T-Mobile is the 3rd largest U.S. wireless carrier behind Verizon and AT&T. Owned by German parent company, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile has been using its “Uncarrier” marketing campaign to grow its market share since 2013.
With what seems like a good amount of success over the past few years, T-Mobile continues to announce new initiatives like discounted plans for seniors, Netflix included with service, and pushing competitors to bring back unlimited data plans.
As of April 29, 2018, T-Mobile has joined forces with Sprint and will now be re-branded to simply T-Mobile, with the Sprint brand completely going away.
Just like Verizon, T-Mobile has chosen to side with Samsung in its fight against Apple reportsFoss Patents. T-Mobile’s reason, in response to a preliminary injunction proposed by Apple, is that they don’t want key 4G devices to be banned for the holiday season. And since it doesn’t look like T-Mobile is getting the iPhone anytime soon, Samsung’s 4G phones could be a big part of their sales. Check out T-Mobile’s response below:
I have taken the position that the AT&T merger with T-Mobile was kind of like gravity. It had to occur, because you had a company with a T-Mobile that had the spectrum but didn’t have the capital to build it out. AT&T needed the spectrum, they didn’t have it in order to take care of their customers, and so that match had to occur.
I don’t think that I’ve heard a rationale for the merger stated more succinctly.
But coming from AT&T and T-Mobile’s biggest rival, you know it is a bunch of horses**t.
Since when does a company CEO say something to the effect of “We want our competitors to be stronger and better equipped to compete with us and take our customers”?
The reason why Verizon is in favor of the deal is because it eliminates a low-cost player in the market and brings the U.S. closer to a telecom duopoly, in which AT&T and Verizon can set prices. Just recently, Verizon was forced to offer a $50 pre-paid data plan that competes with Sprint’s Virgin and T-Mobile. With Verizon/AT&T running the show, they won’t need to make moves like that.
It’s pretty obvious to anyone not on an AT&T or Verizon payroll (including fifteen members of Congress led by North Carolina’s Heath Shuler) that a merger would be horrific for wireless competition in this country.
No one with an eighth-grade education really believes that any merger, telecom or otherwise, has ever created jobs or competition in the marketplace which is what AT&T is somehow trying to argue. Hopefully this thing is killed. Soon. Expand Expanding Close
TmoNewsthinks it scooped a possible evidence that Apple will be announcing its next iPhone in about two weeks time. The site cites “a huge number of emails” they received, which apparently mention “that T-Mobile has called an “All Hands Day” meeting for September 24th for unknown reasons”. September 24 is a Saturday, ruling out the possibility of an Apple media event that day. It could be also just T-Mobile prepping for another product arrival, such as the Galaxy S II, or some non-Apple related marketing and sales initiative. Also, Boy Genius Report offers that the memo actually refers to a high-volume day, which does not compute since iPhone 5 is not expected to hit stores before October.
On the other hand, 9to5Macheard that Apple could begin accepting pre-orders for the next iPhone as early as Friday, September 30. If T-Mobile USA gets the handset, as rumored, they would want to brief employees at least a week before pre-orders start. And T-Mobile holding a meeting on Saturday, September 24, could mean an Apple media event earlier that week, in which case invites should be sent out sometime in the next week or so. Expand Expanding Close
While it may seem obvious, Sprint is telling its dealers not to discuss the possibility of an upcoming iPhone 5 according to SprintFeed.
If the nation’s third largest carrier wasn’t getting the iPhone, would they put in such harsh lockdown measures? Why not instruct employees to tell customers to look at a nice Blackberry or Android instead? Color us skeptical.
We just posted images that allegedly show the ‘iPhone 4S’ body, an entry-level iPhone that Apple is rumored to release alongside the iPhone 5. Now, MacPost (viaMacRumors) has published images of what they describe as the “iPhone 5 EVT prototype (N94) back cover”.
The report notes that we found references to the “N94” in the iOS 5.0 SDK earlier this year, which we suspect could be an A5-powered next-gen iPhone (whether it’s the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 is still unclear). While it’s obvious this is an “early development prototype” thanks to the “’07-June-2011” markings, we can’t help but notice it bears a striking resemblance to the iPhone 4 variant that BGR reported was being tested for T-Mobile.
The leaked images today back up rumors of an A5 processor, antenna redesign, and more than likely support for T-mobile. There is still no way of telling whether we’re looking at an upgraded iPhone 4 that will act as an entry-level model, or perhaps an iPhone 4S variant that will become the iPhone 5. However, the prototype in the image, at least, doesn’t seem to support mocks ups based on evidence from leaked case designs pointing to a more streamlined design for the next-gen iPhone. Expand Expanding Close
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who chairs the Senate’s Antitrust Subcommitteee, is calling for regulators to block the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile:
“I have concluded that this acquisition, if permitted to proceed, would likely cause substantial harm to competition and consumers, would be contrary to antitrust law and not in the public interest, and therefore should be blocked by your agencies.”
“We believe that AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile would be a troubling backward step in federal public policy–a retrenchment from nearly two decades of promoting competition and open markets to acceptance of a duopoly in the wireless marketplace,” House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., wrote in their letter to FCC and the Justice Department. “Such industry consolidation could reduce competition and increase consumer costs at a time our country can least afford it.”
Not exactly what AT&T wants to hear. T-Mobile, if it gets out of this AT&T merger, also gets a $3+B check from AT&T for the dance. Expand Expanding Close
As AT&T tries to swallow up the American wing of the German telekom, many have wondered whether Apple would allow T-Mobile to carry the iPhone. Apple’s answer so far is a no*, but that hasn’t stopped T-Mobile customers from adopting iPhones. In huge numbers.
In a meeting with T-Mobile spokespeople today ahead of the NYC Pepcom event, I received word that there are actively over a million Apple iPhones currently on T-Mobile’s network. When asked for a breakdown, the spokesman said the majority were pre-iPhone 4 but that a significant amount of people had “taken the scissors” to their T-Mobile SIM cards. T-Mobile doesn’t currently offer a Micro-SIM solution for Apple’s iPhone 4 so people who want to use the iPhone 4 must modify their SIMs into MicroSIMs. Those using iPhone 4s also won’t receive T-Mobile’s 3G or 4G data speeds because of the radio differences between the networks.
When asked to elaborate further on Micro-SIMs, the spokesman told me they are in the works but there was no time frame for release. Why not wait until the deal with AT&T is over to make MicroSIMs? Perhaps we’ll have a little surprise come September.
When asked specifically about the possibility of a T-Mobile USA iPhone, T-Mobile said they have nothing to announce at this time. Expand Expanding Close
Since BGR broke the news that Apple is testing, or has tested, a version of the iPhone that works on T-Mobile USA’s network, we started thinking about the future of the iPhone. Specifically, the fifth-generation product that is not too far off from public consumption. Right now, the iPhone 5 – or whatever Apple ends up calling it – does not seem to be such a big hardware upgrade. Sure there are reports that peg a gesture-based home button and 3.7 inch display (which we would love), but more reports are talking an iPhone 4 design, an A5 chip, and possibly a better camera.
What could Apple throw into the purported iPhone 5 package to make it a better device and a device that more people would buy? Right now, the general consensus is that Apple is going to use a Qualcomm chip within the iPhone 5 that can connect to both Verizon (CDMA) and AT&T (GSM) networks around the world. What about T-Mobile? Apple is obviously testing the T-Mobile iPhone (4S?) and with the technology available for Apple to create an antenna system that supports both types of GSM networks, what stops Apple from making an AT&T+T-Mobile iPhone 5? We received an unconfirmed report, from a connected individual, that Apple is actually testing a device that runs on both networks…
“This transaction is very instrumental” in improving network service, said Stephenson at the event. “Virtually on the day you close the deal, getting a 30 percent lift in capacity in New York City: that’s a significant improvement in call quality and data throughput.”
Other things that would have helped: Adding capacity at the same rate you were adding customers.
We are hearing from our connections with sources at Foxconn that the next-generation iPhone will include an iPhone 4-like design, and now we have some more information: parts.
Replace Base helped us get our hands on the dock connector and headphone jack flex. While these parts don’t look all to interesting to the normal eye, we had our friends at the iFixYouri iPhone repair shop take a look at these parts to basically confirm a few things.
First is that, indicative of these parts, the fifth-generation iPhone will have color options: black or white. This isn’t all too surprising – seeing we’re seeing a white iPhone 4 soon – but it’s still worth mentioning for fans of white devices.
Next is the iPhone home button. Some rumors from earlier this year pointed to future iPhones lacking physical home buttons. The dock connector for the iPhone 5 seems to refute all that as the home button connector is present on the piece.
Next is the headphone jack flex: It’s redesigned. Although the redesign of an internal part that the consumer will never see does not seem exciting, the engineering aspect of it certainly does. The connection piece to the iPhone’s motherboard usually sits at the top of the cable but on the next iPhone, it sits on the middle of the cable.
Apple moving the headphone jack flex motherboard connector elsewhere could mean that Apple might be making room for something new in the device. Our speculation ranges from a beefier processor, more storage, a bigger battery, a better camera, a 4G chip, a Gobi CDMA/GSM chip, to NFC. At this point there is no way to tell.
Price conscious UK consumers are already grappling with declining public services and public sector jobs and a huge climb in VAT — perhaps that’s why Orange sold just 1,000 iPads in the first week the products went on sale via the carrier in the UK.
As has been widely-reported, Orange is one of the first UK networks to offer the 3G/Wi-Fi iPad at a subsidized price in the UK to customers signing-up for a 24-month service contract. The subsidy means you can get an iPad for just £199, so long as consumers agree to a £25/month contract. Expand Expanding Close
The payWall St. Journal is reporting that T-Mobile’s exclusivity contract in Gemany is ending and O2 and Vodafone are picking up the iPhone for the holiday season.
