T-Mobile USA Launches Effort to Attract 'Bring Your Own iPhone' Customers

While T-Mobile USA is preparing to refresh its employee training on "selling against the iPhone" later this month as Apple rolls out the iPhone 5, the carrier is also seeking to embrace those who already own an unlocked iPhone. T-Mobile today announced a new "Bring Your Own iPhone" initiative including demo iPhone units in its stores, new apps, and enhanced staff training to help iPhone owners get up and running on the only one of the four major U.S. carriers to not officially offer the iPhone for sale.

We see a big opportunity to make the experience of bringing an unlocked iPhone to T-Mobile even better for customers.

That’s why, beginning September 12th, we’re stepping up our efforts to attract customers with unlocked iPhones to T-Mobile. Each of our branded retail stores will receive an iPhone 4s demo unit and our sales staff will start training to help customers set up their compatible iPhone. We’re also developing iOS versions of helpful T-Mobile applications like T-Mobile myAccount, T-Mobile Visual Voicemail and T-Mobile TV (we already offer an iOS version of our popular Bobsled application).

tmobile iphone unlimited unlocked
iPhone users on T-Mobile USA have long been limited to the carrier's slower 2G network due to incompatibilities between the iPhone and T-Mobile's 3G network, but the carrier has been working hard to refarm its spectrum to bring advanced 4G HSPA+ speeds to the iPhone and other devices. With that refarmed spectrum showing up in more and more markets, T-Mobile is touting the increased speed iPhone users will see on this network compared to AT&T.

In fact, we’re already starting to turn up 4G HSPA+ service in our 1900 MHz spectrum. With sites already live in cities like Seattle, Las Vegas, Washington DC and the New York metro area, don’t be surprised to hear reports of iPhone “speed sightings.” We expect to have these improvements deployed in a large number of markets later this year.

Our internal tests of unlocked iPhone 4S devices running over 4G (HSPA+) on our 1900 network recorded on average 70% faster download speeds than iPhone 4S devices on AT&T’s network.

T-Mobile is also touting significant savings for customers bringing their devices over from AT&T, noting that its $69.99/month Unlimited Talk, Text and Data plan is $50 cheaper than a plan from AT&T offering unlimited talk and text and 5 GB of data.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
iPhone 17 Air Size Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With Rear Camera Bar Allegedly Shown in Leaked Photo

Tuesday January 21, 2025 12:46 pm PST by
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model. The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
iPhone SE Dynamic Island Majin Bu

iPhone SE 4 Leak Shows Dynamic Island, Casts Doubt on Rumored 'iPhone 16E' Name

Monday January 20, 2025 9:01 am PST by
A new iPhone SE is widely rumored to launch this year, and the device has potentially been confirmed today by known leaker Evan Blass. In a private social media post, Blass shared an image of what appears to be source code mentioning an iPhone SE (4th Gen), which casts doubt on the alternative "iPhone 16E" name rumored for the device. However, the name in the source code could be a...
airtag 4 pack blue

AirTag 2 Launching This Year With These 3 New Features

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory. A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June. The original AirTag was announced...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
apple power beats pro 2

Powerbeats Pro 2 Coming Soon: Apple to Announce Them 'Imminently'

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:25 am PST by
In September, Apple said that it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and it appears the wireless earbuds are coming very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the Powerbeats Pro 2 in regulatory databases last month, Gurman said Apple is...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...

Top Rated Comments

Pared Avatar
161 months ago
Sorry, but you guys screaming desperation just don't get it.

I'm happy TMo is doing this. Why? COMPETITION. The more pressure they put on other carriers to lower their rates the better we are off as consumers.
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
milan03 Avatar
161 months ago
Respect to T-Mobile as they're doing everything possible to align with AT&T's frequencies, and stay competitive. They've had such a limited amount of spectrum to work with, but they've deployed ALL of their licences (unlike AT&T that's squatting on tons of spectrum), and their HSPA+ outperforms AT&T's here in NYC by order of magnitude! Also, next year their LTE will align with AT&T's band 4 AWS, so the iPhone will be LTE compatible with T-Mobile out of the box.

And btw, T-Mobile HSPA+ on PCS is actually on in parts of NYC:

Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GoreVidal Avatar
161 months ago
Alright, you just look desperate now, T.

Jesus Garth...seriously? The ONLY carrier still offering legit unlimited is "desperate"? I think they got balls and they're likely getting my business for it.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kevinkt Avatar
161 months ago
Desperation or not. If its good it good!!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
OriginalMacRat Avatar
161 months ago
T-Mobile is also touting significant savings for customers bringing their devices over from AT&T, noting that its $69.99/month Unlimited Talk, Text and Data plan is $50 cheaper than a plan from AT&T offering unlimited talk and text and 5 GB of data.

Their even better plan is the 100min/5GB for $30/mo.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GBrooks Avatar
161 months ago
Alright, you just look desperate now, T.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)