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T-Mobile Announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Prices

September 12, 2014 By Lori David Leave a Comment

Now that the new iPhones have been let out of the furnace, mobile carriers are hurrying to attract customers with their offers. T-Mobile announced iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus prices and availability, which will hit the stores on Friday the 19^th of September. T-Mobile customers can start pre-ordering the new iPhones starting tomorrow.

One of the offers that T-Mobile has in stores for us is $0 down plus 24 equal monthly payments of $27.08. This adds up to a total of $649.92 over a period of two years.

Another offer that T-Mobile announced is for the 64GB and the 128GB iPhone models. For these you would have to pay $27.08 per month for two years but also need to make a down payment of $99.99 for the 64GB iPhone or $199.99 for the 128GB model.

T-Mobile also announced their prices for the phablet-sized iPhone 6 Plus: for the 16GB model you won’t have to pay anything down but the 24 monthly payments of $31.24. This sum adds up to a total of $749.76 on a Simple Choice plan from T-Mobile. For the other two models with a bigger memory, you would have to pay $31.25 for two years for the 64GB and the 128GB models, plus $99.99 or $199.99 for a down payment.

John Legere, the President and CEO of T-Mobile said that:

“Apple has done it again, and this fall is going to be one of the biggest upgrade cycles this industry has seen … ever. At T-Mobile, we’re all about helping you get your hands on the latest devices, and with our Data Strong network with unlimited data and music streaming, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on T-Mobile will totally rock.”

T-Mobile will also be the first US carrier who will be supporting the use of Wi-Fi calling with the latest iPhones.

Sprint T-Mobile Joint Bid for Low-spectrum Frequencies Prevented by FCC

August 4, 2014 By David Leave a Comment

Any gadget enthusiast is inherently tied to the wireless internet providers. Until we manage to build hand held devices with the capacity to globally interconnect on their own, we depend on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and the like. How they organize to provide Internet connections and how the FCC regulates are intricate stories. Right now, the focus is on a potential Sprint T-Mobile joint bid for FCC’s next year’s auction.

While AT&T and Verizon are the largest telecom companies in the U.S., Sprint and T-Mobile come the third and fourth. To cover such a large national space, carriers need large amounts of funding. Sprint and T-Mobile were allegedly discussing a potential merger, arguing that with their forces combined, they could offer better services and wider coverage. To do so, Sprint and T-Mobile hoped to gain a massive advantage in the near future.

The FCC announced that in 2015 it will hold an auction for low spectrum frequencies. These frequencies are crucial for mobile operators wanting to offer faster internet data speeds. Sprint and T-Mobile wanted to prepare a common bid for the auction and prove to the regulators they have serious intentions about the merger.

Sprint T-Mobile joint bid is not going to happen

For FCC, the idea of a merger between two national mobile carriers would be a painfully complicated operation from a bureaucratic point of view. Or it would have been, because the merger does not stand a chance to gain approval. The commission’s telecom bureau chef made an announcement on Friday that dismisses the idea of a merger between the two operators.

“Our goal is to promote the participation of as many parties as possible in the auction. If two of the largest companies are able to bid as one combined entity in the auction, their combined resources may have the effect of suppressing meaningful competition,” Roger C. Sherman, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief stated in a blog post. “Therefore, the item tentatively concludes that joint bidding arrangements between nationwide providers should not be allowed.”

Although not stating specifically, Sherman clearly refers to the potential Sprint Sprint T-Mobile joint bid. Maybe Sprint will be disappointed, but T-Mobile is doing quite well. Iliad, a relatively young French telecom company, announced last week an interest in acquiring T-Mobile. Without competition from Sprint, Iliad might now stand a real chance to enter the acquisition process.

French Telecom Company Iliad Offers to Buy T-Mobil

July 31, 2014 By Mary Duncan Leave a Comment

The U.S. telecom market is dominated by a couple of really big players. It is hard to imagine it otherwise, as long as developing a national infrastructure requires important resources. Sprint wants to increase its power in the U.S. market and discussions about a T-Mobile acquisition spread earlier this year. Just a couple of weeks ago, FCC announced an auction for low-spectrum frequencies in 2015. Sprint and T-Mobile were allegedly talking about making a common bid. French telecom company Iliad might get in the way. The Sprint – T-Mobile merger had advantages which seemed two-folded. On one side the companies would definitely profit from increased coverage. Secondly, the FCC needs plenty of time to analyze the procedures, so the sooner the announcement is made, the better.

But another company announced an interest in T-Mobile. Iliad is a French telecommunication company founded in 1999. The company offered today $15 billion to purchase over half of T-Mobile. By paying $33 per share, Iliad wants to buy 56.6 percent of the American company. The rest of T-Mobile’s shares are valued at $40.5 to the benefit of U.S. shareholders, according to Reuters.

French telecom company Iliad wants to benefit from a one-time opportunity

French telecom company Iliad wants to enter the largest telecom market and buying T-Mobile is a one-time opportunity for the French company. Iliad sees a connection between the two telecom players, with both having similar histories. “The US mobile market is large and attractive,” Iliad said in a press release. “T-Mobile US has successfully established a disruptive position, which in many ways, is similar to the one Iliad has built in France.” Iliad seems quite confident that the transaction will be successful.

Usually the telecom national markets contain just a couple of players. When mergers or acquisitions take place, regulators must analyze the process to prevent antitrust issues. But as long as Iliad is not present on the U.S. market, this important lengthy step will be surpassed and the acquisition process will be completed sooner.

Probably T-Mobile’s owners could not be happier now that they are courted by two important telecom companies. Deutsche Telekom now owns 67 percent of T-Mobile and is willing to exit the U.S. market before a lockup expires in November. If Sprint and T-Mobile merge, they will be able to become competitive with AT&T and Verizon. But If French telecom company Iliad buys T-Mobile, the market will remain scattered. Will consumers benefit more if Iliad, instead of Sprint, will buy T-mobile?

Sprint T-Mobile Merger Before FCC Spectrum Auction

July 16, 2014 By Micheal Baptiste Leave a Comment

The four major mobile carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, will have the opportunity to enlarge their wireless frequency ranges due to an auction organized by the FCC. According to FCC, in 2014 the frequency spectrum lacks 275 MHz, thus proper wireless services are not fully implemented. In 2015 the FCC will auction LTE frequencies and the carriers are eager to capture larger shares of it. A Sprint T-Mobile merger will complicate the affairs, but the result might be very beneficial to consumers. Half of Americans are addicted to smartphones, so without proper coverage, they will end up frustrated.

Sprint and T-Mobile already talk about a merger. Until the FCC and Department of justice approve the operation and the financial details are fully established, the two carriers think about joining forces in a common bid during the next year auction. The auction is highly important because it offers the mobile carriers access to low-band 600 MHz frequencies. This frequency has important characteristics for coverage improvement. Besides the fact that they can reach wider areas, they can penetrate walls easier, according to BusinessWeek.com.

Sprint T-Mobile merger preceded by common bid for low-spectrum frequencies

Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, the company owning Sprint, tries to convince regulators that the merger is as serious as possible and it will benefit consumers. Sources say, according to Businessweek.com, that in August the two companies will announce the merger. Sprint will allegedly pay $32 billion for T-Mobile. However, the regulators will need around one year to analyze the case.

Now Sprint has to obtain the necessary funding to cover both deals, to acquire T-Mobile and to buy new frequencies at the next year FCC auction. As a total of $40 billion is needed, both Sprint and SoftBank are negotiating the issues with banks.

The Sprint and T-Mobile, the third and fourth biggest players in the mobile market have only 10 and 4.5 percent of the low-band spectrum, while At&T and Verizon have more than 30 percent each. Low-band spectrum will be needed to expand coverage in rural areas and small towns.

FCC has not established the auction details yet. The regulator is open to adapt the conditions to any changes in the market. If the Sprint T-Mobile merger happens, Sprint will own licenses for more frequencies than allowed by FCC, transforming the whole acquisition into a bureaucratic nightmare.

LG G Flex reportedly coming to US carriers AT&T and T-Mobile

January 3, 2014 By Lori David Leave a Comment

Samsung may be fine with keeping the Galaxy Round in South Korea, but LG have big plans for the G Flex, their first flexible smartphone. The LG G Flex wowed a few millions viewers on YouTube, not for the rounded display, but for the self-healing back cover.

It may be a bit of a big jump for the LG G Flex, but according to a new leaked image by Evleaks, the flexible smartphone will be coming to both AT&T and T-Mobile in the coming months, bringing the first flexible phone to US soil.

The LG G Flex has already passed through the FCC database, making it certified to be sold in the United States. It was only a matter of time before a carrier picked it up and the two most open carriers have come forward, we are actually surprised T-Mobile is going to sell the smartphone.

We have seen a Sprint version swimming about, but there is no clear release date in sight and the carrier may end up not selling the smartphone. We do have dates for the two others, T-Mobile on March 12 and AT&T on March 17.

As we expected, Verizon Wireless is the only major carrier in the US not interested in the LG G Flex. The thing about Verizon is even though they carry a smaller line of products, normally all the ones that do well are available on their service.

The LG G Flex is a nice phone to try out, but we cannot see that many sales happening for the flexible device. Apart from the self-healing back that markets to a niche audience who really want a clean smartphone, there is no real feature to draw users in.

The flexible display isn’t really “flexible” since it is still incased in a plastic shell and the software is just the same old LG skin over Android, with a few customisations for the rounded screen.

Even though AT&T and T-Mobile may see the interest as enough, we cannot see the interest turning into actual paying customers.

HTC M8 to be available on four major carriers in Q1 2014

November 11, 2013 By David Leave a Comment

We have had quite a few rumors on the HTC M8 in the past week, pointing to some truth on the notion HTC will announce their new flagship smartphone early this year and it will come with the same design as the HTC One and possibly the same name.

According to a new report, the HTC M8 will land on all four major carriers in the US following its announcement at one of the big events early in 2014. This is a big deal for HTC, who have struggled previously to grab the support of all carriers.

The HTC One did manage to grab all support but Verizon Wireless took a few months to actually pick up the smartphone. The idea is that with the HTC M8 we will see all four carriers announce availability straight after the release of the smartphone.

Availability is not the only problem for HTC, last year the HTC One was out of stock in most places for a good two months. Problems with the Ultrapixel camera made the HTC One unavailable for a time in the US and may have lost HTC a huge amount of potential sales.

The HTC M8 may be a fix to all the problems HTC had in the short term, from the brief overview we got of the new specs, it looks like a slightly upgraded version of the HTC One, nothing that should push the availability or stock out of the water, at least in the short term.

Specs include the Snapdragon 800 chip, 3GB of RAM, 16/32GB of internal storage, an updated Ultrapixel camera and 2560 x 1600 5-inch display. The last part is really exciting and HTC will not be the only ones offering a new high-res display, with the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 expected to up-the-ante for MWC.

LG G2 launching on three major US carriers in September

September 5, 2013 By Nicholas Anderton Leave a Comment

When LG launched the new flagship, the LG G2, they said it would be coming to four major carriers in the US and 130 carriers worldwide, leading us to believe it would be a fast launch process.

This has not been the case, almost a month later LG has still not released the smartphone in any markets, but we now have official dates from three of the four major carriers in the US: Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile.

Carrier Release Dates

Verizon Wireless will be getting the LG G2 first on September 12, for $199 on a two year contract. With the Verizon Wireless version, stickers are placed on both the front and back of the smartphone, looking a little tatty.

AT&T will get the LG G2 next a day later on September 13, for $199 on a two year contract. Users can also grab the smartphone for $27 a month on AT&T Next. AT&T will be accepting online purchases as soon as tomorrow, on September 6.

T-Mobile will have the LG G2 in stock a week later, on September 18. Retailers will start selling the LG G2 on September 25, but it will be in stock on T-Mobile’s online store on September 18. Users can get the LG G2 on $99 down payment, with $21 a month for two years to pay off the smartphone, with the end price about $610 for the smartphone.

Silent Sprint

No word from Sprint about the LG G2 yet, we hope to see it on their carrier service before the end of September. As for international launches of the LG G2, a leaked Three UK memo showed the LG G2 would be in stock on October 1, about two weeks after the US release.

Just in case you forgot, the LG G2 is packing a 5.2-inch 1080p LCD display, 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 13MP rear camera and the back buttons. LG will also be adding their new UI to the LG G2, with some new features with ridiculous names.

Source

Nokia Lumia 1020 on Sale at AT&T – Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint users have to Wait

July 31, 2013 By David Crozier Leave a Comment

The US based carrier AT&T has started selling the latest flagship device from Nokia, the Lumia 1020. However the Windows Phone 8 based smartphone is restricted to sale via the net only and if that is not enough, the device so far is exclusive to AT&T. The Finnish company has been following the practice of having a version of its flagship device for each of the carriers in the US. Whether such a strategy makes for a great business idea is a matter of debate though as things stands right now, Nokia has only one version of its Lumia 1020 on offer and one has to be either an AT&T subscriber to pick up the device or buy it unlocked at a higher price.

Those who are already subscribers to other carriers such as Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint will have to wait till Nokia comes out with their respective versions of the Lumia 1020. That Nokia is loosing out on quite a huge market unless it has a version of the 1020 for the other carriers is all too evident.

Also, while still on the price, the Lumia 1020 is definitely not cheap, even with the carrier subsidy in place. The device comes for $299.99 after signing up for a two year contract. For those who’d like to be hooked on to the carrier for only one year should be prepared to shell out a higher amount of $549. 99. Or if you prefer to remain free of any carrier obligations, well there is a price to be paid and that stands at a cool $659.99. Needless to mention, the flagship Lumia is definitely priced at a premium considering most of the best selling Android devices can be picked up for less than $100 in the US after carrier subsidy.

Meanwhile, AT&T also has a slightly more sugar coated pricing scheme for the Lumia 1020. As per the new plan termed AT&T Next, the price of the 1020 will come down to just 33 dollars to be paid for one year and eight months. Those opting for the AT&T Next plan though will have to be wary of the fact that they will have to pay the remaining sum if they choose to walk out of the plan at any time. But the good news about AT&T Next is that after a period of one year, customers can exchange the device for a newer model.

Meanwhile, the device is available in various attractive shades of white, black, and yellow and that too with no shipping charges. The device comes with a 4.5 inch display having a resolution of 1280 x 786 pixels. There is a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top to ensure better survivability. Powered by a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip, the smartphone also boasts of an internal storage of 32 GB along with a RAM of 2 GB. However, saving the best for the last, the biggest attraction of the Lumia 1020 is its primary back facing camera that comes with a 41 mp sensor complete with a flash as well as the full suite of software to ensure one get to have the best quality images with the device.

T-Mobile To Offer Nokia Lumia 925 And Sony Xperia Z From July 17

July 15, 2013 By David Crozier Leave a Comment

You might be forgiven to believe the mobile segment in the US of A is almost an exclusive domain of the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the Apple iPhone. For the situation is very much the same though there are also models such as the Nokia Lumia 925 or the Sony Xperia Z that carriers like T-Mobile adopt as part of their offerings to expand their customer data base. T-Mobile have announced the phones to be available from 17^th July.

The thing to note here is that the Lumia 925 that T-Mobile is offering is much the same as the AT&T Lumia 920 or the Verizon Lumia 928. However, there does exist some features with the T-Mobile Lumia 925 which makes it a tad better than the other two variants. For the Lumia 925 is a bit slimmer and also boasts of a better build quality thanks to the body being made of aluminum. In comparison, the Lumia 920 has a body made of polycarbonate plastic. The Lumia 925 also has a better camera mounted at the rear. T-Mobile subscribers would need to pay just $49.99 for the Nokia Lumia 925 while also agreeing to pay a monthly charge of $20 thereafter.

Compared to the Lumia 925, T-Mobile is giving the Sony Xperia Z for a down payment of $99.99 along with a monthly subscription fee of $20 for the next twenty four months. There is a Jump program that T-Mobile has announced which allows for users to change their Smartphone. Details of this program needs to be checked out at the local T-Mobile shop.

Meanwhile, Nokia has also come out with a new device, the Lumia 1020 which is equipped with a camera having a resolution of 41 megapixels. Sony also would be launching their Xperia Z Ultra model. Consumers will do well to weigh in these factors before purchasing any of the present Sony or Nokia make smartphones from T-Mobile.

Sony Xperia Z Ready for U.S. carriers – AT&T, T-Mobile Besides Unlocked Version

June 21, 2013 By Mary Duncan Leave a Comment

Launching on U.S. carriers is, in fact, a milestone for Sony Xperia Z, and it is about to happen soon, according to Sony CEO Kaz Hirai. Hirai’s statements at the recent D11 conference confirm that the Xperia Z will arrive in the U.S. with carrier support, but did not reveal details about the timeframe or which mobile operators will offer it.

Until now, U.S. consumers could purchase the Sonly Xperia Z as a SIM-free version and then find a compatible carrier. Sony’s web store sells the unlocked version, named Xperia ZL, for $630. Based on Sony’s long relationship with AT&T and the fact that Xperia ZL is compatible with AT&T’s LTE network, there is a good probability of Xperia Z coming on the carrier.

The Xperia Z went through a successful test on T-Mobile network, according to an April report from TmoNews. Pointing to an FCC filing in May, analysts expect Xperia Z to arrive on T-Mobile. The device will support 4G and HSPA+.

Recalling its global launch in February, analysts are positive that wider carrier support will roll out soon. The Xperia Z was among the first 5-inch 1080p smartphones in the market, and has been received well in Europe and other parts of the world, with an estimated 4.6 million units sold until now. It was the best-seller for six successive weeks in the highly-competitive Japanese smartphone market, as Hirai put it.

Though Samsung and HTC are gaining dominance in the U.S. market, Sony has yet to make a deal with U.S. carriers to offer the Xperia Z on contract. Latest developments are in favor of the device which has gained popularity and drawn positive reviews with its high-end features, including its unique water-resistance feature. Undoubtedly, the Xperia Z is well-equipped to compete with Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One, the latest rivals in the market.