T-Mobile to offer iPhone 5, new options for customers


T-Mobile announced Tuesday it will roll out the iPhone 5 on its network. Pre-orders are available now for an April 12th launch.

T-Mobile is offering some unique features and plans that will help position it against larger domestic rivals AT&T and Verizon. T-Mobile will sell the iPhone 5 starting at $99.99 up front, plus a device payment of 24 payments of $20. This is compared to the conventional carrier subsidy under a 2-year contract. After the 24 months of payments, the iPhone can be unlocked, which will make it more valuable for resale. The company will also sell the iPhone 4S for $70 down and $20/mo and the iPhone 5 for $15 down and $15/mo.

Furthermore, T-Mobile says if customers which to get a new phone sooner, they can either continue making those payments or turn in the phone for a to-be-determined fair market value. So, whether the phone is sold or turned in, customers could switch phones easily without early termination fees, and perhaps even come out ahead.

T-Mobile is promising features such as HD Voice, which provides higher voice quality calls. The feature could be particularly interesting between two iPhones on T-Mobile. Also a future feature is planned to allow calls over a WiFi network. Lastly, T-Mobile notes that customers can use both data and voice at the same time, a feature currently not supported by Verizon.

Mobile service starts at $50/mo for unlimited talk, text, and 3G data + 500MB 4G data. Additional 2GB of 4G data runs $10 per month per line. Overall bill may still be comparable to Verizon and AT&T, but it seems T-Mobile is offering a lot more flexibility.