T-Mobile USA will hold a media event in New York City where it will likely flesh out the details of its new "Un-carrier" business model, including its switch to Value plans without subsidies and the launch of its LTE network.
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T-Mobile will hold a media event March 26. |
T-Mobile, which has also pledged to launch Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) products this year, may use the occasion to detail its plans to carry the iPhone, though the focus will likely be on T-Mobile's new pricing and branding. "We're still a wireless company," the invitation states. "We're just not going to act like one anymore."
For months T-Mobile executives have been hinting that a massive shift is coming from the company. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in January that the carrier expected to begin offering the iPhone "in three or four months." The carrier will also discontinue its phone subsidies when it launches the iPhone, he said. Further, T-Mobile confirmed it will launch its first LTE markets by the end of the month, beginning its race to catch up to its larger competitors. The carrier plans to cover 100 million POPs with LTE on its 1700 MHz AWS spectrum by mid-2013 and 200 million by year-end.
However, the biggest change will likely be T-Mobile's shift away from the traditional U.S. carrier model of offering a subsidized device in exchange for a two-year contract. Under T-Mobile's Value postpaid plans, customers can pay the full cost of a device upfront in exchange for a lower monthly rate. Alternatively, after a down payment, customers can pay off the cost of their device in monthly installments over the course of 20 months.
It's not yet clear how exactly the new plans will be priced, but according to leaked internal T-Mobile brochures posted by the blog TMoNews, customers will pay $50 for unlimited voice, texting and 500 MB of data and can upgrade to a $70 plan to get unlimited data. Then, customers who have approved credit backgrounds can pay an extra $20 per month to cover the cost of their device, the brochure states. According to the Twitter account @evleaks, the plans will not come with an annual contract and most smartphones will be available for a $100 down payment.
For more:
- see this AllThingsD article
- see this The Verge article
- see this TMoNews article
- see this evleaks post
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