out). The deal with Metro PCS is under criticism from various shareholders and investors, but it still all sets the stage for T-Mobile to gain some precious attention in the smartphone world.
It is a little unclear if the new forms of payments will actually save much money and the lack in terms of exclusive phones or a "must have" still leaves T-Mobile with a lot to do but at least some noticeably missing pieces to T-Mobile are out on the table.
T-Mobile's coverage has always been on par with what you pay for but nothing to lust after. So it's good to hear that T-Mobile has already begun testing 4g LTE networks in 7 major cities and promising to double the available users within a year. The chosen cities are: Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose, Houston, Washington, Kansas City, and Baltimore. The speeds so far have been reported strong by various sources, though the much heavier usage to come may slow it down some.
Information on how the "Simple Choice" pricing options can be found here, but some new information was also released on how you will pay for your phone and throttle. Phones can either purchased unlocked at full cost or bought at a lower price with monthly payments to cover the rest. Now the way the contracts stay off the table is when you want to leave you have two more options: pay the remain balanced upfront or continue to pay the monthly fee. Now this can work against you decide to leave but still owe a balance larger than what an early termination fee would be. Since T-Mobile's termination fee was relatively low, it's something to watch out for. You also do have the option to bring over unlocked phones or use trade in credit.
In terms of hardware of the biggest devices announced is none other than the iPhone 5. The well speculated phone will go on sale April 12th ,and we now
got the official costs within the new setup. A 16gb iPhone will go for 579$ unlocked or 99$ upfront with 24 month of 20$ payments to cover the rest. There is going to be a decent lineup of phones for around 99$ as well including the BlackBerry Z10, HTC One, and also the Samsung’s Galaxy S IV on May 1.
Our current market is plague by subsidised products and locked in contracts so T-Mobile is on to something by trying to at least offer change. In the words of T-Mobile chief executive John Legere, "Stop the Bullshit!"
For more information to come on T-Mobile check back to Entertainment Fuse.
