Mobile carriers like AT&T, Sprint and Verizon are going to be launching massive ad campaigns to promote the Apple iPhone this holiday season. One mobile carrier that will not be doing so, again, is T-Mobile as the company prepares for losses due to the void an iPhone could fill. The company plans on losing customers to the other three carriers and is prepared to lose more than the 389,000 customers they lost last quarter. T-Mobile isn’t losing on all ends as they increased their quarterly revenue and added about 126,000 customers due to the more affordable family plans added recently.
“Earnings improved as we continued to focus on making smartphones affordable to all Americans through our unlimited Value plans, improvements to our 4G network, and an expanding portfolio of 4G devices”, said Philipp Humm, who is the CEO for T-Mobile. The Apple iPhone is likely to be to blame for the losses this holiday season, but the company hopes that a deal with HTC will keep some around. For non-contract customers, T-Mobile is offering a “free after rebate” HTC Wildfire S phone. Even with that plan, the iPhone is likely to be more of a reason for customers to switch carriers.
T-Mobile has shown plenty of interest to sell the Apple iPhone models, but have also said that right now, the smartphone will not run properly on their 3G and 4G networks. T-Mobile is still waiting on the approval of the merger with AT&T, which would make AT&T the largest mobile carrier in the United States. There has been plenty of speculation, but T-Mobile not getting the iPhone might also have to do with the fact that AT&T already has it available. If the merger is not approved, could we see the iPhone on the T-Mobile network?
T-Mobile is still adding customers as the merger talks continue. The company has also beat earnings estimates by a large 17 percent over the last quarter. This is the first time that T-Mobile has added customers in a year and the non-contract phones are likely the cause of those numbers increasing. Even though the numbers look good for T-Mobile the earnings reports are not likely to make any difference in the decision by the Department of Justice on the merger with AT&T. T-Mobile listed 33.7 million total subscribers at the end of September.
November 14, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Here is a little heads up about those b@stard$ at T-Mobile. I recently got an unlocked iPhone and am running it on T-Mobile. I do *NOT* have a data plan on my account. I logged into my account to get a phone number from my contact list, as I have not added them to my iPhone yet. When I logged in, I saw that I was “Over My Data Limit” I was like, what the FU%$!” I called T-Mobile and spoke with a rep. She knew right away that I had an iPhone and asked me if I used the iPhone on Wi-Fi, I said yes, I have Wi-Fi at my home. She said that the iPhone is not directly supported on T-Mobile and that sometimes the iPhone will go on T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi, and that was the reason I was 48 meg over my limit. I said forgive me, but that sounds like your problem not mind. I do not have a data plan. She said that it was no problem, she could “fix” my account right away. I thanked her but said that this sounded like a lot of “BS”. I told her that I work with computers and that it could easily be “fixed”. In fact, I do not have a data plan, and have requested that I do not have any data plan or any additional features other than text messaging. She said that she understood, and would put a data block on my line. (which again, I did not have a data plan) I then said to her, there are over 1 million unlocked iPhones on T-Mobile, how many people are getting charged for data overages that they should not be??? She said it was a known problem, and they are fixing the problem on a case by case basis us users call them and wonder why they are getting charged for data overages when they do not have data plans! I said what!??? I was upset and shocked at this criminal activity!
Please spread the word!!! This is downright criminal and stealing!!! Spread the word!!!