All the work T-Mobile has put into achieving its desired “un-carrier” image came to a head Tuesday at the company’s press event in New York.
T-Mobile introduced the new LTE network it is just beginning to switch on and the new no-contract plans that have already popped up on its website. CEO John Legere was there to bid goodbye to device subsidies as well as welcome Apple’s iPhone to his company’s device portfolio beginning April 12.
The event opened with a video segment, titled “The Truth,” hosted by Jason Jones of “The Daily Show.”
“Would you rather sign a two-year contract or get a root canal?” Jones asked people on the street. They opted for the root canal.
Terming it as “un-leashing” the wireless industry, Legere explained the unique benefits T-Mobile is bringing to customers, including the quality of its HSPA+ fallback. He introduced the Simple Choice plan, which shows off unlimited everything along with no overage penalties or contracts.
“Please stop the bullsh*t,” exclaimed Legere at one point, who was characteristically loose while expounding on the problems with rate plans.
T-Mobile’s new no-contract pricing plans now appear on the company’s website with plans starting at $50 for unlimited talk and text plus 500 MB of data. The plans add on $10 for each additional 2 GB and include mobile hotspot.
To further entice customers to switch, T-Mobile revealed that it’s starting to catch up in LTE deployment.
T-Mobile also confirmed that it had launched its LTE network in Baltimore, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Jose and Washington, D.C. It added its hope to bring the service to 100 million Americans by mid-year and 200 million by the end of 2013. Legere admitted that New York would switch on this summer.
T-Mobile announced it will begin offering the iPhone 5 for $99 down and that it will support LTE, HSPA+ 42 and HD voice. It added that the Samsung Galaxy S 4, BlackBerry Z10, T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile HotSpot LTE, Samsung Galaxy Note II and HTC One will all also join the company’s LTE device roster.
T-Mobile is approaching the finish line for its potential merger with MetroPCS. The deal, which is scheduled for a stockholder vote April 12, has received all necessary regulatory approvals.
