T-Mobile to get Apple devices soon, iPhone likely
Source: AP-Excite
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
NEW YORK (AP) - T-Mobile will likely start carrying the iPhone next year after its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, said it has reached a new deal with Apple.
T-Mobile USA had been the lone iPhone-less carrier among the four national wireless companies in the U.S. Although it has been possible to use iPhones on T-Mobile networks, customers had to provide the phones themselves. The phones also work at much slower speeds, though T-Mobile has been reshuffling its network to match or exceed AT&T's data speeds.
The three larger carriers, AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) (S), already sell the iPhone, as do many smaller ones.
Deutsche Telekom AG said Thursday that T-Mobile will add Apple products to its portfolio in the coming year. Though it didn't mention the iPhone by name in its press release, that's the product it is most likely referring to. It's possible T-Mobile will also sell a cellular version of the iPad, as the three national carriers do.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121206/DA30H1I80.html
In this Friday, Sept. 21, 2012, file photo a customer tests the new iPhone 5 at the Apple store in Hong Kong. T-Mobile will likely start carrying the iPhone next year after its parent company, Deutsche Telekom, said it has reached a new deal with Apple. T-Mobile USA had been the lone iPhone-less carrier among the four national wireless companies in the U.S. Although it has been possible to use iPhones on T-Mobile networks, customers had to provide the phones themselves. The phones also work at much slower speeds, though T-Mobile has been reshuffling its network to match or exceed AT&T's data speeds. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
rablrouzer
(66 posts)What was it Sprint promised to pay Apple?
$15 Billion?
Even Samsung got a better deal from that jury.
Which may be why Sprint sold itself out to the Japanese company.
Softbank, wasn't it?
Bankruptcy might have been a better option.
T-Mobile, armed with the $4+Billion AT&T paid after its anti-trust campaign to buy T-Mobile failed, has been improving its network.
Now the company is pouring itself down the same Apple drain that sucked what life was left out of Sprint.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)I have been waiting for this for a considerable time.
rablrouzer
(66 posts)As if $15 Billion wasn't clear enough.
Sprint contracted to buy $15 Billion worth of Apple's iPhones, then resell the same to its customers.
At a subsidy of something like $495 per phone.
Then, if Sprint doesn't sell enough, they'll have to pay Apple the difference.
No risk to Apple.
Last I saw, Sprint wasn't selling iPhones at the rate necessary to meet the contract.
high density
(13,397 posts)Seriously, they're good.
Delphinus
(11,840 posts)My sidekick "sucks" at the moment and I really don't mind having T-Mobile.
WooWooWoo
(454 posts)they're okay, but all the aps suck.