Skip to main content

T-Mobile may address high phone prices with its next Un-carrier move

t mobile record revenue
Image used with permission by copyright holder
T-Mobile, the self-coined “Un-carrier,” has made a point of addressing wireless customers’ biggest pain points. Its Un-carrier Next launch saw subscribers refunded the taxes and fees they normally pay on top of plan prices. T-Mobile’s KickBack, which launched earlier this year, doled out payments to subscribers who used 2GB of data or less a month. And now, the carrier wants to shake up how people buy new phones.

According to leaked documents obtained by Android Authority, T-Mobile will launch a service that reduces the price of top-tier phones like the Galaxy S8 and iPhone 7, which often retail for more than $650. It won’t be a contract deal — the marketing materials say its “commitment free” — and it’ll come with a lifetime warranty and insurance included. If you’ve broken a phone, want a new one, or have had enough and want to return it, you’ll be able to do so.

Recommended Videos

Android Authority expects the plan to launch in the third quarter of this year.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The new benefit appears aimed at subscribers who’d rather pay for new smartphones outright instead of in monthly installments. In 2015, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint eliminated subsidized phone pricing — the discounts on devices offered in exchange for two-year commitments. The shift has some investors worried. In January, Wells Fargo Securities lowered its rating on Verizon in part because of “installment plan migrations.”

It’s unclear whether the new plan will join — or replace — Jump, T-Mobile’s early upgrade plan. A $9 to $12 fee (depending on the phone) each month allows you to trade in and upgrade your phone after 50 percent of the total cost is paid off, and includes insurance, theft, and accidental damage.

In some cases, Jump ends up being more expensive than buying a phone outright. If you turn in an iPhone 6S and get a new iPhone 7, for example, you’ll pay $1,069 after two years — about $200 more than the iPhone 7’s $900 asking price.

The rumored benefit comes on the heels of T-Mobile’s new One plan, which includes unlimited talk, unlimited texting, and unlimited 4G LTE data for $70. “Four years ago, we were talking about a trend in the industry,” T-Mobile chief John Legere said at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. “More than 70 percent of wireless customers say wireless plans are too complicated. They want simplicity.”

And it comes as T-Mobile makes costly upgrades to its network. In April, T-Mobile acquired low-band spectrum, the frequencies over which cellular signals travel, for $8 billion.

Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
T-Mobile will soon kick some outdated phones off its network
how to unlock your iphone use with another carrier t mobile hq sign feat 720x720

T-Mobile is gearing up for a 5G future, and to make room for it, it will begin kicking outdated phones off its networks. As per documents obtained by Android Police, the telecom giant will soon require phones to support a technology called Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) for connecting to its network.

Existing subscribers with incompatible phones won’t lose cellular connectivity anytime soon, but they’ll need to upgrade reportedly before January 2021. However, according to the internal document, T-Mobile is halting new non-VoLTE activations almost immediately starting August 4.

Read more
Google Messages can now be your notes app. Please don’t do that
The Google Messages app on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Google Messages recently got an update that allows Android users to use it as a notes app as well as a regular messaging app. This update flew under the radar until Android Authority reported on it last Friday, saying that people can now send long messages, high-quality media, and other content to themselves via RCS messaging, freeing them of the restrictions imposed by its predecessor, SMS messaging. While that is a useful upgrade on paper, it's not a good idea in practice.

A lot of people use messaging apps as a substitute for the original notes app pre-installed in their phones. The problem is text messages sent through RCS are not encrypted, let alone messages sent to yourself, posing a host of security issues. Not long after Apple adopted cross-platform RCS messaging with Android late last year, a group of Chinese hackers called Salt Typhoon launched a cyberattack on U.S. communications networks, leading the FBI and CISA warning Americans to use encrypted messaging platforms, especially if messages are being sent from Apple to Android and vice versa.

Read more
Huawei’s wild tri-fold phone finally breaks out of China, and I’m excited
Huawei Mate XT Ultimate

Huawei unveiled the Mate XT Ultimate in China, just a day after the iPhone 16 Pro launch. While Apple introduced incremental upgrades, Huawei has pushed boundaries with an already novel form factor. And now, it’s expanding beyond China—Huawei has announced the world’s first tri-fold phone in Malaysia.

The Huawei Mate XT Ultimate features a 10.2-inch display (2232 × 3184 pixels), which folds into two additional form factors: a 7.9-inch (2048 × 2232 pixels) book-style foldable and a 6.4-inch (1008 × 2232 pixels) slab phone. More importantly, its three-screen mode adopts a 16:11 aspect ratio, offering a better media consumption experience than traditional foldables, which often have a boxy layout that isn’t ideal for videos.

Read more