T-Mobile finally gets the iPhone

The company announced the news at its "Uncarrier" event in New York today. It will begin selling the iPhone 5 on Friday, April 12, for a $99.99 down payment.

T-Mobile USA will offer the iPhone on its network at long last.
The company announced the news at its "Uncarrier" event in New York today. T-Mobile will begin selling the iPhone 5 on April 12 for a $99.99 down payment, and also will offer the iPhone 5 without a contract. Customers who want to finance the phone will pay $20 a month for 24 months.
CEO John Legere emphasized that with T-Mobile's new rate plans and the cost of the device, consumers will save more than $1,000 on the iPhone 5 compared to owning the same device over two years on AT&T's network. T-Mobile will offer previous iPhone models on its network, such as the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 will also operate over T-Mobile's 4G LTE network.
CNET reported Monday that an iPhone announcement was expected. T-Mobile is the last of the major carriers to get the iPhone on its network. The company is hoping that adding the iPhone will improve customer retention.
For years, T-Mobile steadily has been losing customers as its much bigger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been gaining new customers.
While T-Mobile has never offered the iPhone officially in the past, millions of T-Mobile customers use unlocked iPhones on the company's network. The devices, however, do not perform as well as those using AT&T's network. The main reason: AT&T and T-Mobile use different radio frequencies for their 3G and HSPA+ networks.
To that end, T-Mobile is in the midst of a major network upgrade, aligning its frequencies for 3G and HSPA+ service with those of AT&T. What this means for T-Mobile users is that 3G and HSPA+ devices made for AT&T should be able to get top speeds in markets where the network migration is complete.

The iPhone is now in T-Mobile's hands, and plans.

T-Mobile also announced the launch of its new 4G LTE network at today's event. While AT&T uses a different frequency than T-Mobile for the bulk of its LTE network, AT&T uses some AWS spectrum for LTE. As a result, devices, such as the iPhone 5, that support LTE for AT&T's network also include radios that are compatible with AWS spectrum, which is the type of wireless spectrum that T-Mobile is using for its LTE network. This means that LTE devices -- like the iPhone 5, the BlackBerry Z10, and the recently LTE-upgraded Galaxy Note 2 -- should work at top speed on T-Mobile's LTE network.

Apple iPhone 5

The bottom line: The iPhone 5 completely rebuilds the iPhone on a framework of new features and design, addressing its major previous shortcomings. It's absolutely the best iPhone to date, and it easily secures its place in the top tier of the smartphone universe.

Priced At: $199.99 to $715.00 

 

SOURCE: news.cnet.com