Last night I was having a Twitter conversation with my friend Garnett from GameFly. He’s a sharp guy, a T-Mobile customer, and curious to see how AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile pans out. He believes the children are our future that the acquisition has killed T-Mobile’s phone sales and that the company is essentially dead now. I completely disagree with the former. I think it’s a fantastic time to buy a new T-Mobile phone and sign a new two-year contract. Here’s why:
– Service will not change for years. AT&T has confirmed that it will use T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum for LTE. Some people think this means that when the acquisition gets approved next year, their T-Mobile phones will no longer have a 3G signal. That’s completely moronic. Do people really think that there’s a magical button that will allow AT&T to suddenly turn off AWS transmission? Do people really think that the FCC would allow this? Again, it will be years before T-Mobile’s service changes in a significant way.
– AWS disappearing quickly would actually be a great reason to buy a new T-Mobile phone at a subsidized price. AT&T has phone replacement costs built into the LTE roll out. This means that people will get a free phone or a large subsidy on a new phone whenever AWS is used for LTE. Let’s pretend that the acquisition gets approved in a year and, by some miracle involving Zeus, AT&T is ready to use all of T-Mobile’s AWS in an LTE network two months after the deal is closed. This would mean that T-Mobile customers that purchased a subsidized phone in 2011 would be able to take advantage of another subsidize price in 2012. That’s a great deal! Customers usually have to wait two years before they can buy another phone at a subsidized price.
– A lot of T-Mobile customers love the company’s low rates and fair terms. Wouldn’t it be smart to lock in those rates for another two years? The two outcome possibilities are 1) enjoying low rates for the duration of the contract or 2) AT&T changing the terms and giving customers an instant out. In Charlie Sheen terms, this is bi-winning! The customer either gets what they already like or gets a free pass to switch to another carrier.
As for me, my contract is up in August and I absolutely plan on signing an extension for the reasons listed above. I’d love two more years of low rates coupled with a phone like the HTC Pyramid (probably) or the T-Mobile G2X (probably not). People that are reluctant to buy a new T-Mobile phone or sign another contract are being shortsighted and reactionary. Think it through people! This is a wonderful time to buy a T-Mobile phone.
T-Mobile's G2X just got more interesting. Unlike the LG Optimus 2X, which it is based off of, is uses vanilla Android instead of LG's garbage. Very, very tempting.
Damn Ray I had my eyes on the Pyramid and now you drop this bombshell?
My girl freaked out last night because she was only reading headlines and I had to explain to her what you (rpad) mentioned above.