Category Archives: T-Mobile

T-Mobile Reveals Its Plan to Continue Getting the Market Share

T-Mobile Plans

 

T-Mobile, one of the largest wireless carriers in the entire United States, has been reported at a 15-year record low. The company had been adding over one million postpaid customers to its ever increasing subscriber base for the last seven quarters. Contrary to this, the company has hardly managed to add around 890,000 postpaid customers during the last three months.

Out of all these newly added customers, 646,000 customers already having phone connections reflect T-Mobile’s poor showing in the recent past. Much of the credit goes to some of the top ranked fierce industrial competitors mentioned below:

  • Verizon Communications
  • AT&T
  • Sprint

This is way more than the number of customers Verizon Communications, AT&T and Sprint managed to add in their consumer base collectively. Verizon Communication managed to get only 615,000 new consumers for postpaid connections and 86,000 phone customers. Coming to At&T, the company struggled to add 72,000 postpaid customers. AT&T lost more than 180,000 phone customers whereas another industrial competitor gave tough competition to T-Mobile in the market by increasing more than 180,000 postpaid customers and 173,000 phone connections.

If the market report of the Financial Times is to be believed, T-Mobile is seeing a 15-year record low of subscriber switching. This decrease noticed in switching trends is surely going to make T-Mobile’s journey tough.

The inside sources of the company are busy assuring the investors that the management has a certain plan to continue grabbing the lion’ share of the market.

Some of the T-Mobile insiders have confirmed some essential components of its plan. All of these components are mentioned below:

  • Make the best use of network expansion
  • Focus on family plans
  • Possibility of Stir by iPhone 7

Let’s see how this plan and all of components blow the wind in favor of T-Mobile.

  1. Make the best use of network expansion:

Taking the company’s current position in the marketplace, T-Mobile has recently shifted its focus towards LTE (Long Term Evolution) Network expansion. This move has been taken by the company as an integral part of its business development strategy for including more than 311 million customers in its coverage network. T-Mobile already has the network exceeding 200 million people within the 700 MHz low spectrum band. The company is planning to add an extra 70 million people in it. This is hurting T-Mobile one way or another as the company has struggled to reach and serve customers in these areas. However, this is also a kind of a huge opportunity for T-Mobile to consolidate its reputation for new customers and growth in such areas.

  1. Focus on family plans:

The T-Mobile think tank is considering shifting focus to family plans to consolidate its market reputation. T-Mobile’s family plans are very much affordable as compared to rest of the rivals like AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint. The company invests heavily on promoting its four-line family plan with 6 GB data at the cost of $120. As a comparison, the price of AT&T and Verizon’s four line plans are concerned, users are charged $235 and $170 respectively. The company strongly believes that there is a good possibility of doing much better with family plans on the business front.

  1. Possibility of Stir by iPhone 7:

The T-Mobile think tank is also keeping eye on the release date of iPhone 7 by Apple INC. Its release is going to be a huge opportunity for the company to stand tall in the category of companies like Verizon Communications, Sprint and AT&T. Many consumers will look forward to switching their carriers for the opportunity of upgrading their devices to the new version of the iPhone.

T-Mobile has proven its history of doing better specifically when a large amount of users switch carriers. With the release of Apple’s iPhone 7, many customers will switch carriers. Now it will be very interesting to see if the plan comes to fruition.

Major US Carriers Extend Condolences in the Form of Free Calls and Texts to Turkey After Istanbul Airport Attack

AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile

The Istanbul Airport Attack has shaken the very basis of humanity, leaving dozens dead and many severely wounded. The major US carriers have come forward and extended a helping hand in the tough times for the relatives and family members of the unfortunate victims. AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile are providing free calls and text messages from the US to Turkey.

As per an announcement made by AT&T, any charges for calls made by landline or wireless customers from the US to Turkey in between June 28 to June 30, were waived or credited. This covered texting, landline, and mobility (GoPhone and Postpaid) calls. “Our thoughts are with the people of Istanbul and our customers who have friends and family there,” as per a statement passed by AT&T following the attacks.

Another major carrier, Verizon also wanted to support its customers affected by the airport attack in Istanbul. As per an announcement, the company did not charge its customers for international texts and calls made in between June 28 and June 29 from the US to Turkey. The announcement covers both landline as well as wireless calls. “More than 170,000 Verizon employees worldwide extend condolences to all our friends and family in Turkey,” the company mentioned in a statement posted on its website.

T-Mobile also joined other carriers in helping its customers connect with family and friends by offering free services from the US to the affected country. John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile said “Today’s attack in Istanbul is both tragic and horrifying,” “Our hearts are with everyone affected by this senseless act.” The offer is in effect from June 28 to July 5, 2016 and valid for all T-Mobile Simple Choice prepaid and postpaid customers, as well as customers of GoSmart Mobile, MetroPCS and WalMart Family Mobile.

Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO, also passed a message “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of those personally affected during this difficult time,” “We want to do everything we can to show our support and heartfelt sympathy to all Sprint, Boost Mobile, and Virgin Mobile customers with family and friends in the region.” The company is waiving international call fees as well as message fees from June 28 to July 5.

No Extra Charges for Canada and Mexico T-Mobile Subscribers

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T-Mobile will now allow its U.S customers to call, text and browse the internet in North America without paying any extra charges.

T-Mobile US Inc. announced that this will be savings for those who travel to Canada and Mexico and even for the ones who call frequently. Canada and Mexico are destinations for various international calls from the U.S. Moreover, subscribers who have friends and family living at the Border States will be benefited with this decision.

T-Mobile isn’t the only telecom service that is targeting Mexico. Other companies, such as AT&T, bought 2 Mexican telecommunication companies, and are aiming to cover 100 million Mexicans on their network by the end of 2018.

This T-Mobile service is free of cost for new customers and most of the subscribers but the company said that certain customers with older or budget oriented plans are exempted from this plan. Signing up online or at the store is necessary and is free of cost. With this plan in hand, customers will be able to text and call Mexican and Canadian phone numbers with their normal U.S minutes and those on unlimited plans will utilize unlimited calls and texts. Customers will be able to call Mexican, Canadian and U.S numbers with the minutes while traveling in those countries.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere stated during a conference that they are simply making Canada and Mexico part of their home territory. And for the data, customers may have access to their regular data plans and may keep using T-Mobile’s slower 2G services if they run out data, similarly as they would in the U.S

T-Mobile Pays Cramming Charges for $90 Million to FTC and FCC

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Charges on T-Mobile that have been lingering are now going to be settled by the telecom giant as it has agreed to pay the FTC and FCC a total of $90 million as a settlement. There were charges that the company was allowing third-party premium messaging services to charge customers for unwanted services. It was also charged for being complicit in the activity during the process by collecting up to 40% of the revenue it got from the services in 2012 while ignoring the majority of customer complaints.
An investigation conducted in July by the FTC and FCC found T-Mobile guilty of said charges and therefore, sought indemnity from the operator. Out of the total amount, $67.5 million will be left aside to repay customers who were overcharged. Other than that, T-Mobile will pay a sum of $18 million to all of the 50 states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia, in addition to $4.5 million that will go to the U.S. Treasury.
The consent decree requires that T-Mobile does not charge customers for third-party Premium SMS products and services. It also requires the company to create a system where customers can verify third-party service charges before they are asked to pay for them. The company now has to block third-party charges without any extra charge and make it easier for customers to identify possible fraudulent charges, and provide additional training for customer service staff to appropriately resolve customer complaints related to unauthorized charges.
The initial complaint filed by the FTC and FCC had mentioned that T-Mobile, at many instances, concealed third-party charges in monthly bills and also didn’t provide customers with full refunds. It even refused to refund some customers, and in some cases told them to recoup the charges directly from fraudulent services without providing contact details, which ultimately led to this settlement.

T-Mobile Announces Reduction in Unlimited Shared Data Plan

T Mobile

In the current price war among US wireless carriers, T-Mobile’s latest burst has led to a reduction in the price of its unlimited shared data plan to $100 a month, thereby making it a 29 percent reduction. T-Mobile announced on its website this Monday that it has decided to offer unlimited calling, text and 4G LTE data for two lines on its new Simple Choice plan for a price of $100 a month, Customers can hang on up to eight extra lines for $40 for each line.

T-Mobile’s move is seen as a respite for users who constantly feel harassed with the confusion and complexity of the carriers’ shared data plans because of punishing overage penalties unless you police your own family’s data usage or up your data bucket and spend more every month. Along with this move, T-Mobile has also confirmed that it is resurrecting a promotion that offered a family of four 10GB of 4G LTE data for $100. Like the previous promotion, which T-Mobile began in October, customers will receive 2.5GB per line of data until 2016, when the plan switches to 1GB per line.

These aggressive moves in a continuous pattern are part of a cut-throat effort by the carriers to win new customers and retain the existing ones. T-Mobile’s Uncarrier campaign and the CEO John Legere’s bold attitude has helped in winning over consumers and driving its turnaround, which together has led to the addition of 2.3 million new customers to the group in the last quarter. Cutting the price of its unlimited shared data plans will further benefit the organization and help it scale up its reach to the customers.