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T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

nytimes.com

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Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#51

Post by djur »

thisiszen wrote: post #23

Personal anecdote that shows how customer service laser-focused T-Mobile is: Last week the T-Mobile CMO announced a nationwide campaign in which existing and new customers could turn in any Blackberry and get $200 towards a new phone (it was a response in regards to the CEO of Blackberry blasting them the day before). I had just switched over to T-Mobile a couple of days before (so that I can upgrade phones whenever…

Their customer service is great on the human side. Their website kind of blows, although they're not alone in that. I spent maybe a half hour trying to figure out how to get a different-sized sim card on their website, before giving up and calling. The phone call took maybe two minutes and the new card was in the mail.

Someone I knew was in a similar situation but, unlike me, was in a hurry. They _overnighted_ him the sim card for free.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#53

Post by NoPiece »

xerophtye wrote: post #44
Negitivefrags wrote: post #4

The firm’s real innovation began last March, though, when it announced its Simple Choice plan This is how the rest of the world already works. I buy an iPhone direct from Apple and then pay ~15USD per month on service with no contract.

Glad to see someone else here who is baffled by the state of American telecom industry as I am. So here's what i understand about the industry prior to TMobile's "innovations": - You buy phones from the Cellular service provider, which are bundled with the service (hence apparently higher bills) - Since the phone is bundled with the service, i assume even if you don't use the service you still pay a good amount every…

The simple version is: US cell phone contract = service bundled with a small loan for a phone.

It isn't that bad. They can't charge you whatever they want, your plan is locked in, and if they change it you can leave without penalty. For whatever reason you leave, you can take your number. Pre paid plans are available as options.

Nothing forces you to stay with a carrier. The penalty is just recouping some of the unpaid value of the phone. You owe less as time goes because you are paying back the value of the phone through your contract.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#54

Post by halfasleep »

SiVal wrote: post #13

How ironic. I'm packing for a brief trip to London, and I'd like to use my iPhone 5 while I'm there. T-Mobile offers terrific deals on sim cards in the UK. For about 15GBP or so, I could easily get a sim card with more talk minutes, texts, and data than I could possibly use during my short trip. It's so simple, I could get it from a vending machine at Heathrow. Perfect. The only bad news is that AT&T won't allow it.…

There's a reasonable amount of free WiFi in London, but it's not everywhere. In some places, you might need to ask for a password etc.

If you just need data, you can get a mifi for about £50 for the device and 1G of data. Before you get one, check if they will support VoIP - then you can use Skype etc.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#55

Post by walshemj »

jtchang wrote: post #5

The author of this article feels that he would be happy to see T-Mobile die trying. I personally have nothing but respect for T-Mobile. It is hard to change fundamental things such as pricing when you are such a large corporation. Doubly hard if your competitors have successfully proven contract pricing works. I hope T-Mobile continues to innovate. The telecom industry is overall a dinosaur. What keeps them alive is…

And you would have to repeal several of the core laws of physics to get wireless to be as fast as fibre.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#56

Post by robin_reala »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #9
jtchang wrote: post #5

The author of this article feels that he would be happy to see T-Mobile die trying. I personally have nothing but respect for T-Mobile. It is hard to change fundamental things such as pricing when you are such a large corporation. Doubly hard if your competitors have successfully proven contract pricing works. I hope T-Mobile continues to innovate. The telecom industry is overall a dinosaur. What keeps them alive is…

> If we ever get a wireless alternative that is as fast as fiber (and easily deployable) we'd see the end of traditional telecoms as we know it. Like every Google Fiber set top box being a wireless access point accessible to other Google Fiber customers, as well as free to Android users? And Google using their fiber right of ways to deploy 802.11ac or picocells? Only in my dreams sir.

This is exactly what http://fon.com/ do across large chunks of the world.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#57

Post by thechut »

jtchang wrote: post #5

The author of this article feels that he would be happy to see T-Mobile die trying. I personally have nothing but respect for T-Mobile. It is hard to change fundamental things such as pricing when you are such a large corporation. Doubly hard if your competitors have successfully proven contract pricing works. I hope T-Mobile continues to innovate. The telecom industry is overall a dinosaur. What keeps them alive is…

This is absolutely right. But remember the most powerful way to speak to a company is with your dollars, so switch to T-Mobile.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#59

Post by cgs »

SiVal wrote: post #13

How ironic. I'm packing for a brief trip to London, and I'd like to use my iPhone 5 while I'm there. T-Mobile offers terrific deals on sim cards in the UK. For about 15GBP or so, I could easily get a sim card with more talk minutes, texts, and data than I could possibly use during my short trip. It's so simple, I could get it from a vending machine at Heathrow. Perfect. The only bad news is that AT&T won't allow it.…

Terrible. I recently switched to T-Mobile and was pleasantly surprised to find out I'd have free data and text while on vacation in Holland. Wifi is pretty ubiquitous though so hopefully you'll be able to get by.

Re: T-Mobile Turns An Industry On Its Ear

#60

Post by Fuxy »

SiVal wrote: post #49
qq66 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the author specifically wants to see T-Mobile die trying as much as he enjoys the benefits of T-Mobile's aggression on the entire industry, even if T-Mobile itself is not financially strong enough to survive its attack.

I think it was worded poorly, but I think the author was hoping T-Mobile would fight as hard as they could, not holding anything back, regardless of the cost to themselves, because of all the good it's doing the rest of us.

They shouldn't be loosing that much.

I mean some of their policies like paying the early termination fee for the customers is a bit too aggressive but most make complete economic sense and they shouldn't incur a loss by applying them.

If they are they probably need to take a second look at their organizational structure.

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