By 
In case you’ve forgotten, T-Mobile is supposed to be in New York City this Wednesday (that’s tomorrow, folks) to announce some of their “boldest moves yet.” We weren’t sure what that meant when invites were first being issued, but some newly-leaked print ads the company is planning to publish give us an early hint of what we can expect to see them focus on.
For starters, the carrier is going right back after ex-lover AT&T’s throats in response to the latter’s move of extending upgrade periods from 20 months into the contract to a full 24 months.
AT&T’s big news: now you get to wait even longer. Wait, what?
This Wednesday, see how your long wait can end.
Interesting. We don’t want to assume too much just yet, but it sounds like T-Mobile could be gearing up to offer incentives for anyone not satisfied with their contract with rival carriers. Offering bill credits to take care of leaving another carrier isn’t a new practice, but that usually happens few and far between, and for very limited amounts of time. It sounds like whatever T-Mobile is cooking up could be a permanent change.or
Another theory is that T-Mobile could be giving customers an easier way to upgrade faster without having to pay the full cost of their old phone at the time of getting the new one. I could definitely see Magenta allowing customers to simply tack on the monthly installments of their new phone and allow customers to continue paying for both phones’ installments simultaneously.
Of course, I could be completely off the mark and it could be something totally different. Regardless, T-Mobile’s big, bad and bold demeanor as of late gives us reason to believe that there will be nothing to sneeze at. We’ll be covering their announcements live so don’t forget to make your way back here to find out what, exactly, T-Mobile has up its sleeve.
[via TmoNews]
You can upgrade any time on AT&T just like T-Mobile if you pay full price on phone, DUH!
Two completely different tracks though, lol.
The only difference really is that T-Mobile will give you an interest free loan and buy back your old phone and such.
Yes, that’s nice but any AT&T / Verizon user can upgrade at any time too, by paying full price.
The T-Mobile ads are borderline FUD, IMHO.
I just went from at&t to tmobile and must say i’m not impressed.Most of the time my phone is on edge
You probably should have looked at detailed coverage maps before you made that switch.
It was a money thing.I will have to live it for now.
That’s a shame most of the time I’m on LTE outside Philadelphia , and I’m a general contractor and travel allot and 90 % of the time I never leave HSPA + or there 4g , I was with sprint for 18 years, when i went to T MO, best move I ever made , but I guess it does matter where you live as NYCHitman1 Stated above………
Below :P
And above …lol
And beyond? lol
“Previously” works no matter how you sort the comments.
Why is me being on edge a thumbs down for me?
Never complain, or even acknowledge for that matter, your number of votes…it’s just tacky.
Is it an at&t phone or tmobile phone?
Yeah, I tried it also on their $30 plan… HSPA was faster than AT&T on my Nexus 4 in some spots, but not nearly as stable.
How about they’re doing a buy back program, pay on this phone for X amount of months plus the original down payment. Then, when you’re ready, trade your current phone is as a credit and use it towards what you still have to pay, and if there’s any difference either pay it or get a credit
They’re already doing that.
T-Mobile tends to be great if you’re in a large metropolitan area, not so great if you’re in rural areas.
Yeah, I been in a part of PA where there was no such thing as T-Mobile.
That’s where companies like VZW/AT&T shine. However, I’m lucky enough to not ever frequent rural areas.
Don’t feel too bad. My little brother’s nexus 4 was on edge tthewhole time he was visiting me on leave. I’m in the Dayton Ohio area, with 4g on my att and verizon phones.
Are there no mvno’s in America yet that can bridge several networks allowing fallback to AT&T when out of T-mobile’s coverage, for example?
According to tmos coverage before unsigned up my area was lit up with 4g coverage. Nope. I am on edge constantly and have had more dropped calls them I can count. Its so bad that 2 months after starting they gave me a signal booster for mu house. The quality is still horrible. Yea I’m paying $65 a month in no contract on their new no contract plan but the service horrible. I am so tempted to just pull the plug. You get what you pay for. And again my whole area shows full coverage with 3g/4g coverage lit light a Christmas tree.
This could be said of any carrier. They all have trouble-spots like you describe. Verizon has the same issues in my area where T-Mobile is crystal clear with no drops and HSPA+ as the *minimum* speed I’ll get between the several towns I travel between each day (Where Verizon lost data and calls constantly)…even though VZW says it’s all covered.
It’s very possible it could be the radio in your phone , it’s happened to me before and worth a shot at trying to get a replacement , others really nothing to lose……
They are upgrading edge to 4g hsap+ in many areas. You may want to check and see if/when they are upgrading your area to 4g. My area is getting converted over currently but I live in a metropolitan area.
It’s free meth!
I hope AT&T realizes the folly of this move and reverses it. Its one of those things they tried to slip over on us but have been caught red-handed — even the CEO has been forced to answer questions about it. It was particularly galling to see this applied to customers on existing contracts.
Doubtful, Verizon just did the same thing following suit.
Hah! The lengthened upgrade period is the main reason why I switched to T-Mobile from AT&T last month. I had no incentive renew my AT&T contract if I couldn’t upgrade early anymore, so I paid the ETF to pay off the balance of my 12-month $99 subsidized S3, hack-unlocked it (instead of code), got a free T-Mobile sim, and ported my # over in the space of a few hours, and all online.
Now I’m only paying $30/mo pre-paid for 5GB 4G + unlim text + 100min voice, instead of $70+, and getting way in return. I rarely leave NYC, and T-Mobile’s 4G coverage has proven to be equal or better.
The only downside to T-Mobile’s pre-paid is that they’ve disabled conditional call forwarding, so you can’t use Google Voice for the better “visual” voicemail and have to use theirs instead. Small tradeoff.
FYI: If anyone wants to get a free T-Mobile SIM, just use the code “99SIM” here — http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/prepaid-phone/T-Mobile-Prepaid-SIM-Activation-Kit — and instead of costing $10 + shipping, it’ll be $0 + free shipping.
Hah! The lengthened upgrade period is the main reason why I switched to T-Mobile from AT&T last month. I no longer had an incentive to renew my AT&T contract if I couldn’t upgrade early anymore, so I paid the ETF to pay off the balance of my 12-month $99 subsidized S3, hack-unlocked it (instead of code), got a free T-Mobile sim, and ported my # over in the space of a few hours, and all online.
Now I’m only paying $30/mo pre-paid for 5GB 4G + unlim text + 100min voice, instead of $70+, and getting way more service in return. I rarely leave NYC, and T-Mobile’s 4G coverage has proven to be equal or better than AT&T. Been using the Sensorly app, too, to view and map out more coverage areas.
The only downside to T-Mobile’s pre-paid is that they’ve disabled conditional call forwarding, so you can’t use Google Voice for the better “visual” voicemail and have to use theirs instead. Small tradeoff.
FYI: If anyone wants to get a free T-Mobile SIM activation kit, just use the code “99SIM” on T-mobile’s prepaid site and instead of costing $10 + shipping, it’ll be $0 + free shipping. Also, the $30/mo prepaid plan is only available if you activate online (or at walmart, afaik) – otherwise you have to pay more for their regular plans, which you might want to anyway, if you talk more than 100mins/mo, which I rarely do (and when I do, 10cents/min isn’t bad)
(EDIT: I reposted this comment because it got flagged as spam for having a direct link to t-mobile’s site)
Walk into any TMO Corporate store or Authorized retailer, not the mall kiosks, they won’t charge you for a sim, if your device is unlocked and compatable, you will walk out several minutes later with a working device.
Maybe they’ll give you a free sim if you activate in the store, but if you do, you can’t also get the $30/plan, as that’s an online-only (or walmart) thing.
It could be a little of all three. If T-Mobile is hyping this up, it better be worth it. How big would it be for them to give easy upgrades and bill credits for leaving a rival company? Nice.
I compared my Lte speeds on my note 2 from tmobile inside a supermarket in queens I got 28 mbits down and 12 up, my friend’s iphone 5 with Verizon got 4 down and 1 up.
If TMO had better phones and LTE then it would be best to leave at&t (From my prospective).
They do have great phones and LTE.
Actually Tmo already does that. If I want a newer phone I get it and I pay for the phones simultaneously. I do in fact have two phones and I can upgrade as many times as I like. I pay an initial cost upfront($100 to $200) as you do with any carrier and tack on $20 bucks a month till the phone is paid off. Having to slap down $600 in one sitting for a new Tmo phone is a myth. The thing I like is that I can pay the phones off anytime I like and my bill drops. With the other carriers you continue to pay for a phone that is already paid off.
I’m going to be very surprised if TMo doesn’t announce a boatload of new LTE markets tomorrow. I’ve had LTE in parts of Memphis for a week now, and I found a signal in Birmingham and Alabaster, AL, as well as Fort Walton Beach, FL.
Oh right – July 10th was supposed to be some big Tmobile announcement. NYC’s already got 4G, so wouldn’t affect us.