Slashdot Mirror
How the iPhone Led To the Sale of T-Mobile
Hugh Pickens writes "Kevin O'Brien writes that Deutsche Telekom's announcement to sell its American wireless unit, T-Mobile USA, to AT&T for $39 billion ended a decade-long foray into the American market that was undermined, in part, by the advent of the iPhone (reg. may be required). Deutsche Telekom had been generating decent sales from its American operation, but after the iPhone went on sale, sold exclusively at first for AT&T in the United States, T-Mobile USA began to lose its most lucrative customers: those on fixed, monthly plans, who defected to its larger American rivals — AT&T and Verizon Wireless. 'The iPhone effect cannot be underestimated in this decision,' says analyst Theo Kitz. "Without being able to sell the iPhone, T-Mobile was in an unsustainable position and T-Mobile USA became a problem child." Ironically, AT&T's acquisition won't help T-Mobile customers get access to the iPhone anytime soon, as T-Mobile will remain independent, albeit under AT&T's stewardship, for around a year, and won't offer the iPhone to its customers during that period."
I really like Tmobile, been with them 8 years, but this is going to get me onto a prepaid phone for voice only and just use the phone over WiFi for data.
Thank god for regulation and breaking monopolies! We have so much variety and competition, now. Up to as many as three cell providers in an area and up to as many as one broadband provider!
Interestingly, it's totally different in Germany: T-Mobile was the exclusive iPhone vendor here until the very end of 2010. Won them a lot of customers, I guess.
the iphone has zero to do with tmobile being sold, which, in case people haven't noticed, still has to be approved by the government. This deal actually might not be, in which case a lot of people will be happy.
What a joke of an article. It only looks at customers lost from the iphone, and not customers gained once tmobile picked up the G1, their first android phone. Talk about spin.
Not only does it have a stupid name, it creates monopolies. Besides sucking in general.
If this is really what led to the sale, and the T-Mobile franchise will really be run as a separate business unit, then watch as that continues to shrink into nothing.
I was getting close to jumping ship from T-Mobile anyway – not because of the iPhone (or lack of it), and not to AT&T or Verizon – they're all too expensive.
I live in a crappy neighborhood, and now all the ghetto T-mobile shops will turn into upstanding AT&T stores. Crossing my fingers that Verizon buys Metro next.
I just knew this was Apple's fault! Thanks Steve, for the exclusivity deal that helps AT&T on its way to regain its monopoly status to the detriment of American consumers. But what do you care, you dyin' bitch! Har.
So why couldn't people buy the iPhone unlocked? As I understand it T-Mobile is the only network in the US that doesn't penalise you for using your own phone.
Wasn't T-Mobile in the news a while ago because although they don't sell it, they said they'd give tech support to their customers who managed to carrier-unlock an iPhone on their own?
You'd have to pay the unsubsidized price, but you can still be an iPhone user and a T-mobile customer.
You said no to the iPhone. You and all other US carriers
AT&T said yes
So cry me a river...
how long until
It would have taken longer for Palm users to switch to iPhones if T Mobile had continued to support them. A lot of Palm users still are on with the $10 data plan, but no help from customer service, you have to work it out yourself. I wonder if I can move my SIM to an iPhone? My Centro is dying.
If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
According to the business sites, AT&T is going after T-Mobile for their spectrum - AT&T is hoping that T-Mobile's spectrum will help them with the connection and quality issues.
It has nothing to do with the iPhone or the Android.
all refused by my iphone
I switched to prepay about two years ago, having had my share of $50 plus per month cell contracts. Watching people pay $80 or more per month for their phones both amazes me and depresses me. They are still too much status symbol than need so the price doesn't have to be justified in the minds of many. Figure nearly a thousand a year just to have a 'smart' phone, for some its more.
Once you adapt to prepaid phones; this means adapting your friends to the fact you have one too; you rack up a lot of free time. By free I mean, not stuck on the phone or jumping at every e-mail/etc notification. Then to top it off with $50 or more in savings a month you start getting into the habit of looking at other expenses (monthlies) and realizing there is money to be saved everywhere, let alone time. Take that $1000 a year and put it into an IRA. You will get more from that than your cell phone could ever return.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
What is this, some kind of "the very best of" collection?
The main reason of T-Mobile's problems is one product - Flexpay. They went after the "subprime" market, and then they found out later that (Surprise!) they don't pay their bills. And the horrifically buggy implementation of this product has done nothing but hurt T-Mobile. It greatly affects time-to-market for almost all projects, which really hurts the business and causes them to lose postpaid customers.
a clear example of limiting market competition via monopolistic means
and of course as there is no real competition among iPhone phone carriers, they have to pay a premium for the service...
But it wasn't the whole puzzle. Sure, T-Mobile lost some customers to the iPhone over the years, but so did Verizon. The problem is that they were impacted more because they had a smaller number of customers to begin with.
T-Mobile had a particular niche that they served better than anyone else - the deaf community. Rag on the Sidekick all you want, but not only did they work better for the deaf community through pervasive TTY services, they had a specific plan for it, too. They just killed that service, effectively making enemies of some of their most fiercely loyal customers. Similarly, T-Mobile was known for not putting pressure on the handset OEMs to provide Android updates; it's among the most common complaints of Samsung owners.
T-Mobile tried competing with AT&T on the same merits that AT&T used to compete with Verizon. This was foundationally problematic, because they didn't stick to their strengths. "No data overage fees, ever" - that's all they had to say, and they would have had PLENTY of people who have had the pleasure of disputing $300-$800 of data overages. They could have implemented a spending cap to prevent outrageous bills, better advertised their international wi-fi calling, better advertised their bring-your-own-phone programs, and done something like "If you don't love us in 60 days, we'll refund every dime and help you go back to your old service, no questions asked". While I've heard a bad customer service story here and there for T-Mobile, my eight years of being a customer there have been an absolute pleasure. If they advertised that aspect of it, they might have been able to change some minds instead of trying to say "we can do what the iPhone does too"
It probably wouldn't have hurt to make it known that all the handsets they featured in their commercials run Android, just like the Verizon handsets, because lots of people think Android==Droid==Verizon Exclusive.
The fine article is correct in saying that T-Mobile couldn't compete with the iPhone at the hip-handset level. It fails to mention that there were plenty of other places where T-Mobile could have competed against AT&T and Verizon and won out, but didn't.
Until I bought the T-Mobile Wang, I mean, Wing, an HTC-manufactured Windows Mobile phone. I'd been moderately pleased with my old HTC WinMob phone, so it was an easy choice at upgrade time.
After three new Wings, my contract ran out, and I went and bought two new Apple ]|[gses. Have not had any issues of note. AT&T had some trouble transferring my wife's number over, and ended up charging me a cancellation fee on the temporary number they assigned her, which they refunded after I complained, along with the activation fees on both phones for my troubles.
When her iPhone was acting up two weeks ago, I made my appointment at the Apple store, and they replaced it on-the-spot. No waiting in line for two and a half hours at a store for them to tell me it's busted. No worrying about redirecting a UPS shipment to my office. No returning the old phone to a T-Mobile store, or dropping it off at a UPS store. No activation nonsense with a warranty replacement. Just a new, working phone, and I walk out of the store.
It's tough to feel bad for T-Mobile after what I went through during my last two years with them.
I need a GSM phone because of my international travels. I bought an AT&T prepaid SIM card back in 2007 but let it expire 6 months ago because of all the dropped calls and the overcharges I had in my last stay in the US. I was planning to buy a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card in my next trip, but now this news came out.
If this takeover gets approved, who else will compete against AT&T in the GSM space?
My wife and I payed good money to get out of an AT&T contract several years ago and went over to T-mobile. We can't seem to get away from that company.
Rate hikes for everyone in 3... 2... 1...
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
T-Mobile is cheaper than AT&T. If acquisition = cost performance, everyone will pay less than current T-Mobile rates. But we know that will never happen. Macro business is all about leverage. AT&T had enough of it to make the government cave. Next victim is the consumer who has none of it.
T-Mobile supports the iPhone... just no 3G service....
3G service in the US is still pretty close to nonexistent outside of a couple of major metropolitan areas, anyway. If the network isn't there, it doesn't really matter what your phone supports.
And one of the most disturbing prospects of a merger between the two GSM/UMTS network owners is that it's actually going to reduce the incentives for any provider improve that situation with new infrastructure buildout, which is pretty dangerous when the existing incentive is already zero .
And we're not just talking about reducing the competitive forces (which ESR cites as being the only thing motivating new buildout) by a mere ~25%, we're talking about reducing the competitive forces in the international standards-based market by 100%, moving us into a situation where moving to a different carrier guarantees the hardship of buying a whole new set of phones--and, if you're moving away from `the GSM company', the additional hardship of giving up international roaming.
We may well see network-growth stop, as a result of this--or at least slow down a whole lot.
-rozzin.
Actually, I think the deal had to do with the iPhone, just not how the article presented it. When AT&T's infrastructure struggled with the high demand of usage for bandwidth since the release of the iPhone, AT&T had to scale up in a hurry. TMobile has a large 4G infrastructure rolled out already, AT&T is working on it. I think that was probably the most important factor in deciding to purchase them.
Prepaid data plans are available, however most are not any cheaper than contract plans, so all you gain is not being locked-in for three years.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
When Oracle purchased Sun, I bet Google execs kicked themselves for not buying Sun first.
The same thing with T-Mobile. It would've been a perfect match and Google could've used T-Mobile to do many things beneficial to both Google and wireless consumers.
If any of you Googlers are reading this, shoot an email to Larry Page asking him to consider buying T-Mobile if the AT&T deal falls apart.
Yeah, the sale won't help T-Mo customers get iPhones.... or help AT&T get THIS customer. If the sale goes thru, I'm out.
I WILL NOT be an AT&T customer again. Even if I have to give up the flexibility of a gsm sim card, I won't give AT&T my cash.
(Did you notice buried in the news release that one of the benefits of the sale would be the ability to raise customer rates? Nice. I'm out.)
Yes, the story is hyperbole and conjecture, because most tech articles online are based on dramatic declarations rather than facts. However, your comment is also a bit hyperbolic.
Think about business here. The iPhone wasn't the sole reason but it helped a lot. In terms of subscribers and money, the carriers right now are 1) Verizon, 2) AT&T, 3) Sprint 4) T-Mobile. Verizon has differentiated itself by running on it's reputation of reliability. AT&T differentiated itself by getting the iPhone first. It remains to be seen if AT&T can remain #2 but it has done a good job of locking some people into their service by getting a boost from the iPhone. Sprint and T-Mobile are a distant 3 and 4, because they aren't differentiating themselves well, and because AT&T was stealing their high end subscribers while local smaller outfits like MetroPCS, Cricket, Boost, Amped and others were stealing their low end subscribers. So what you end up with is a smaller T-Mobile and a larger AT&T with lots of cash to start making business deals.
Now ultimately the reason why T-Mobile is being sold is because AT&T bought them. The article makes it seem like AT&T handed T-Mobile a crushing defeat and Deutch Telekom whimpered for mercey and sold their meager T-Mobile branch. Far from the truth. Deutch Telekom saw a money making opportunity, better than what they were making now. There are probably lots of business reasons surrounding it, and DT saw they were getting their asses kicked since 2007. They could continue to operate and try to come up with something new, but quite simply they cashed out when someone made them an attractive offer. DT saw they weren't as competitive as they wanted to be, so they took their money and went home. They might be able to make more money by investing that $39 in their European wireless market... or just invest it in oil futures or something.
As for the G1... seriously? Don't make me laugh. T-Mobiles subscriber base has shrunk since 2007. Period, regardless of what technology AT&T and T-Mobile are offering. You can hardly say T-Mobile gained as many customers from the G1 as AT&T did from the iPhone.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
"ironically, AT&T's acquisition won't help T-Mobile customers get access to the iPhone anytime soon"
Anyone who really cared about the IPhone, has long ago defected. Those smartphone users who stayed likely have other priorities (like having an antenna that works?).
I think it's skynet trying to achieve sentiance, little bit to go yet thankfully.
You can hardly say T-Mobile gained as many customers from the G1 as AT&T did from the iPhone.
Well of course he can and he got modded insightful to boot! The Android faithful (I do own a Galaxy S myself but I'm not some Android/Google worshipper like many on Slashdot) eat up such unevidenced claims like it's candy when it bashes Apple and the iPhone.
It hardly is attributed to the iphone for that matter, either. What I was trying to point out was, if tmobile is shrinking, there is more to that picture than the iphone, especially considering that android has more marketshare than iphone now anyway.
Nobody can say whether Tmobile gained as many from android as it lost from iphone because nobody has any fucking clue. Only this moron who you replied to believes in the fud.
This article makes it seem as if T-Mobile needs to be bought out more than AT&T needs a 4G network. Sprint has had a 4G network for almost a year, Verizon is currently rolling out a great 4G network, and T-Mobile has deployed a great 4G network of their own. Meanwhile, AT&T is caught with their dicks in their hands. Not only have they not rolled out their own 4G network to compete with the current offerings, but they don't appear to have any plans of rolling one out anytime soon. It would probably take a year for them to evaluate the different technology available to them and then another year to roll out that technology.
How did it get this way? Well, with the success of the iPhone, AT&T didn't feel the need to worry about a 4G infrastructure. Hell, they just got their 3G network to work at acceptable levels for the increased demand placed on their network by smartphones. However, since the iPhone is no longer exclusively theirs and Android has been outpacing the iPhone anyway, they are in a pretty big bind. They need T-Mobile's 4G network a LOT more than T-Mobile needs to be bought out. As a matter of fact, T-Mobile was in a prime position to steal many of AT&T's customers since they have competitive prices, great customer service, and most importantly, a much faster network.
It would really be something if the Department of Justice blocked this sale. AT&T would gradually lose more and more customers as their network aged and they failed to roll out their own next-gen network. And I, for one, wouldn't feel the least bit of sympathy for AT&T - that's what they get for resting on their laurels. Of course, the DoJ won't block the acquisition, but one could hope.
Funny, my iPhone has been using T-Mobile for the last couple of years.
I think AT&T was just tired of those commercials pointing out how bad AT&T is. Luke Wilson probably wasn't available to run counter ads, so it was just cheaper to buy them.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
My first mobile phone was an OKI bag phone ( I was the second most active user in Maine for a while, thanks to the guys at Maine Wireless for all the free minutes), but some time in the 90s I got my first paid-for phone from AT&T WS. I lived through the change to Cingular, then when they went back I bailed to T-Mobile in 2006.
So now I'm being driven back? Like I'm gonna hook up with VZW? And Sprint, the red-headed stepchild of the industry? No.
I got nowhere else to go. 2012 will mark my teturn to the evil empire. Gahhh!
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
They could just rebrand it as G-Mobile.
Maybe I'm behind the times (live in South Africa) but what does a carrier have to do with the handset? You buy a phone, pop in the SIM card and off you go, right? We have at least 6 operators here (Virgin, Vodacom, MTN, RedBull, CellC and 8.ta) and I can buy any of their SIM cards without worrying about my phone (ok maybe if it's micro-SIM I have to get a new SIM card but they cost R1 ~ $0.14 USD).
America, what the fuck is wrong with you? :)
T-Mobile a German Telecom owned company had the exclusive rights for selling Iphones in Germany, why they didn't do a package deal for both markets (US and Germany) is beyond me.
Exclusive partnerships, by their very nature, lock out competition and as such are innately anti-competitive.
Rather than seeing AT&T buy up besieged T-Mo (I use a T-mo prepaid sim in my smart phone, btw. No data plan, I use wifi hotspots for data.) I would rather see handset makers barred from signing exclusive backroom deals-- the whole "Give us $$$, and we'll partner exclusively!" shit has to end.
If the iPhone had been readily available on multiple carriers from the go, then at least two things would have been avoided. Namely, AT&T's network wouldnt have crashed into the floor from data service use, Verizon would have picked up a fair chunk of the iPhone userbase (Even if CDMA is inferior to GSM in this regard, being unable to use data while talking-- end users would not know that, nor notice, most likely), and T-Mobile would have been directly competitive with AT&T's offerings.
Instead you had a very sweet price inflation due to regulated supply coupled with excessive demand, which worked VERY nicely for Apple and AT&T, at the expense of the rest of the already under-competitive cellular market. It practically stinks of racketeering. (Yes, I know this threat is passed now, with the new exception in the DMCA for it, yet in the historical period I am railing against Apple+ATT really did play the That's a nice iPhone you have there, shame if something were to happen to it. card to keep iphone users from letting the air out of their price inflation scheme.)
The REAL solution is to ban these kinds of backroom deals, and enforce against them. (Sadly, no money-minded politician will campaign for, or enact such a provision, because killing backroom deals would kill a good portion of their "Campaign Funding")
I fucking HATE apple right now.
Is there no anti-trust regulation left remaining in the the U.S.? Did they throw 'em all out in the trash bin while no one was looking? I am genuinely puzzled.
T-Mobile customer who switched to AT&T when I got my iPhone 4 here...I used the original EDGE iPhone for three years on T-Mobile, never had a dropped call. T-Mobile had much, much better pricing and very good support. This makes me sad. :(
Where do you think the 39 billion came from? Trees? iPhone tree people then!
AT&T definitely wouldn't be so arrogantly entrenched and flushed with money unspent on coverage/towers without the iProducts sheeple/monkeys.
I had considered going with T-Mobile. They had plans that I was interested in. But then I did a search using their site for retail locations and found they had no stores in my state, only payment drop boxes. Apparently they only wanted my business if I wasn't from here originally.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Maybe it was, specifically, the iPhone, but maybe not. As a long-time T-Mobile customer, my main complaint has always been Tmo's available selection of phones. If I wanted a good phone, I had to buy an unlocked GSM model from outside their usual offering. So, I'm sure the iPhone influenced the situation, but it may have been less the fact that the iPhone was only available on AT&T, and more the fact that it added more contrast between other carriers' good phones and Tmo's selection of crap.
The Nexus 1 could have been T-Mobile's iPhone counterpart, had it not been for Google's retarded marketing model.
sig: sauer
Tmobile knows and they are going out of business now. So what do you think we can infer from that?
I am going on 9 years now as a T-Mobile customer. In the last 9 years, I've never had a call drop other than from my service being a little weak in my basement. My bill is about $60 ($39 was my original bill, plus$10 for phone and text add-on plan plus internet access and taxes, etc brings it to about $60) a month for unlimited calling and text plus (T-Mobile - T-Mobile) unlimited g2 internet access. I have not had a contract in years also and they never push for me to get one. Over the last 9years, I've only called customer service twice, once was because I wanted to add an international plan and another was to find out how to remove one of my phones from another plan and add 2 more new a new plan. Over the last 9 years I've never paid my bill on time and never seen a nasty email, letter or late fee, They actually added on 200mins to my plan for being a loyal customer. I only bought 2 cell phones from them over the years, One was the original Nokia they gave to me when I first got my phone and the other was a Samsung that I paid too much for, I still have both phones, but don't use them anymore. I bought 2 unlocked Palm 680's over the years (One I dropped in the pool and it still worked (still works now) and the other is used as my GPS unit now with a tomtom memory card) and used them on their network with no issues, data plan worked with them, was able to text, sms, IM and send pictures, there website always said I had an unsupported phone, but big deal. I then bought a palm Centro last year and didn't like it as much so bought a used unlocked G1 and give my girlfriend (a big mac fan) the Centro as she loved the phones more then the Iphone. A friend of mine bought a Iphone g3 and has been not happy with it at all. He told me after each software upgrade is has become less stable and slow. I hope the sale does not happy, Lots of my friends also have there fingers crossed that it does not.
Actually you can easily get a clue on this. Just Google it. You'll see that the 1.5 million figures first estimated were not corroborated and people think that's the FUD. Also, there are articles about how in 2008 the G1 was the 5th most popular phone, behind the iPhone 3G and 3 blackberry models.
And yet I'm not really trying to prove the iPhone outsold the G1. If you follow my statement, I said it was a fact that the T-mobile subscriber base has shrunk since 2007 overall. The original poster's position that the G1 increased T-Mobiles subscriber base, and I'm trying to say that's false from the other evidence provided. I'm not saying "iPhone ownz j00r f33bl3 G1". Not at all.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Actually you originally said: "the iphone has zero to do with tmobile being sold". Now you are saying: "there is more to that picture than the iPhone." which is it? In fact the latter is my point, not your point.
And to address your statement: "It hardly is attributed to the iphone for that matter". Actually as I stated it is a large point. The iPhone gave AT&T a large infusion of cash and took away subscribers from T-Mobile, helping to shrinking the T-Mobile user base. One company got bigger, another got smaller, and then that smaller company is getting eaten by the larger one. Typical American Capitalism (I make no judgement as to this being a good or bad thing).
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I wanted a 3G phone and waited for an arm and a leg for T-Mobile to get it. For 3 years, I kept asking and they kept telling me it will just be next year. After I switched, they still didn't have 3G for 2 more years. If they really want to know why they lost customers, i think its their late entry into 3G which really did it for them.
Could anyone please remind me what benefits for the users are there in the merge/buyout, exactly?
I don't have a sig.
This deal is really simple. T-Mobile needed to spend a lot of money upgrading their network to stay in business. ATT needs new spectrum... their biggest problems are lack of spectrum and lack of backhaul in areas where they aren't an ILEC.
This deal gives DT a way to exit cleanly without having to "double-down" on T-Mobile and it gives ATT a big chunk of spectrum.
It really is that simple.
Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
Nobody can say whether Tmobile gained as many from android as it lost from iphone because nobody has any fucking clue.
Now you're trying to change your claim. Your claim was that the G1 was some great attractor of new customers, yet it's highly anemic sales would beg to differ. Now you're trying to expand it to Android in general. Make up your mind on what you are trying to argue.
What really sank T-Mobile was the willingness of self-centered consumers to buy devices KNOWING that they were locked into a single subscriber service with it. Had consumers been more egalitarian and simply said "fuck that", Apple would have been effectively forced to abandon the lock-in and make it available for all services.
You might also say that Apple was ultimately to blame, since they manufactured the locked-in phones... and very eagerly did so.
"Take that $1000 a year and put it into an IRA. You will get more from that than your cell phone could ever return"
I trade stocks, options, ETFs. etc scores of times a year. Not exactly a day trader, but close. I bought my iPhone largely so I could do trades on the road and wouldn't be tethered to my computers at home during market hours. I've already done several trades on my iPhone, and a HELLUVA lot more money was involved than a measly $1K. The iPhone has been a godsend in terms of liberating me from home from 6:30AM-1:30PM PST.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
You realize Boost is owned by Sprint, right (it's now a combination of the Nextel iDen network and Sprint's PCS network)? The same goes for all the other pre-paid phone services. There's a different 800 number, and the operators may not even know that their paycheck is signed by a big mobile company, but all the small ones are owned by the big guys now.
...that you had to lease a hand set from Ma Bell. No independent sets allowed. When that was outlawed, the handset market exploded with all kinds of options and features.
The FCC should prohibit phones from being tied to carriers. Pick your phone, pick your carrier. Keep your number if you switch. They also need to outlaw the requirement of data plans. No plan, no data...that simple. I can get by on wifi.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
If the iPhone is the reason, it doesn't make any sense T-Mobile would want to merge with AT&T. Now that the AT&T exclusive to iPhone is over, now is when iPhone-iacs will be moving away from AT&T. Why would T-Mobile eliminate themselves as an option for the hordes looking to get away from AT&T?
that Apple fucked up a healthy company.
Privacy is terrorism.
Do you have numbers to back that up. I don't know many with iPhones. I think maybe one person. I can name a dozen with Android phones. Now I know some got them later and are on the Verizon or Sprint network. However I am on t-mobiles network and I know one other person is too. Another person is on the AT&T network and finally another one is on Verizon I believe. There is one person on AT&T with an iPhone that I know. About half are techys and the other half aren't.
I'm a T-Mobile user with a Nexus One. My plan is $55/mo 440 voice, unlimited data, no contract. Nobody can beat that. Sadly this will likely go away. I have used all the carriers. T-Mobile is the only one with viable customer service. Other carriers have made me consider entering the witness protection program their customer service was so bad (especially when you want to SHUT OFF your service)
They may have a guesstimate based on informal replies to questions in their customer retention department, but they can't know. No one can know because T-Mobile never got or never availed themselves the opportunity of carrying the iPhone. They may have only lost a few ten thousands of subscribers to AT&T due to the iPhone, and the rest left for other reasons such as the smaller network in some areas of the country or cheaper plans like Metro/Virgin/Boost.
Personally T-Mobile was my sweet spot of decent national coverage, great local coverage, good prices, and great customer service. They'll be sorely missed.
You are so right in how they could have competed better. I've suggested several of those items on their company forum. You had a few great ones that I hadn't thought of.
Another you didn't mention is their @Home service, which is basically a VoIP adapter for your standard home phone run on GSM over IP like WiFi calling. The public hardly heard about it, the ones that did got confused (along with their sales people) between it and WiFi calling, which was introduced with a small ad campaign, with a similar name, and same price, at about the same time. I think WiFi calling was originally called unlimited WiFi@Home. @Home suffered from technical problems due to buggy Linksys/Cisco firmware in their router/adapter, was offered only to postpaid cellular customers, but only if your family plan had 4 lines or less.
It was much less than other options like Vonage and Time Warner phone service. But they tried to make it a perk for a limited subset of their customers, rather than a way to capture and retain customers. And they never invested in upgrades to the service beyond voicemail like other VOiP options had, even if it would have required some modest price increases.
I think if they had introduced it at a different time and price than WiFi calling, with a very different name and substantial ad campaign, allowed affluent techno savvy customers that had 5 cell lines of service to add one or more @home lines to their plan, charged say $19 for non cellular and prepaid customers, $9 for postpaid customers, and added features over time or in partnership with Google Voice like internet voicemail with customizable forwarding, messaging, logging, and recording options from an easy to use website, that it would have been very successful and increased the stickiness of their customers.
By far the biggest reason I haven't switched from T-Mobile to Sprint after the AT&T sales announcement was that I have @Home and don't want to lose it.
Sorry, it wasn't WiFi@Home, it was Hotspot@Home. That's still not to be confused with plain old T-Mobile@Home home phone service.
I read that as Apple IIGSes and thought, what is he doing replacing a cellphone with a 25 year old computer.