The inability to sell the iPhone is hurting T-Mobile USA. The only one of four U.S. carriers not offering the Apple smartphone, T-Mobile announced it saw a drop in new subscribers due to the iPhone 4S launching at Sprint, Verizon Wireless and AT&T in October.
The carrier added 126,000 customers during the third quarter, down from 137,000 new subscribers who joined the carrier during the same three-month period a year ago. The departure of contract subscribers “related to the iPhone 4S launches by competitors, will continue to be an area of concern,” T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm told reporters.
Soon after the news that Sprint — not T-Mobile — would be the third major U.S. carrier to get the iPhone, T-Mobile issued a perplexing statement seeming to put the onus on Apple. “Apple has not developed a version of the iPhone with technology that works on our fast 3G and 4G networks,” said Senior Marketing VP Andrew Sherrard. The technology that Apple doesn’t wan to support? A little-known wireless standard called Advanced Wireless Services, or AWS. Unlike CDMA and GSM, which are used by wide swaths of the globe, AWS is limited to parts of the U.S. and Canada.
As we’ve reported North America is no longer were the revenue is for Apple and others. Instead, China, South America and Asia are the hotspots — which use GSM and CDMA, not AWS. Little wonder, then that T-Mobile’s plaintive comment that who Apple partners with is Apple’s decision brought only the sound of crickets.
But you have to feel for T-Mobile. First they were passed over by Sprint, then C Spire Wireless, a company most consumers never heard of, gets the iPhone. One of its last hopes for the iPhone, to get the handset by being bought by AT&T, is then blocked – not only by the U.S. Justice Dept., but by iPhone sellers Sprint and C Spire.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
29 responses to “T-Mobile: Lack of iPhone 4S Costing Us Subscribers”
They’ll either wait for the iPhone 5 (& strike a deal with Apple), or wither and die… assuming AT&T’s acquisition doesn’t go through.
I really liked T-Mobile’s price points for plans and customer service but I jumped ship to Verizon for an iPhone 4s. I was conflicted but a person can only wait so long.
DTK has all but said that they are killing T-Mobile US with or without a sale. And that was starting almost a full year ago. Given this, why would Apple bother with working on a separate phone or even just phone chip that could handle AWS etc. They won’t ever make money back on the investment when they could end up with ATT, Sprint or Verizon buying T-Mobile’s contracts and grandfathering folks in to the same rates with new phones including the existing iPhones
Given this it makes sense for Apple to wait and see what the DOJ says about any company buying T-Mobile US outright, if they can buy either the contracts or the towers, only the contracts and the towers will be auctioned off in groups, or some other arrangement
My dream is that Apple ends up buying them and changes the monopolistic USA cell phone carrier industry.
The best part about T-Mobile were their service/reception and the fact that a GSM phone means you can roam internationally.
Verizon has them beat even in the service/reception area (or at least matches them), which takes that argument away. Then the 4S introduced CDMA/GSM hybrid radios in every phone, with the CDMA ones being unlockable for international use. That takes away the other.
At this point, the only thing I can think of is price, but thats not to say should T-Mobile get the iPhone that they would keep the same prices. Also, there’s nothing stopping the other carriers to drop their pricing a little bit to keep T-Mobile from poaching subscribers.
I think short of AT&T buying T-Mobile, they are toast.
There are five coworkers with unlocked iPhones on the TMobile network!!! One three feet away from me ringing right now! What in the heck do you mean it will not work???
How? The iPhone doesn’t support the frequency that T-Mobile operates on.
It won’t support the 3G frequency. You can still use T-Mobile’s EDGE network, and I believe you can still receive calls…
Seriously, I’m shocked. (not).
I’ll be one of those subscribers they lose to an ATT iPhone soon as my ETF comes down to earth.
“As we’ve reported North America is no longer were the revenue is for Apple and others. Instead, China, South America and Asia are the hotspots — which use GSM and CDMA, not AWS. Little wonder, then that T-Mobile’s plaintive comment that who Apple partners with is Apple’s decision brought only the sound of crickets.”
T-Mobile is GSM just like the rest of the world.
Many Android phones support the frequency fot T-Mobile’s HSPA+ data network.
The “penta” chip that Apple has in the iPhone 4S supports this as well, but Apple didn’t enable it in the iPhone.
Yep… nothing but EDGE. I’m using iPhone on T-mobile. It does most everything including visual voicemail with a little assistance from YouMail. Only thing missing is 3G. Funny, about a third the time, my EDGE connection is about as fast as my buddy’s AT&T 3G connection. Go figure. LoL
Deutsche Telekom is more interested in selling it off than doing any form of longterm investment. I don’t think they even have a roadmap to LTE at this point should the AT&T sale fail… just pushing HSPA+ faster and longer.
Unfortunately, with the pending AT&T sale, I don’t see why Apple would even bother enabling AWS. They like a hefty return. Just ask Sprint. $20 billion investment with no return for 3 years. Aren’t wireless years something like dog years? Talk about betting the farm! LoL
Oh well, the lower the perceived value and competitive viability of T-Mobile the more likely the sale will be approved. So who’s next? A Verizon acquisition of Sprint? Ugh. Then we’d ALL be in serious trouble!
By the time the DoJ takes a look mid-next year, T-Mobile is going to look pretty hashed… especially if the current batch of Samsung Galaxy handsets get banned. I wouldn’t be surprised if they reversed themselves and gave the green light to the sale with little resistance. That would totally suck!
I used an iPhone 3GS in T-Mobile for 2 months and then ran to AT&T for the 4S
In my own opinion I won’t recommend anyone to use iPhone with 2G its really frustrating, I don’t want to speak so much, Just go watch the video of the iPhone 4S (The fastest iPhone now) using T-Mobile 2G
Great way to deal with your iPhone 4s battery issues… Very funny!!! Enjoy!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…