HomeComputingMobileInternetGamingElectronicsExtremeDealsExtremeTechElectronicsT-Mobile Un-carrier 5 and 6: Free iPhone loans, VoLTE, and unmetered musicT-Mobile Un-carrier 5 and 6: Free iPhone loans, VoLTE, and unmetered musicBy Neal Gompa on June 20, 2014 at 11:17 amComment
Share This articleOn Tuesday evening, T-Mobile held its Un-carrier event in Seattle and streamed it live to the public. To everyone’s surprise, T-Mobile launched two initiatives: free 7-day test drives with the iPhone 5S, and unmetered music streaming (much to the chagrin of net neutrality proponents). The company also announced that it has VoLTE and wideband LTE live in over 15 markets, and VoLTE will be available nationwide by the end of the year.
Un-carrier 5.0
In T-Mobile CEO John Legere’s usual flamboyant and semi-profane style, the executive announced “T-Mobile Test Drive” for Un-carrier 5.0. T-Mobile Test Drive is a free service that allows anyone (current customers and non-customers) to request T-Mobile to ship them a free trial kit composing of an Apple iPhone 5S with a temporary phone number and a 7-day variant of the Simple Choice plan with unlimited talk, text, and high speed data (and 3GB of hotspot data).
According to the FAQ on the website, it can only be done once, and the device must be returned (as the kits are specifically allocated for trial usage) to a retail store and inspected for damage. If there’s no significant damage (like cracks on the screen or water damage), then there’s no repair charges. If there is, then T-Mobile will charge a $100 damage fee. As long as you take care of the phone during the trial period this sounds like a fantastic way to get people to try T-Mobile with no risk.
But why the iPhone 5S? According to John Legere, T-Mobile determined that there is a very low awareness of the fact that the company has carried the iPhone since April of last year. T-Mobile and Apple partnered to get iPhone awareness up, with the particular goal of Apple raising its market share among T-Mobile subscribers. With that in mind, the phones are being provided freely by Apple for this program. For T-Mobile, this is about growing awareness of its improved network.
T-Mobile and MetroPCS bandwidth allocations in DallasSpeaking of the network, T-Mobile announced that it will cover 230 million people with LTE by the end of the month, which puts it very rapidly closing in on its goal to cover 250 million people with LTE by the end of the year. Thanks to its excellent AWS spectrum portfolio, it has 16 markets with wideband LTE. In these markets, T-Mobile customers will have access to throughput of 120Mbps or more with customarily low latency that is expected with LTE. Those markets include Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle.
T-Mobile also announced that it has VoLTE (Voice over LTE) live in 15 markets now, and it’ll be live nationwide by the end of the year. In these markets, AMR-WB (the codec used for voice) bandwidth is nearly doubled from 12.65Kbps (T-Mobile’s existing HD Voice bandwidth) to 23.85Kbps. This further increases the quality of voice calls between T-Mobile customers. VoLTE is active in an number of major markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle.
At this time, T-Mobile’s VoLTE service is accessible only with the Samsung Galaxy Light, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the Samsung Galaxy S5, and the LG G Flex. More devices will get access to the service over time. Presumably, new devices will have it right away, too.
Next page: Un-carrier 6.0, and its potential attack on net neutrality
1 of 2 Next
Tagged In webwhats newusalte4g4g ltet-mobileiphone 5Scarriersnet neutralityVoLTEwireless spectrumstreaming musicspotifyApple iPhoneWideband LTEUn-carrierShare This Article .article {margin:0px !important;}.AR_1 {margin :0 0 20px 0 !important;}.AR_2 {margin:0 0 20px 0;} CommentPost a Comment mrseanpaul81 I love tmobile!
meddle0neCool. Now about that service coverage.
ZunalterWhat is this strange creature? A giant telecom company that actually appears to be trying to add value to their service instead of squeezing every last dime from their customers? Have I wandered into an alternate universe?
Ivor O’ConnorI use T-Mobile and I support this advert!
(Though I do not support Apple.)
I have been using T-Mobile for quite a long time and as a power user I greatly appreciate what they do as opposed to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.
java luI switched to T-Mobile a long time ago, was just giving a random shot hoping that I made the right choice. Well, I am super impressed every day!
RozzSummerYou may recall that T-Mobile had agreed to be acquired by ATT not long ago and the deal got shot down by regulators. I’m not generally a fan of AG Holder, but the Justice Department made the right call in this case. Does anyone think the kind of innovations T-Mobile is rolling out now would have occurred as a subsidiary of ATT? Not a chance.
I’m hoping any Sprint overture for T-Mobile gets the same treatment from regulators. Lesson learned.
fidgeThis would be awesome if T-Mobile had coverage for voice and sms outside of major US cities. The coverage for even basic mobile phone usage is atrocious.
Elias SteurerWhats wrong with you t-mobile? Here in germany you’re by far the worst internet provider 0.o
Fabius1I’m a tmobile customer on my way out. I wish they’d dedicate these resources to building a real national network. Even along major interstates, there is close to zero data coverage if you are not actually inside a major city. The relatively short and heavily trafficked highways between Austin and Houston or Austin and Dallas? Nothing. If you ever drive anywhere outside of the city where you live, T-Mobile will not meet your needs.
FollowFollow @ExtremeTech!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');ExtremeTech Newsletter
Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox.
More Articles
ET deals: Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD for $400 Jun 20
US Supreme Court deals major blow against software patents and patent trolls Jun 20
The first ‘unfeelability’ invisibility cloak will please campers and princesses everywhere Jun 20
AMD claims it can deliver 25x energy efficiency improvement in the next six years Jun 20
Dalvik is dead: Next version of Android uses new ART runtime to boost speed, battery life Jun 20 About ExtremeTechAdvertisingContact ExtremeTechET ForumsTerms of UsePrivacy PolicyZiff DavisJobsUse of this site is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Copyright 1996-2014 Ziff Davis, LLC.PCMag Digital Group All Rights Reserved. ExtremeTech is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis, LLC. is prohibited.
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
No comments:
Post a Comment