Scam callers are never fun to deal with, and it can sometimes feel like half of all the calls you get throughout the day are from people trying to nab personal info that they have no business knowing. If you’re using your iPhone on MetroPCS, you’ll soon be able to use two new features that will make dealing with scammers a thing of the past.
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T-Mobile’s prepaid carrier MetroPCS will begin offering the iPhone for the first time to its customers starting tomorrow, but only in one market: Florida. MetroPCS will carry a range of models including the iPhone 6s Plus as well as the recently discontinued iPhone 5s.
T-Mobile is extending its popular Music Freedom service, which allows unlimited use of Apple Music and other streaming music services without eating into your data allowance, to MetroPCS prepaid customers – albeit under a slightly different name. T-Mobile said that its Music Unlimited service would be available on a range of plans, starting from just $40/month.
Music Unlimited includes more than 30 music streaming services, including Apple Music, Pandora, Spotify, Slacker, iHeart Radio, and Google Play Music. Music Unlimited is available to new and existing MetroPCS customers on Metro’s new $40, $50, and $60 unlimited plans.
The company is also offering a Binge On equivalent, known as Data Maximizer. This compresses streaming video streams down to DVD quality to allow customers to stream three times as much video content for the same data usage …
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Following announcements earlier this month from both AT&T and Verizon, T-Mobile announced today it’s introducing Voice over LTE support starting with the Seattle market:
So I’m thrilled to congratulate my team on the launch of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) in the Seattle area for our existing LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Light customers. Our friends at MetroPCS were the first to launch VoLTE in the U.S. back in 2012, and we’ve been working hard on a LTE Advanced version of VoLTE, which we plan to roll out to more T-Mobile customers throughout the coming year.
T-Mobile’s CTO Neville Ray noted that the new technology, which brings voice calls onto the same LTE radio layer previously reserved for data, will allow “faster call setup times (almost twice as fast as a non-VoLTE call setup) and the ability to enjoy lightening fast LTE data speeds while on a call.” It will also support the HD Voice or wide-band audio feature that Apple already supports. Ray explained how the technology works:
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All Things D reports that T-Mobile is finally taking advantage of this year’s MetroPCS merger. The fourth-largest mobile carrier in the U.S. plans to use the new spectrum to offer even faster speeds on its LTE network nationwide. Some markets are already seeing an increase in speed, and more will see faster service next year. The company says it hopes to cover up to 90% of its current subscriber base with improved service.
In direct contrast to this data network improvement, T-Mobile is also planning to launch new pre-paid plans with no data allowance included, according to TMo News. The carrier confirmed that the new plans will come with unlimited talk and text, but will not include any data. These new pre-paid plans will be available on December 8th, the the same day AT&T is launching its new selection of plans.
While T-Mobile didn’t disclose specific iPhone numbers in its Q3 earnings report this morning, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk has followed up with numbers from the company’s conference call. According to T-Mobile, iPhone sales accounted for almost 550k units, or 10% of its total 5.6 million smartphone sales including pre-paid and MetroPCS branded devices. Piecyk notes that number is around 15% of the carrier’s post-paid smartphone sales under its own brand, which is down from approximately 950k last quarter. T-Mobile confirmed the numbers in a statement to AllThingsD:
Sales of iPhones represented about 15 percent of T-Mobile-brand smartphone sales, CMO Mike Sievert said. T-Mobile sold about 3.6 million smartphones under its own brand, meaning it sold about 540,000 iPhones in the quarter.
T-Mobile today reported that it sold a record 5.6 million smartphones during the quarter, which includes sales to prepaid customers, accounting for around 88% of total phone units sold. The carrier didn’t have much time to sell the new iPhone 5s and 5c in its third quarter as the devices launched late in September, but the company did make a point of noting that it launched the new iPhones at “very attractive introductory prices of $99 down and $0 down” in its earnings release today. Piecyk notes how that compares to the other guys in Q3:
[tweet https://twitter.com/WaltBTIG/status/397743765474930688]
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T-Mobile US’s customer base jumped by 1.1 million in its financial Q2, with the iPhone – offered by the carrier for the first time back in April – accounting for 29 percent of sales.
The company had lost over 200,000 customers in the same quarter the previous year. The company’s turnaround is being attributed to a combination of its new approaches to contracts – Uncarrier (whose introduction was not without controversy) and Jump – and the decision to add the iPhone 5 to its handset range. Earlier research by CIRP had suggested that 300-400,000 customers would have left the carrier if it hadn’t introduced the iPhone …
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T1AYqBdhfo4
Update: Talking to AllThingsD, T-Mobile CEO John Legere says an iPhone on MetroPCS is a possibility but “not imminent.”
“The answer to that is not ‘No,’” Legere said, but added, “It’s not imminent; I think that’s safe to say.” “It’s also something that involves Apple…. we’ve started those dialogues with our partners.”
We already knew that both company’s boards had approved the merger of T-mobile USA and MetroPCS, but today the No. 4 and No. 5 U.S. carriers have officially announced the merger is now complete. Starting today the two companies will become one and begin trading under the ticker “TMUS” on the New York Stock Exchange:
Under the terms of the business combination agreement, MetroPCS effected a 1 for 2 reverse stock split, made a cash payment of $1.5 billion to its stockholders (approximately $4.05 per share prior to the reverse stock split), and acquired all of T-Mobile’s capital stock from Deutsche Telekom in exchange for approximately 74% of MetroPCS’ common stock on a pro forma basis.
MetroPCS has never offered the iPhone to its 9 million customers, but today’s announcement means the carrier will begin migrating to T-Mobile’s network infrastructure and presumably eventually support the iPhone alongside T-Mobile for its customer base. The new combined company will be lead by T-Mobile CEO John Legere, but for now T-Mobile and MetroPCS will continue to operate as separate brands.