Still not sure how people overlook Virgin Mobile, which has been providing a similar structure for years. You pay full price up front for the device, but then you get unlimited data and texting for $35 each month—and they have true, contract-free monthly plans.

I know I've become a biased evangelist for VM, but I also don't like to see other consumers hosed by iron-fisted carriers.

or $20 a quarter ($80 yearly) for those who aren't in the big time and have a $15 phone that takes care of most tasks required and keep my eyes on the sidewalk or roads. Got to love VM!!

@3 McKenna is the one defending TM in this case.... literally.

Virgin Mobile is a cheaper version of Sprint. Sprint already is the 4th carrier at best, which means it gets the worst phones. Because it's CDMA the phones are locked to that network. And because you can lock phones into and out of a CDMA network easily Virgin Mobile has pretty crappy phone choices on a crappy network.

The T-Mobile thing is a big deal because T-Mobile is largely compatible with AT&T. Plus, it's compatible with what they use in the rest of the world. So you can by from a huge selection of unlocked phones and they just work. And heaven forbid you didn't like T-Mobile's service you could move to AT&T. Or if you moved overseas (or to Canada) you could easily get on the service there.

Goldy, you do know that once the phone is paid off, your bill drops 20$ a month. With other carriers, after the contract ends, your monthly bill remains exactly the same. So its not really a wash at all. If you have an ATT phone, and your contract has ended, you can easily switch to T-Mobile as both use SIM cards.

While I got a HTC MyTouch 4G Slide phone subsidized, my wife's Black Berry was not and this December the phone gets paid off and my monthly bill will drop 15$ a month. How is that a rip off? How is that a wash?

"it's new "uncarrier" plans"

No, "its".

Sigh.

@6 That's why I wrote:

All that said, there are some customers for whom T-Mobile's new plans offer significant savings: Those who routinely keep their phones for longer than two years...

It's pretty clear in Tmobile's advertising that if you cancel you have to, *duh*, pay for the phone you *bought*.

Seems reasonable that they'll extend no-interest payment plans while you're on their network, and kindly ask you pay off the balance when you choose not to be on their network. I'm missing the deception here.

This is a nonsense suit. Bob probably got pressured by ATT because they're threatened.

Yea I really dont understand the confusion here. If I stop making payments on my car loan, I dont get to keep the car...

I liked the T-mobile deal. Bought an unlocked Nexus 4 from google for $299 and brought it to T-Mobile for a great deal. You can get a $30/mo prepaid plan that gives you 100 mins and 5gb of data. Slap a voip app on there and pair it with google voice and you've got many minutes and data for only $30.

@8, there's one other deal: cancel your plan with AT&T or Verizon prior to 2 years (even a month), and your early termination fee is $325 (AT&T) or $350 (Verizon) - ($10 * months in plan) (http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articl… and http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/suppo…).

From what I can see, it's not the same, as you would only pay the remaining amount due on the phone for t-mobile, while you may very well pay more than that on the other carriers.

I was in T-Mobile yesterday to get my phone fixed and talked and ended up changing my plan to one of the new ones. The thing that I like about the new system, and something Goldy didn't really say, is that the plans and phones have been decoupled. Yeah you don't get a new phone at a discount price, but you don't have to buy a new phone!

My old 2-year contract would've been up in July and my idea was that I would get a new phone with a new contract. Now that I was able to secure a new contract on its own I can buy a new phone whenever I feel like it. I can change my plan whenever I feel like it!

I feel like the discounted phones served as a lure to lock you into bullshit contracts. Kinda like getting a Mach III razor in the mail because the blades are where the money's at.

The T-Mobile plans may be a better deal, but the question is whether they are substantially different from the plans offered by other carriers. They are breaking out the prices differently, but if you are buying a phone the end result does seems similar to a standard contract.

Why would anyone buy a subsidized phone? There's a million people on craigslist selling their subsidized phones for a profit.

I paid $200 for my Galaxy S3 brand new from someone who wanted to make a quick buck and didn't mind extending their contact.

Verizon was selling them for something like $600, so we both came out happy.