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Nearly half a million customers left T-Mobile in Q1 2011

I have always lived in decent-sized cities (population 50k+) and TMO reception has been abysmal everywhere. If you drive any length of time, you are probably roaming on ATT as well. Frankly, I am surprised TMO has held on as long as it has in the US.
 
As a T-Mo user, I too think it had more to do w/ the AT&T thing than the Verizon iPhone (lmao). I think the general consumer reaction was to pick up & run instead of wait it out to see what happens.

Also, I personally think it has a TON to do w/ T-Mo's abysmal marketing. T-Mo has great phones & great plans...but no one knows about them, not even their own customers. I'm sure people see commercials for phones like the Thunderbolt & Atrix & say "Ooh I want that!" They don't even properly advertise their own top phones that would be a draw for anyone, like the G2x. To make matters worse, they dumb down some of their best phones, like the MyTouch 4G. If they would've dropped the MyTouch branding & went w/ regular sense rather than the MySense or whatever you call it, the perception of this phone would've been a LOT different. The Carly ads (while cute) are a blatant rip off of the Mac vs PC ads & people know it. Other than that, T-Mo's advertising is basically non-existent. Regardless, it's too little too late for them now. No one will want to jump on a sinking ship at this point. If by some miracle the FCC doesn't approve the buyout I would sincerely hope that T-Mo will learn from their mistakes.
 
if that was the case then they could of stayed with t mobile and got the iPhone through at&t.
Not necessarily. ATT's iPhone won't allow 3G on TMO's network due to hardware limitations. Back in the day of the original iPhone this was plausible. Nowadays you would have to go without high speed interent if using an iPhone, which is just silly.
 
As a Tmo customer I can almost guarantee it is because of the at&t buy out. I almost paid the etf and left myself but after at&t buys it in a year my contact should be null. If I wasn't under contact I would be with sprint right now.
 
The title of this thread is a half-lie. It's true that nearly 500,000 customers left T-Mobile. What the title fails to state is that T-Mobile added 400,000 new customers who came from other carriers. Sure, there was a net loss, but it was only 100,000.

And to put things into perspective, over two million customers left Verizon during the same period. And Verizon added two and a half million new customers.

Every carrier churns customers to and from other carriers.
 
Not necessarily. ATT's iPhone won't allow 3G on TMO's network due to hardware limitations. Back in the day of the original iPhone this was plausible. Nowadays you would have to go without high speed interent if using an iPhone, which is just silly.

Lol you missed the point. If they get an iPhone with t-mo it now, they'll eventually have it with at&t.
 
As a T-Mo user, I too think it had more to do w/ the AT&T thing than the Verizon iPhone (lmao). I think the general consumer reaction was to pick up & run instead of wait it out to see what happens.

Also, I personally think it has a TON to do w/ T-Mo's abysmal marketing. T-Mo has great phones & great plans...but no one knows about them, not even their own customers. I'm sure people see commercials for phones like the Thunderbolt & Atrix & say "Ooh I want that!" They don't even properly advertise their own top phones that would be a draw for anyone, like the G2x. To make matters worse, they dumb down some of their best phones, like the MyTouch 4G. If they would've dropped the MyTouch branding & went w/ regular sense rather than the MySense or whatever you call it, the perception of this phone would've been a LOT different. The Carly ads (while cute) are a blatant rip off of the Mac vs PC ads & people know it. Other than that, T-Mo's advertising is basically non-existent. Regardless, it's too little too late for them now. No one will want to jump on a sinking ship at this point. If by some miracle the FCC doesn't approve the buyout I would sincerely hope that T-Mo will learn from their mistakes.

Ya what is with there ads? Yes the chick is cute but still how are people suppose to know what phones they have?
YouTube - Monthly Mugging

yes they say they are cheap but when I look for a company and I don't know jack quate about phones.... (this is not me btw I know alot about phones more than a normal person probably should.....) I would want to look at the sexy phones to convince me.... yes sex does sell sometimes.... and I believe it does work for most stuff just look at Carls jr (I am not sure if Hardees ads are so provocative )
YouTube - Miss Turkey - Charbroiled Turkey Burgers at Carl's Jr. (mods please dont ban me for some reason heheh this is only to prove a point)

But for a cellphone company .... hmm idk maybe talk about your phones not that your "cheap"

I hear cheap and I think it sucks....... until i do some research....

this has been my 2 cents
 
One thing about TMO - you can buy an unlocked GSM phone of any kind on Amazon say, and use it. The international phones don't really have the 1700 UMTS band, but wifi works extremely well, and voice and text are up to speed. The international phones will probably work on ATT. So you really have the freedom to use the phone your way. I use mine as a PDA. And if you buy a phone outright or from Amazon or Ebay, you don't have to get a data plan on EM+. I can turn on my Galaxy 3 and do everything on my own wifi w/o using TMO network. (It did support Skype and should do Fring and Nimbuzz, so I can use VOIP to talk to anyone rather than buying a phone plan.

So ignore cheap and look for a service that lets you use a phone your way.
 
Where do you get that it's because of the Verizon iPhone? I don't see Apple or the iPhone mentioned in that article. My guess is it has more to do with AT&T buying T-Mobile, and those people that left T-Mobile did so because they want no part of AT&T.
Exactly. I'm one of them.
 
As a T-Mo user, I too think it had more to do w/ the AT&T thing than the Verizon iPhone (lmao). I think the general consumer reaction was to pick up & run instead of wait it out to see what happens.

Also, I personally think it has a TON to do w/ T-Mo's abysmal marketing. T-Mo has great phones & great plans...but no one knows about them, not even their own customers. I'm sure people see commercials for phones like the Thunderbolt & Atrix & say "Ooh I want that!" They don't even properly advertise their own top phones that would be a draw for anyone, like the G2x. To make matters worse, they dumb down some of their best phones, like the MyTouch 4G. If they would've dropped the MyTouch branding & went w/ regular sense rather than the MySense or whatever you call it, the perception of this phone would've been a LOT different. The Carly ads (while cute) are a blatant rip off of the Mac vs PC ads & people know it. Other than that, T-Mo's advertising is basically non-existent. Regardless, it's too little too late for them now. No one will want to jump on a sinking ship at this point. If by some miracle the FCC doesn't approve the buyout I would sincerely hope that T-Mo will learn from their mistakes.


Exactly...the only time I see tmobile commercials is during nba games
 
You read the title of this thread, and you think doom and gloom.. but yet, as another poster said, most of the lost customers were replaced by new customers.. the end loss is 99,000 .. same time last year the number was 77,000 .. and profits are down to 135 million compared to 362 million from last year, but that is due to putting 84 million into upgrades for their network (so really it should be 219 vs 362) .. now all that said. it is obvious that it would be to the benefit of T mobile that the government tell them yes or no about the merger sooner than later.. I don't believe the iPhone has a darn thing to do with anything in this mess.. MobileTechNews - T-Mobile USA Reports First Quarter 2011 Results
 
A lot of people don't reup contracts since they have good grandfathered services. I went to EM+ postpaid and won't change. If you have a phone that uses the 5.99 web service and that is all you need, why resign a contract? Or you have My Faves and use it.
The commercials were really lousy. I don't think a lot of the trouble was mismanagement, but a misunderstanding. I think TMO was using more of the European model of service, and didn't quite get the American habit of "Well, it's Apple, or MS and what ever Jobs and Gates say has to be the main authority or cool." Or "FB is so easy with this phone."
Seems like TMO expected us to THINK and be reasonable.
The EM+ plans were great for those of us who preferred to buy our own phones.
 
I think that the problem is in how people think about the big 4 ... You have many people who think that because two of the companies have 99 million (or so) customers and another company has 30 million (these numbers made up.. just examples), that the 30 million company must be failing.. Just not the case.. T Mobile has actually made good decisions and competed really well.. As to DT, I think they made a bad decision.. Although it now becomes obvious why they get money if the merger doesn't go through.. But it still gives people the impression of a failing company.. sad really.
 
...The firm chalked its loss to increased "competitive pressures," which lends credence to AT&T's insistence that Sprint and Verizon are such fierce opponents that it has to acquire T-Mobile for the magenta-tinted carrier to stay in the game."

Do you believe that this company was mis-managed?
What are your inputs?
If the company was manage well this kind of event might be avoided. Do you all agree?


The issue is not simply a matter of whether T-Mobile was well-managed or not. There are a lot of other factors that bear on the matter.

First, bear in mind that T-Mobile USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, which is much larger than either AT&T or Verizon.

Second, note that, of all the possible 4G technologies, LTE is going to be needed to compete. AT&T and T-Mobile were given the right to market their "enhanced 3G" as "4G," but it's not nearly as fast as full LTE is going to be. Verizon, on the other hand, decided to go straight to LTE instead of adopting the interim "enhanced 3G." Because Verizon is going straight to LTE their deployment is lagging behind the others, but where you can get Verizon's 4G it is way faster than any of the "4G" speeds from the others. And finally, Sprint adopted WiMax instead of LTE because it is the cheapest 4G system. But WiMax has problems with building penetration, and even out in the open can never deliver the speeds that LTE can.

Now, as to AT&T and T-Mobile, each has problems. AT&T is cash-rich, but failed to bid enough at recent FCC auctions, with the result that they lack spectrum to fully deploy LTE. T-Mobile, on the other hand, has plenty of spectrum, but is strapped for cash. As to the latter comment, witness the fact that Deutsche Telekom recently offered their 7,000 US towers for sale-leaseback.

Now, was it mismanagement that caused Deutsche Telekom to become cash-strapped? You can say that if you like, and I won't argue the point. But if you think that is mismanagement, then I will argue that AT&T's being to tight to bid enough on the spectrum auctions was equally bad management.

In the final analysis, we all mess up from time to time. And sometimes the price we pay is high. And the bigger you are the bigger your screw-ups will be, and the higher the price you may have to pay.
 
As a Tmo customer I can almost guarantee it is because of the at&t buy out. I almost paid the etf and left myself but after at&t buys it in a year my contact should be null. If I wasn't under contact I would be with sprint right now.

Funny I just left Sprint for Tmobile. Sprint's 3g data speeds and barely existent 4G were a pain frankly. I have had great coverage in NY/NJ and NO. I have enjoyed the best overall data speeds in these areas compared to any carrier.
 
Second, note that, of all the possible 4G technologies, LTE is going to be needed to compete.
Although I think that is the perception.. I just don't know that that is a reality yet.. HSPA+ has been doing pretty well, and with more upgrades to come, I just don't think that LTE is the game changer many would like everyone to believe... The big hope that customers had, that we would suddenly have this interchangeable standard that you could migrate from carrier to carrier isn't going to happen in the US either.. Yes LTE may eventually be better than sliced bread, but I think what us being done with HSPA+ is pretty good and right now LTE isn't enough of an improvement to make me switch.
 
According to official Q1 financials, 471,000 contract customers either failed to re-up, or outright canceled their contracts.

Does this mean that included in the 471,000 "lost" customers they're including people still with T-Mobile but not on contract? Since they are a lower cost carrier it wouldn't surprise me if they have a higher than average percentage of customers that keep using their older phone (or buy a used one outright) and don't extend their contract once it's 1 or 2 year term has expired. They're still T-Mobile customers though...
 
Does this mean that included in the 471,000 "lost" customers they're including people still with T-Mobile but not on contract? Since they are a lower cost carrier it wouldn't surprise me if they have a higher than average percentage of customers that keep using their older phone (or buy a used one outright) and don't extend their contract once it's 1 or 2 year term has expired. They're still T-Mobile customers though...


That's a really good point. With a pending merger/aquisition, there is clearly incentive for a customer to go month to month once their contract is up and see what happens (IMO). Especially with ATT talking about repurposing TMO 3G spectrum for LTE.
 
Not necessarily. ATT's iPhone won't allow 3G on TMO's network due to hardware limitations. Back in the day of the original iPhone this was plausible. Nowadays you would have to go without high speed interent if using an iPhone, which is just silly.

This is exactly why I left the iPhone and got the G2x. I use a carrier called Simple Mobile that travels over the T-Mo infrastructure. Couldn't get anything good in relation to speed with my iPhone4. Frankly, other than the battery life I find the G2x a superior phone to the iPhone. And I used the iPhone since the original release date. Once they get the gingerbread on the G2x I think it's a no-brainer. Especially since the T-Mo network will eventually be wrapped up into the ATT.
 
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