T-Mobile US: AT&T's mobe buyout deal is so 'desperate', we'll do it too

not really first

It has been widely reported that this was T-Mobile's plan first, and was planned for announcement at CES.

Somehow AT&T heard about it and made their speedy announcement last week. Right from the start their move was labelled as "preemptive" which gives you the clue that it wasn't their original idea. And AT&T is doing it only against T-Mobile, while T-M accepts switchers from all three major carriers.

I'm checking; are either of these two companies located in the United Kingdom? If so, is that where all of this action is taking place?

Assuming these companies are in the U.S. (and wondering at why a British paper is interested), the way T-Mobile treated me, I'm not anxious to go back to them. Their network allegedly isn't that great as well.

Let's see. I bought the $20 that is what they were selling at Walmart, which was all I needed at that time, and tried to register it and get features and whatever, and they told me they don't support it because it is a "legacy phone". This phone was a joke. You couldn't delete voice mail without listening to it. You couldn't delete text messages without opening them, and you got charged for each text message opened, even if it was junk. You couldn't delete anyone from the address book. AND, last but not least... wait for it..... you couldn't upgrade a pay as you go account to a regular account.

AT&T is a little expensive; $55 for unlimited text, talk and web at the feature phone rate - but I'm getting what I'm paying for, which is good service. And I have a nice refurbished Blackberry style phone.

So, now, T Mobile wants us to drop all of this for some pink phone?

..... Whatever.

I wish T-Mobile UK would do (or did do when they were a Deutsche Telecom solely-owned or earlier) something like this rather than being absorbed into "the EE family" and being spat out as one of the two identical yet unwanted children.

Competition

Who'd have thought it? Competition actually working in the US telecoms market.

Bring it on. Those poor Americans have been raped by their carriers with exorbitant mobile costs for far too many years now.

Not enough

While it sounds like a lot of money, you would still pay out of pocket unless you have only one phone line. Generally, the cost to break your contract is $200 per line. If you have a family plan the charge is separate for each line in the plan. What is needed is for all providers to abolish contracts. AT&T's rollover minutes should be enough incentive to stay there. T-Mobile's lower cost is an incentive to others. Verizon's claim to nearly universal service is an incentive to those who need such coverage. (Obviously V would have to improve their game to keep customers based on previous remarks.) Sprint might need to bring back unlimited data to compete. Just offer people a reason to stay instead of handcuffs.