Tech Report: T-Mobile To Offer iPhone Without Contract
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— T-Mobile held a press event in New York City on Tuesday where they announced they'll start selling iPhones, but will also change the way they sell those phones.
CNET reports the T-Mobile iPhone will hit the shelves on April 12, but instead of the subsidized phone that has become standard with their mandatory two-year-contracts, you'll essentially pay full price for the phone, but you can pay it all at once or in monthly installments. At the end of the day you'd own the phone without a contract.
T-Mobile To Offer iPhone Without Subsidy Or Contract
To put it in layman's terms, say you purchased a basic data plan of 2GB with unlimited talk and text. You'd pay about $50 a month for the service plus another $100 as a down payment on the phone and then $20 a month to pay off the phone because you owe them $480 (for an iPhone).
If you average it all out it will have cost you about $74 a month. So you're still paying for it, but just in a different way. When I compared it to Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon plans, T-Mobile indeed turns out to be a very good deal.
It should be noted that just because the price may end up being less than other plans that doesn't necessarily make it a better service. It should be noted that T-Mobile's 4G LTE network hasn't been completely rolled out, but the announcement came on the same day as their iPhone announcement that it would be.
Nonetheless I do think this is a game changer if you're in the market for smartphones, dropping your contract and iPhone shoppers in particular.
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