Apple's iPhone 5 debuts on T-Mobile April 12 with $99 upfront payment plan

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 103
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    oberpongo wrote: »
    Apple is also bringing out an update to have the iPhone 5 support HSDPA on AWS. That means that the iPhone 5 will work on the current 4G network as well

    Please provide a link to backup your claim.  

    icoco3 wrote: »
    Link??  We don't need no stinkin' link to backup claims !!!!  /s

    This was clearly reported during the announcement by CNet.
  • Reply 42 of 103
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    drewyboy wrote: »

    Solip, they said they're are only claiming LTE coverage in a city if the WHOLE city is covered so there isn't any false advertisement unlike other carriers. So when they say it, they mean it. And as TBell has pointed out, the HSPA+ is all over the place with pretty stink'n fast speed.

    T-Mobile claimed that they would have 100 million customers covered with LTE by the end of 2013.
  • Reply 43 of 103
    zarenzaren Posts: 49member


    $55 a month gets you unlimited everything with Virgin Mobile. They're carrying the 4 and 4S, and you have to pay full price for the phone up front - $349 and $449, respectively. Still, you save money over two years with that $55 a month.

  • Reply 44 of 103
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    zaren wrote: »
    $55 a month gets you unlimited everything with Virgin Mobile. They're carrying the 4 and 4S, and you have to pay full price for the phone up front - $349 and $449, respectively. Still, you save money over two years with that $55 a month.

    LTE?
    Visual Voicemail?
    VoLTE?
    HSPA+ (41 Mbps) failback?
  • Reply 45 of 103
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,656member


    Well, it depends upon what the taxes and fees are.    My AT&T plan, grandfathered unlimited, including taxes and fees costs about $81 per month + $200 for the 16GB phone (I actually paid $300 for the 32GB phone).   So over 20 months that's $1820.      The T-Mobile plan is $50 for 500MB, which could come to $60 with taxes and fees.   With the phone that's $1699, only a $121 difference over the life of the plan.    The unlimited plan is $70 a month, let's say $80 with taxes and fees.   That's $2099 over 20 months including the phone.    That's $279 above what I'm currently paying.


     


    So I don't see any great bargain here.  If I want to limit my service, I can pay less with AT&T as well.     But for people who don't want to front $200 for the phone, being able to front only $99 might seem like a good deal.


     


    (Man,  I never thought I'd be defending AT&T).

  • Reply 46 of 103

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by zoetmb View Post


    Well, it depends upon what the taxes and fees are.    My AT&T plan, grandfathered unlimited, including taxes and fees costs about $81 per month + $200 for the 16GB phone (I actually paid $300 for the 32GB phone).   So over 20 months that's $1820.      The T-Mobile plan is $50 for 500MB, which could come to $60 with taxes and fees.   With the phone that's $1699, only a $121 difference over the life of the plan.    The unlimited plan is $70 a month, let's say $80 with taxes and fees.   That's $2099 over 20 months including the phone.    That's $279 above what I'm currently paying.


     


    So I don't see any great bargain here.  If I want to limit my service, I can pay less with AT&T as well.     But for people who don't want to front $200 for the phone, being able to front only $99 might seem like a good deal.


     


    (Man,  I never thought I'd be defending AT&T).



     


    I only read up to "grandfathered unlimited" and stopped because that's not what anybody is talking. Try going out and getting a new plan from ATT and see how much more it costs that T-Mobile and ATT doesn't even have unlimited data. If I had a 4 year old T-Mobile plan it would be a ton cheaper than your current ATT but there is no point in talking about that because I can't go out and get a 4 year old plan.

  • Reply 47 of 103
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,439member


    For me it's going to be simple.  In a year I'm going to look at what carrier gives me great support for 3 smartphones and 2-3 tablets.   If T-Mobile is competitive in service are and cost I'll certainly consider them. 

  • Reply 48 of 103
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,813member


    It's good to have choices. Not everyone uses their phone in the same way. Some might want to keep their phone longer than 20 months and enjoy lower prices until they upgrade. AT&T and Verizon pretty much mirror their plans with some very minor differences, so I think it is great to have more choice with Sprint, T-Mobile, along with some of the smaller regional as well as pre-paid carriers. 


     


    I don't see any reason to be loyal to a carrier anymore than you should be to any other utility or service. Go with what works best for you and that can vary from town to town and even neighborhood to neighborhood. I think people on individual plans are much more likely to test the waters with other carriers. People on family lines often have contracts ending at different dates for different phones on their plans which can make switching more problematic. 


     


    Many people are also on discount plans given by their company which can vary from 10% all the way to around 28%. You just have to do the math for your own situation and see if it makes sense to switch. But you also need to make sure you get good coverage. If you don't have friends you can ask that live in your area, sometimes it is worth it to get a dirt cheap used phone off craiglist or Ebay and try out or of course they also give you some time at the beginning to cancel. 


     


    These two sites below also are a good indication of carrier coverage since it is actual user based on not by carriers.


     


    http://www.sensorly.com


    http://www.rootmetrics.com

  • Reply 49 of 103
    dasanman69dasanman69 Posts: 13,002member
    Wow! if someone did the same here in Portugal, this means:

    Paying 100 euros for the iPhone, +20 each month 20 months. And since I am a student: unlimited voice and sms for vodafone (almost everyone), plus 350mb data each month, 7.5 euros.

    So I could have an iPhone and pay 27.5 euros each month. I pay 10 and own a crappy Android device.
    This is amazing, I wish vodafone does something similar!

    You Americans have no idea about how much you guys are raped.

    How big is the United States compared to Portugal? It costs a lot to run and maintain such large networks.
  • Reply 50 of 103
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,813member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post


    You Americans have no idea about how much you guys are raped.



    And you obviously consider phone prices the only factor in life. How much do you pay for a gallon (or liter) of gasoline for example? How about a large house with a big yard? America is for the most part is one of the cheapest places to live of any 1st world country when you add up everything you typically spend in a month. Of course in places like NYC, SF, and some other big cities the prices can approach or exceed other countries but for most Americans we can live very comfortably for far cheaper than Europe with a higher standard of living to boot. I lived two years in Sevilla and traveled to Portugal often so I have a good idea of costs there vs. here. 


     


    You are also making the mistake that everyone pays those high phone tariffs. There are plans here for as low as $35 a month and even lower if you are a light user. I pay only $50 a month for unlimited everything. Your cheap plan in Portugal probably doesn't include a lot of voice minutes either. I use over 2,000 voice minutes a month since I use it for business and personal calls. How much would unlimited everything including voice cost in Portugal? 

  • Reply 51 of 103

    Quote:


    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post



    Wow! if someone did the same here in Portugal, this means:



    Paying 100 euros for the iPhone, +20 each month 20 months. And since I am a student: unlimited voice and sms for vodafone (almost everyone), plus 350mb data each month, 7.5 euros.



    So I could have an iPhone and pay 27.5 euros each month. I pay 10 and own a crappy Android device.

    This is amazing, I wish vodafone does something similar!



    You Americans have no idea about how much you guys are raped.



     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dasanman69 View Post





    How big is the United States compared to Portugal? It costs a lot to run and maintain such large networks.


     


    Yeah Pedro, maybe next time, you may want to learn how large the USA really is, to get an idea look here. http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmaps/l/bl-country-size-comparison-map.htm


    Secondly, your little country is only 35,672.4 square miles compared to ONE of our states that you may have heard of... Texas which is 269,000 square miles which is roughly 7.5x larger than your country. So when each one of these Telecoms has to cover over 3 times the size of western europe... or according to here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe#Geography_and_extent), all of Europe is a little larger than the USA. So imagine only have 4 telecoms in ALL of europe, then we can compare.

  • Reply 52 of 103
    webraiderwebraider Posts: 164member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by zaren View Post


    $55 a month gets you unlimited everything with Virgin Mobile. They're carrying the 4 and 4S, and you have to pay full price for the phone up front - $349 and $449, respectively. Still, you save money over two years with that $55 a month.



    So let me get this straight.  Based on your response I can pay full price for an iPhone and pay $55 a month for unlimited everything, Or I can purchase the phone upfront and pay TMobile $50 a month for unlimited everything.   It seems to me that TMobile is STILL a better deal by $5!  You can purchase the phone upfront with TMobile too (Or an unlocked phone from Apple!).

  • Reply 53 of 103
    pedromartinspedromartins Posts: 1,333member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by gwmac View Post


    And you obviously consider phone prices the only factor in life. How much do you pay for a gallon (or liter) of gasoline for example? How about a large house with a big yard? America is for the most part is one of the cheapest places to live of any 1st world country when you add up everything you typically spend in a month. Of course in places like NYC, SF, and some other big cities the prices can approach or exceed other countries but for most Americans we can live very comfortably for far cheaper than Europe with a higher standard of living to boot. I lived two years in Sevilla and traveled to Portugal often so I have a good idea of costs there vs. here. 


     


    You are also making the mistake that everyone pays those high phone tariffs. There are plans here for as low as $35 a month and even lower if you are a light user. I pay only $50 a month for unlimited everything. Your cheap plan in Portugal probably doesn't include a lot of voice minutes either. I use over 2,000 voice minutes a month since I use it for business and personal calls. How much would unlimited everything including voice cost in Portugal? 



    unlimited voice minutes and sms for other vodafone (amost everyone with less than 40 years+ my family and friends), low cost for other carriers, 350 mb data = 7.5 euros.


     


    That's great for me and other students. Based on this, we could affor iPhones with t-mobile.

  • Reply 54 of 103
    pedromartinspedromartins Posts: 1,333member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by drewyboy View Post


     


     


    Yeah Pedro, maybe next time, you may want to learn how large the USA really is, to get an idea look here. http://goeurope.about.com/od/europeanmaps/l/bl-country-size-comparison-map.htm


    Secondly, your little country is only 35,672.4 square miles compared to ONE of our states that you may have heard of... Texas which is 269,000 square miles which is roughly 7.5x larger than your country. So when each one of these Telecoms has to cover over 3 times the size of western europe... or according to here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe#Geography_and_extent), all of Europe is a little larger than the USA. So imagine only have 4 telecoms in ALL of europe, then we can compare.



    True.


     


    But that doesn't change the fact that you guys still pay a lot.


    In fact, since most Portuguese people earn less than 600 euros per month, T-mobile's offer would be the only way for the iphone to gain traction on market's like ours (europe).


     


    All carriers offer unlimited everything if you pay more than 100 euros per month (+ a lot for a new phone). That's why most people have similar plans to mine on europe.

  • Reply 55 of 103
    tyler82tyler82 Posts: 1,111member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by zoetmb View Post


    Well, it depends upon what the taxes and fees are.    My AT&T plan, grandfathered unlimited, including taxes and fees costs about $81 per month + $200 for the 16GB phone (I actually paid $300 for the 32GB phone).   So over 20 months that's $1820.      The T-Mobile plan is $50 for 500MB, which could come to $60 with taxes and fees.   With the phone that's $1699, only a $121 difference over the life of the plan.    The unlimited plan is $70 a month, let's say $80 with taxes and fees.   That's $2099 over 20 months including the phone.    That's $279 above what I'm currently paying.


     


    So I don't see any great bargain here.  If I want to limit my service, I can pay less with AT&T as well.     But for people who don't want to front $200 for the phone, being able to front only $99 might seem like a good deal.


     


    (Man,  I never thought I'd be defending AT&T).



     


    There are no "taxes and fees" $50 a month is what you pay with tmobiles plan (and just 2 monts ago $50 only got you 50mb of high speed data, not 500mb)

  • Reply 56 of 103
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,813member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pedromartins View Post


    True.


     


    But that doesn't change the fact that you guys still pay a lot.


    In fact, since most Portuguese people earn less than 600 euros per month, T-mobile's offer would be the only way for the iphone to gain traction on market's like ours (europe).


     


    All carriers offer unlimited everything if you pay more than 100 euros per month (+ a lot for a new phone). That's why most people have similar plans to mine on europe.



    But you missed my point, there are cheap options here in the U.S. as well for as little as $20 a month. You can't say all plans in America are expensive because that is not true. I pay $50 on Sprint and have unlimited everything. Last month I used over 2,000 voice minutes, over 15GB of data, and thousands of texts and paid $50. (well $56 after taxes and fees) For that usage in Europe I would pay according to you over 100 Euros. To me that is really getting raped to pay twice my cost. And by the way I get unlimited LTE data as well which I have where I live which is why I use a lot more data now. 

  • Reply 57 of 103
    thomprthompr Posts: 1,521member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Jim Collins View Post



    Total rip off. So I am supposed to pay for the phone separately and they are still going to charge me almost exactly as much as AT&T does for unlimited data? Now I do know that AT&T 'unlimited' data isn't really unlimited any more, but I expect that T-Mobile's definition of 'unlimited' is a lot closer to AT&T's definition of 'unlimited' than everyone else's definition of unlimited. For this to be a good deal the unlimited plan needs to be about $50 per month and the 500GB plan about $30 a month.


    Two things:


     


    (1) this is cheaper than AT&T's unlimited plan, it seems to me, and


     


    (2) did you note the much lower rates when adding additional lines?  Only $30 for second line and $10 for each additional.


     


    Hopefully this causes competition in the data plan space, because I can tell you that my family of 4 (all with iPhones) would switch to this in a heartbeat, save money in the process (because of the lower cost on additional lines) and then save even more once all 4 NEW phones are paid off.


     


    Thompson

  • Reply 58 of 103
    thomprthompr Posts: 1,521member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by webraider View Post


    So let me get this straight.  Based on your response I can pay full price for an iPhone and pay $55 a month for unlimited everything, Or I can purchase the phone upfront and pay TMobile $50 a month for unlimited everything.   It seems to me that TMobile is STILL a better deal by $5!  You can purchase the phone upfront with TMobile too (Or an unlocked phone from Apple!).



    T-Mobile isn't offering $50 a month unlimited everything.  There is a cap of 500 MB on the data.  For unlimited, it goes up to $70.  Still nice, though, especially considering the low rates for adding additional lines.


     


    Thompson

  • Reply 59 of 103

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by tyler82 View Post


     


    There are no "taxes and fees" $50 a month is what you pay with tmobiles plan (and just 2 monts ago $50 only got you 50mb of high speed data, not 500mb)



    How does T-Mobile get away with not charging taxes?

  • Reply 60 of 103
    gwmacgwmac Posts: 1,813member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Quitchur Fussin View Post


    How does T-Mobile get away with not charging taxes?



    The same way all the other companies do that offer no taxes like Boost, etc. They include their taxes in their actual plan fees. So the actual plan is around $44 with the other $6 going towards taxes. 

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