Sprint may start bidding war with T-Mobile for MetroPCS

It may have appeared like the T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger was imminent, but Sprint has started to prepare a counteroffer to outbid Deutsche Telekom for MetroPCS.

Sprint has sat firmly in the third spot on the list of biggest mobile carriers in the U.S. for some time. As of yesterday, that title received its first plausible threat at the announcement of a T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger. Less than 24 hours after the MetroPCS board of directors approved the move, Sprint decided to throw its hat in the ring as a potential partner. According to the Bloomberg BusinessWeek report, Sprint is preparing a counteroffer that would top the $1.5 billion deal from T-Mobile USA’s Deutsche Telekom.

With the T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger awaiting regulatory and shareholder approval, there is a penalty clause set if either company were to back out. Sprint will likely have to take this into account in their ofter. That said, when Sprint attempted to make a takeover of MetroPCS earlier this year, they were willing to offer over $8 billion. Sprint is desperate for new subscribers as it has been watching its customer base trickle away since the sloppy transition of it’s purchase of Nextel in 2005. The threat of a combined T-Mobile and MetroPCS may be enough to drive Sprint’s bid up dramatically.

T-Mobile has not commented on Sprint’s sudden–although somewhat expected–involvement except to say that it is prepared to change the terms of its current agreement if need be. Deutsche Telekom seems fairly committed to the merger between their T-Mobile brand and MetroPCS. That could mean we’ll have a bidding war on our hands, and there are unique implications for the mobile market depending on who the victor may be. Who would have thought that in a battle between the third and forth largest mobile operators, fifth place would be the big winner? 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

What the T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger means for you

T-Mobile and MetroPCS are merging to expand spectrum holdings and network coverage. What do current (and future!) customers get out of it?

T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom has announced that it’s struck a deal to merge with regional pre-paid mobile operator MetroPCS. For MetroPCS, the merger represents a tremendous growth opportunity: instead of being a regional operator limited to a few markets, its customers will get nationwide service. For T-Mobile, the merger significantly deepens the company’s spectrum holdings in key cities and regions, enabling it to make a serious play as a value-conscious LTE operator. And for Deutsche Telekom, the merger finally represents a way to one day get out of the business of being a U.S. mobile operator, following its failed effort to sell T-Mobile to AT&T last year.

But what does the merger mean for consumers and customers of both T-Mobile and MetroPCS? Can customers expect better service and wider LTE coverage? Or, like so many mergers, will the new company just be bigger and more expensive?

The merger’s basic idea

The T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger is designed to give number-four T-Mobile more scale and deeper spectrum holdings in several major metropolitan areas, meaning it will more wiggle room to offer 4G LTE services and compete aggressively against the likes of Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon. The combined company will still be the number-four U.S. mobile carrier (behind number three Sprint), but will bump up to about 42 million subscribers. Although MetroPCS uses CDMA phone technology and T-Mobile is based on GSM, MetroPCS is already in the process of phasing out CDMA, and its spectrum holdings are broadly complementary: both companies live and breathe in the 1,700 MHz and 1,900 MHz spectrum bands.

The combined company will do business under the T-Mobile name, although MetroPCS and T-Mobile will continue to operate as distinct customer units. Contract-based mobile service (along with services for businesses) will be under the T-Mobile name, and pre-paid and no-contract service will be available under both T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands.

The pre-paid market — or, as Deutsche Telekom likes to refer to it, “value-focused” market — is one area where the combined company gets interesting. MetroPCS is exclusively a no-contract and pre-paid provider — also one of T-Mobile’s strong points. According to T-Mobile, the two companies will have about 14.6 million no-contract subscribers (9.3 million from MetroPCS), putting it nearly neck-and-neck with Sprint’s no-contract operation, which currently has about 15.4 million customers. The combined T-Mobile/MetroPCS no-contract business looks poised to earn more money than Sprint’s: in the second quarter of 2012, Sprint pulled in $1.2 billion from no-contract subscribers, where the combined T-Mobile/MetroPCS pulled in $1.6 billion. Basically, the combined T-Mobile and MetroPCS will likely become the biggest no-contract mobile operator after AT&T and Verizon — we only say “likely” because those companies don’t break out revenue from their prepaid/no-contract businesses.

The terms of the merger are unusual: technically, MetroPCS is acquiring T-Mobile in a reverse acquisition. MetroPCS will declare a 2-for-1 reverse stock split, pay $1.5 billion to its existing shareholders (a bit over $4 per share), and then buy all of T-Mobile’s capital stock by giving Deutsche Telekom 74 percent of MetroPCS. In the end, Deutsche Telekom winds up the majority owner of MetroPCS, and the new company will have nearly $25 billion in revenue and about $2.1 billion in free cash flow for the year. T-Mobile’s current CEO, John Legere, will be the CEO of the new company; MetroPCS CFO J. Braxton Carter will be the new company’s CFO. MetroPCS’s CEO, Roger Linquist, will apparently retire — he is 74 years old. Regulators have to approve the deal, and that will take a while: the companies expect the deal to be formally closed by June 2013. The new company will operate out of T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Washington HQ, but will maintain a “significant presence” in the Dallas area.

One of the consequences of the reverse merger is that the new T-Mobile will be a public company: before, it was a private company owned by Deutsche Telekom. Although Deutsche Telekom has agreed to provide a $5.5 billion commitment to support some existing MetroPCS transactions, write down the value of some of its investment in T-mobile, and offer the new company a $500 million unsecured credit facility, setting up T-Mobile as a public company gives Deutsche Telekom something it’s always wanted: a way out of the slow-growing U.S. mobile market. That’s why it tried to sell T-Mobile lock, stock, and barrel to AT&T in one giant transaction. Taking T-Mobile public doesn’t give Deutsche Telekom a swift and sudden exit from the American market, but it does put the company in a position to sell off its shares of the new company in the future.

If you’re a T-Mobile customer…

In the short term, the merger probably won’t affect T-Mobile customers: the company is continuing its $4 billion built-out of LTE services using AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) spectrum on its network. However, looking ahead, the merger means T-Mobile’s LTE offerings should be much stronger in the areas where MetroPCS currently offers service. Assuming all of MetroPCS’s AWS spectrum gets converted over to LTE — which should happen over time — T-Mobile will have an average of 50 MHz of LTE bandwidth in major areas like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Detroit, and Las Vegas — and 60 MHz in MetroPCS’s hometown of Dallas — and that includes a full 2×20 MHz in many areas, meaning T-Mobile’s LTE network should be able to keep up with competitors in terms of raw bandwidth. T-Mobile’s current GSM and HSPA+ handsets will continue working, too.

Going forward, T-Mobile’s move toward LTE also means T-Mobile customers can expect to have a greater selection of handsets. Instead of having to rely on phone makers to create special devices for T-Mobile’s own flavor of HSPA+ connectivity, T-Mobile should be able to offer customers mainstream LTE handsets. T-Mobile is hoping that, one day soon, that will include the iPhone, but the company will also be happy to offer customers the latest LTE devices running Android and Windows Phone, as well as accept iPhone migrants from other carriers.

MetroPCS has also been noted for its highly automated self-service capabilities, making it easier for customers to add minutes, pay bills, switch plans, and get a new phone without incurring a ton of customer support costs. On an investor call today about the merger, T-Mobile executives said they expect to be able to leverage that to improve its customer service levels — which would be welcome. T-Mobile’s customer service used to be lauded; recently J.D. Power and Associates has been rating it lowest in customer service among all carriers.

If you’re a MetroPCS customer…

If you’re a MetroPCS customer (and familiar with wireless technology), this merger is putting four letters in your mind: CDMA. MetroPCS’s voice network runs on CDMA, which is incompatible with T-Mobile’s GSM network. How can these incompatible technologies work together?

Short answer: they won’t. MetroPCS customers will be stuck on MetroPCS coverage and limitations until they migrate to new, future, handsets that will incorporate service for both networks. We also learned on the call today (and this long document) that the combined company anticipates keeping some of MetroPCS’s existing CDMA service operating through the first half of 2015, so customers have almost three years to transition to a new handset. MetroPCS’s all-contract business has an exceptionally high handset turnover: each year, between 60 and 65 percent of MetroPCS’s customers get new handsets, so transitioning away from CDMA in a span of nearly three years isn’t expected to be a major problem for most MetroPCS customers.

And MetroPCS customers should get some significant benefits from the deal once they transition, including substantially expanded mobile coverage, without being forced into roaming deals (including international roaming options). That expanded coverage area also makes it more likely MetroPCS customers can keep their service if they move to a more rural area. Although MetroPCS has already been rolling out LTE service, with T-Mobile it will have access to a much broader LTE network (once it’s built out), along with a wider choice of handsets — perhaps one day including the iPhone.

MetroPCS customers also get some stability: MetroPCS is the fifth largest mobile operator in the U.S., but it was still a regional provider going it along with limited growth opportunities. The combined company is larger, more stable, and backed by the considerable financial resources of Deutsche Telekom — which is still an investment-grade stock.

When life hands you lemons…

T-Mobile merging with MetroPCS is the latest move in the company’s gotta-stay-alive strategy in the wake of AT&T’s failed takeover attempt. When the AT&T merger failed, T-Mobile was left with comparatively few options, and none of them were great. The company has settled on a “challenger” strategy that isn’t aiming to unseat AT&T or Verizon, but instead to offer a fourth stable, national competitor in the U.S. market.

Since it became single again, T-Mobile has made four major moves to position itself as a viable alternative to AT&T and Verizon:

• It picked up AWS spectrum holdings (as well as a roaming deal) from AT&T as part of its break-up fee when acquisition fell through
• It announced a $4 billion upgrade plan to offer LTE services on its AWS network — that involves upgrading 37,000 sites over three years
• It picked up still more AWS spectrum from Verizon as a condition of Verizon’s deal with cable operators
• It sold rights on 7,200 towers to Crown Castle for $2.4 billion in cash to fuel its LTE transition

For T-Mobile, merging with MetroPCS is about making the best play it can to build competitive 4G LTE services. The company has no spectrum holdings in the attractive 700 MHz bands recently vacated by broadcast television: those bands are particularly appealing for LTE and mobile services because they’re good at penetrating structures. With the MetroPCS merger, T-Mobile is still left out of 700 MHz LTE service, but it will be able to significantly increase the density of LTE services it can offer in higher-frequency AWS bands: they don’t penetrate buildings as well, but T-Mobile is hoping to make up some of the difference by widening the amount of spectrum it uses in many metropolitan areas, as well as by being particular about how it upgrades its towers — it’s been hoping to improve in-building coverage by about 20 percent just through its network modernization, which includes new antennas with integrated radios.

Those efforts probably won’t be enough to compete head to head with the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless, but T-Mobile and MetroPCS are a good fit in another way: no-contract customers. The U.S. mobile market is mostly saturated. Very few new mobile customers are being created: some estimates have the U.S. mobile market growing by about 3 to 5 percent a year through 2017. However, tough economic times and the high cost of smartphone voice and data plans means the no-contract and pre-paid segment of the U.S. mobile phone market could grow by 9 to 10 percent in that same period. The combined T-Mobile and MetroPCS should be a major player in that faster-growing market segment — particularly if the combined company can keep to its strategy of unlimited mobile data plans.

The next move is probably Sprint

What will be the next move in the mobile industry? Look to number-three Sprint. MetroPCS’s deal with Deutsche Telekom to merge with T-Mobile was actually MetroPCS’s second choice: earlier this year, MetroPCS nearly closed a deal to be acquired by Sprint. That deal was rejected by Sprint’s board, and MetroPCS had to go looking elsewhere for a buyer.

Sprint has indicated it intends to be a leader in consolidation in the mobile industry — and its most likely targets are LEAP Wireless or working out a deal with Dish Network. Dish, in particular, might be tempting: the satellite TV operator holds a number of licenses in the 2000 to 2200 MHz band that it intended to use to build out its own satellite-assisted LTE network. However, the FCC is on the verge of action that could make some of Dish’s licenses relatively useless to Dish…but useful as an add-on to Sprint’s built-out of LTE service in the 1900 MHz range. Sprint is already building out its LTE service, where Dish hasn’t really started.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

MetroPCS and T-Mobile USA to merge (Update: MetroPCS approves merger)

The old saying goes, "If you can't beat them, join them," but Deutsche Telekom may be going another way. It's looking to join T-Mobile with MetroPCS to compete with Verizon and AT&T.

T-Mobile is often the forgotten option of the major wireless carriers. That might not be the case anymore if rumors out of Deutsche Telekom are true. Word from the German communications company today, as reported by Bloomberg, is it’s in talks to purchase MetroPCS and merge it with its T-Mobile network.

The reason behind Deutsche Telekom’s potential actions is simple: adding MetroPCS expands T-Mobile’s coverage to a scale that will be more competitive with mobile giants AT&T and Verizon. The proposed deal would give Deutsche Telekom the majority stake in the newly formed company. This is a particularly interesting move after its failed attempts to sell T-Mobile in its entirety to AT&T just over a year ago.

T-Mobile currently has a userbase of 33.2 million customers as of the end of June, putting it at less than 1/3 of AT&T and Verizon’s sizable subscriber chunks. MetroPCS is the fifth largest mobile provider (T-Mobile is fourth) in the United States with 9.5 million subscribers. While the merged company would still trail Sprint’s customer base, it’s the additional service area that is coveted. MetroPCS reaches 90 percent of the U.S. population and has a presence in 19 major markets, no small feat for a non-national provider. Of course, the subscriber addition wouldn’t hurt as T-Mobile has been hemorrhaging customers since the second quarter, likely in part due to its inability to secure a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone.

The news has been plenty good to MetroPCS shareholders, who saw their stocks shoot up by 17 percent, reaching as high as $14.51 in afternoon trading. Deutsche Telekom also got a little boost in the European market with shares rising 2 percent after merger talks were announced. It seems like the companies couldn’t be a better match, as both aim to provide affordable, alternative coverage with a worthwhile network. While all sides appear optimistic, the deal is anything but done. MetroPCS has been a merger target in the past for Leap Wireless and Sprint, but a deal has never gone through. 

Article originally published 10/2/2012

Update 10/3/2012 by Jeffrey VC: The MetroPCS board of directors has approved the merger with T-Mobile USA, according to Reuters. A T-Mobile USA press release indicates that MetroPCS will get $1.5 billion in cash and the new company will be listed on the stock exchange.

“We are extremely pleased to announce this transaction with MetroPCS, which enhances Deutsche Telekom’s position in the expanding U.S. wireless market,” said René Obermann, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Telekom. “The T-Mobile and MetroPCS brands are a great strategic fit – both operationally and culturally.  The new company will be the value leader in wireless with the scale, spectrum and financial and other resources to expand its geographic coverage, broaden choice among all types of customers and continue to innovate, especially around the next-generation LTE network. We are committed to creating a sustainable and financially viable national challenger in the U.S., and we believe this combination helps us deliver on that commitment.”

We’ll have a deeper analysis of this merger and its implications later today.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

ZTE Warp Sequent and Anthem 4G announced, will provide budget Android thrills for MetroPCS and Boost Mobile

Both MetroPCS and Boost Mobile have announced new, budget Android phones this week; the ZTE Warp Sequent and the ZTE Anthem 4G respectively.

ZTE has been busy over the past few days, with two of its phones debuting on two different US networks, and both offering cheap Android smartphone thrills.

The first is the ZTE Warp Sequent, which is available now for Boost Mobile, and as its unusual name suggests — seriously, ZTE, what’s wrong with slapping a “2” on there like you usually do — it’s a new version of the old ZTE Warp.

So what’s changed? The screen remains at 4.3-inches, however it now has a 960 x 540 pixel resolution, plus the processor has been upgraded to a 1.4Ghz, single-core Snapdragon S2. The RAM has been boosted to 768MB, and there’s 4GB of internal storage, plus a microSD card slot to add another 32GB too.

A 5-megapixel camera sits on the back and a 1.3-megapixel video-call lens on the front, while the operating system is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which appears here almost free of manufacturer and network abuse.

Phone fans may recognize this specification as being similar to the Grand X and Grand X IN, and there has been talk that the Warp Sequent could use an Intel Atom processor; however Boost’s specs don’t mention anything other than the clock speed, and the Grand X IN’s Atom runs at 1.6Ghz and not 1.4Ghz, so it’s looking unlikely.

If you’re interested in the Warp Sequent, it’s out now and is priced at $199 without a contract, but you will need to buy one of Boost’s pre-paid plans.

ZTE Anthem: cheap 4G with a catch

On to the ZTE Anthem 4G, which is MetroPCS’ latest budget offering, and it’s particularly notable because the phone is ZTE’s first 4G LTE device to be released in the USA.

It has a 4.3-inch touchscreen with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, a 1.2Ghz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.

The camera has 5-megapixels and can shoot 1080p video, plus there’s features such as an HDMI-out, a microSD card slot and GPS. It’s a weighty beast though, tipping the scales at 190 grams, and at 13.7mm, it’s not slim either.

What it is though, is fairly cheap at $219 SIM-free, but then it needs to be as it runs Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread. While Gingerbread is perfectly usable, it looks and feels dated when compared to Ice Cream Sandwich, let alone Jelly Bean.

If the outdated operating system hasn’t put you off, then the Anthem’s budget 4G thrills will be available in both MetroPCS stores and online in the coming weeks.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Are new unlimited data plans from T-Mobile and MetroPCS a good deal?

T-Mobile and MetroPCS have joined Sprint in offering truly unlimited data plans: no data caps in sight. Should AT&T and Verizon customers disgruntled by rate changes make the jump? Maybe, but make sure to read the fine print.

T-Mobile has always offered “unlimited” mobile data service, but it came with an asterisk and a flurry of fine print at the bottom of contract agreements. Users could use all the data they wanted, but once they exceeded a monthly threshold for their plan — usually 2GB or 5GB a month — T-Mobile would throttle performance down to about 128Kbps. That’s enough to check email or post a quick status update, but forget uploading a bunch of photos, watching video, or even streaming music.

Now, T-Mobile has announced it will offer truly unlimited data plans: All the data you can use, no throttling, for a fixed fee of $20 to $30 per month on top of a traditional voice plan. The rates will be available beginning September 5. The move comes one day after regional carrier MetroPCS announced its own unlimited 4G LTE data plan starting at just $40 a month — although that’s just a promotional rate, so there’s no telling how long MetroPCS will keep it on the table.

Are the plans a good deal? And are they enough to keep mobile consumers interested in T-Mobile and MetroPCS as the companies struggle to compete with behemoths like AT&T and Verizon Wireless? After all, T-Mobile and MetroPCS have one thing in common when it comes to attracting (and retaining) customers: neither offers the iPhone.

T-Mobile’s unlimited plan

T-Mobile’s new unlimited data plan will be available starting September 5 as a $20 add-on to a Value voice-and-text plan, or a $30 add-on to a Classic voice-and-text plan. That brings the cost of a single line Value plan with unlimited nationwide data to a total cost of $69.99 per month (excluding taxes and fees), while a single line Classic plan with unlimited data will cost $89.99 a month — again, omitting taxes and fees. The unlimited data plan is not available separately or with any of T-Mobile’s other options, including pre-paid service.

While T-Mobile has made a point to include no throttling, that isn’t to say T-Mobile’s unlimited data plan is now asterisk-free. Although T-Mobile calls the service its Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data plan, T-Mobile’s variety of 4G is still its souped-up HSPA+ network. To be sure, that network does hop along, routinely offering download speeds of 8 Mbps or more in areas with decent coverage and in theory jumping all the way up to 42 Mbps. But top speeds are available only to phones specifically engineered for T-Mobile’s network. While the company is working hard to transition its network to be more broadly compatible with other 3G phones, they aren’t there yet. Similarly, T-Mobile’s transition to “true” 4G LTE service isn’t scheduled to be available to consumers until sometime in 2013. Bottom line: Customers who want decent performance from a T-Mobile smartphone need to live in an area with reliable service and have a T-Mobile’s phone.

One more caveat: Folks taking advantage of the unlimited data plan won’t be able to use their devices as mobile hotspots to share their mobile broadband connections with other devices, like tablets, gaming devices, or computers. T-Mobile users who want hotspot capabilities will pay at least $94.99 a month — and have a 5GB monthly data cap.

MetroPCS’s unlimited plan

MetroPCS is also rolling out an unlimited data plan, offering unlimited voice, text, and data on a single line for $55 per month. Existing MetroPCS customers can pick up the unlimited service for $50 a month on additional lines. Unlike T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 4G network, MetroPCS’s unlimited data plan is LTE-ready: MetroPCS is already rolling out 4G LTE to its service areas, and customers with LTE phones are eligible to use unlimited data on that LTE network.

There are a couple of catches. The first, of course, is that MetroPCS is a regional carrier. If you don’t live in one of the 17 metropolitan areas it serves (which, admittedly, includes New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, the San Francisco Bay area, and Dallas), customers can’t get their service. Furthermore, even existing MetroPCS customers probably need a new phone to take advantage of the company’s new LTE network. Right now, fewer than 10 percent of MetroPCS’s customers have phones that can use its new high-speed network. MetroPCS’s unlimited data plan offer is a pretty transparent attempt to get its existing customers to upgrade to new LTE-capable devices — not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Unfortunately, the pricing on MetroPCS’s unlimited 4G data plan is a promotion: it’s not a permanent offering. (Not that any mobile plan can really described as “permanent.”) MetroPCS hasn’t said how long it plans to run the promotion, but the Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) it could last three to six months. When the promotion ends, MetroPCS will revert to its current $70 a month price for unlimited data.

Finally, like T-Mobile, MetroPCS’s unlimited 4G data service does not include using a 4G device as a mobile hotspot.

How they stack up

T-Mobile and MetroPCS aren’t the only players in the U.S. mobile market that offer unlimited data. The biggest player in the field is Sprint, which has so far bucked the trend of major mobile operators in either throttling data or instituting data caps. Sprint’s unlimited data service starts at $109.99 per month (plus tax), and for now is limited to 3G service. (That’s a $99.99 plan plus a $10 a month “premium” for using it with a smartphone.) Sprint is still in the process of rolling out equipment for LTE service and had planned to have 12,000 sites up and running by the end of 2012, although there have been some delays as the company works to get fiberoptic backhaul in place. Broad LTE coverage from Sprint isn’t expected until 2013.

Sprint’s unlimited data plan seems to make both T-Mobile’s and MetroPCS’s high-performance offerings seem like a bargin. However, Sprint offers broader coverage than T-Mobile (and especially MetroPCS), and Sprint can also offer customers the iPhone.

Of course, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are fond of telling customers that their capped data plans only impact a small percentage of customers who use mammoth amounts of mobile data: According to the companies, most customers never come close to hitting their monthly data limits. Verizon currently starts capping individual users at 2GB of data per month and charges $15 per GB of overage. AT&T starts off with a 3GB monthly cap and charges $10 per GB of overage.

Pros and cons

Are either T-Mobile or MetroPCS’s unlimited data plans a good deal? The answer most likely depends on whether you’re already a T-Mobile or MetroPCS customer — and how you feel about buying a new phone.

Neither T-Mobile or MetroPCS currently offer the iPhone, so if you’re dead-set on an Apple device, these plans are out.

If you already have a smartphone running Android or another platform on another carrier, you’re in a similar situation. MetroPCS’s LTE network uses 1,900 MHz and AWS frequency bands, so 4G phones from AT&T and Verizon won’t operate on its LTE service. In other words, you’ll need to buy a new device to get high speed service on MetroPCS, even if you have a 4G phone on another network.

If you already have a smartphone from AT&T, T-Mobile’s unlimited data plan might be an option — eventually. Right now T-Mobile’s special flavor of high-speed HSPA+ only works with devices designed for its network; however, T-Mobile is in the process of reconfiguring its network in such a way that some AT&T 3G/4G HSPA+ devices — including the iPhone — will be able to use its services. (T-Mobile already has more than a million customers using iPhones on its network, but they’re currently limited to 2G EDGE service.) As T-Mobile’s redeployment proceeds and it shifts to embrace the same frequency bands as AT&T, some AT&T handsets owners — including iPhone owners — could find T-Mobile’s new unlimited data plans very tempting. But that network redeployment hasn’t extended very far yet, and T-Mobile doesn’t expect to complete it until sometime in 2013.

Bottom line: Both T-Mobile’s and MetroPCS’s new unlimited data plan offers are primarily tempting to existing T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers — particularly customers who are on the edge of buying a new phone. In that sense, they’re sound business moves. T-Mobile has been steadily losing subscribers without the iPhone. Unlimited data plans are a good way to keep existing T-Mobile contract subscribers on board. For MetroPCS, the unlimited data promotion is a good way to convince existing customers to upgrade to new devices that can use its shiny new LTE network. The plans aren’t going to be ground-shaking turning points for either company — but they should help keep some of their most valuable smartphone customers happy.

[Images via Shutterstock / carlosgardel, Shutterstock / Sam72]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com