∞ Report: T-Mobile close to getting the iPhone

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While we’ve all been focused on Verizon and its chances to get the iPhone, Apple may have pulled a classic switcheroo and started dealing with T-Mobile in the US.

iPhone 4 CamerasQuoting “a highly placed source at the wireless company,” Leander Kahney at the Cult of Mac said on Wednesday that talks between Apple and T-Mobile are in the advanced stages. The source said “it’s 80 percent likely that the iPhone will be coming to T-Mobile in Q3.”

If Apple does go with T-Mobile, the deal would end AT&T’s exclusivity deal which it has held since the iPhone was first released.

While serious talks with T-Mobile certainly add a twist to wireless carrier rumors surrounding the iPhone, there is no solid evidence to show that Apple will release a T-Mobile phone this year.

I have previously said that a Verizon compatible iPhone would not be released until sometime in early 2011.


  • http://mangochut.net mangochutney

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but T-Mobile is not a nationwide carrier, they have pretty stable/fast networks in some major cities, but nothing more.

    That way the only reason I see for Apple to consider dealing with them, is to give customers in those cities a choice and take some heat off of AT&T.

  • Artie

    Mango,

    T-Mobile most certainly is a nationwide carrier. It works everywhere I travel.

    • Jim Dalrymple

      And from what I’ve heard the best customer service in the industry.

      • http://mangochut.net mangochutney

        Than this T-Mobile is a whole other beast than T-Mobile Germany.

        Well, their service is good, but not the best. Their prices here are steep and their reputation is that of AT&T in the U.S.

      • http://theuniversalsteve.com SSteve

        “And from what I’ve heard the best customer service in the industry.”

        That’s a pretty low bar, Jim.

    • http://mangochut.net mangochutney

      Do they have coverage like AT&T and Verizon? I was under the impression they weren’t that big, yet.

  • Eric

    T-Mobile leases the AT&T towers at least in California. So I’m not sure people will find it an improvement in coverage for them around here. But things aren’t that bad. (Not that great, but then neither are any of the others. Verizon might have an edge here, but not enough to get me to switch even if they had the iPhone.

    • Jim Dalrymple

      Inteeresting, I didn’t know that.

    • http://mangochut.net mangochutney

      If that’s true than at least for those customers it’d be practically useless to switch to T-Mo, because they’re only a reseller, not a provider.

      • http://www.thegraphicmac.com James

        They may be a reseller, but there prices for standard phone service are cheaper than AT&T – especially for business customers, where they practically give away Blackberrys.

        • Eric

          They could give me a Blackberry and all I’d do is donate it to charity. I wouldn’t use a Blackberry ever again if they paid me to.

  • Mark

    I’ve used T-Mobile in So Cal for years until I moved to Tampa (2005) and whether here or there I get always got great reception and great prices. With Verizon in So Cal I was getting dropped calls every day, but that was over 5 years ago and things must have changed there, haven’t they? At any rate, I am considering a used/opened iPhone to run on my T-Mobile account, even at EDGE speeds I don’t care. But with a T-Mobile iPhone 4 looming…

    Side note: I think that down here in the South there is no PC (like smoking cigs in front of the kids, trucks with gun racks load for bear) regarding cell towers, hence better coverage. Anyway, that is my think.

  • Rob

    I’ve had T-mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and now AT&T. They are all pretty much the same where I live near chicago, with one exception – Sprint NEVER works inside buildings or areas of limited signal reception. My Sprint Blackberry ALWAYS roamed when I was indoors, however, this is not that big of a problem unless you’re needing DATA services because they offer unlimited roaming, which, is in my opinion, how they and other companies will get around the coverage problems the have!

  • http://www.ipr.cl/uni2 thepredicator

    In SC, T-Mobile has better rates than AT&T, but poor rural coverage. Since I live and work in a rural area, their lack of coverage rules them out for me.

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