[solo12002]

T-Mobile has declined to comment on the news that it will sell sim-free stock of the iPhone

T-Mobile is set to bring sim-free Apple iPhones over from Europe in order to cut churn from its base to O2 for the exclusive device, The Telegraph has reported.

Apple’s contract for exclusivity with O2 in the UK does not stop competitors selling sim-free iPhones through their channels.

Apple is set to break O2 exclusivity for the iPhone 3G in early September. Crucially, the manufacturer will continue to give O2 exclusivity of the iPhone 3GS, the new version of the handset.

Orange and T-Mobile are known to have already begun pitching for the handset. T-Mobile’s call centres have also started telling customers it may stock the iPhone.

T-Mobile’s UK arm is under mounting pressure, as its parent Deutsche Telekom prepares to sell the company, valued at £1.6bn in May.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/Weekend_papers_TMobile_UK_to_sell_imported_simfree _iPhones.html

[getti]

Last we heard T-Mobile wont be selling the iPhone.... but we said that about the N97 and its now on the website so who knows.

As for the company up for sale at £1.6bn thats wrong, that is the figure taken off the valuation of the company and not the actual company value if someone was to buy

[Ben]

Yeah... surely you'd be looking at ~£3bn of change to acquire T-Mobile.

Even then, it's sad to think they paid £4bn for their 3G licence and yet now their market value is so low.

[solo12002]

"Even then, it's sad to think they paid £4bn for their 3G licence and yet now their market value is so low"

So whats go so wrong with them, they used to have great plans and i had gone with them once to find they had no 3G coverage in Ni, but that was 24 months ago.

Surely it cant all be blamed on one network getting the iphone, can it?

[Ben]

Surely it cant all be blamed on one network getting the iphone, can it?
Well, no. But it does seem that after a couple of years the iPhone being with O2 is starting to make cracks appear in the other networks. It's such a massive pull, it must be making acquisition VERY hard for the other nets in this saturated market and making retention much easier for O2!

T-Mobile's problems bemuse me. I think they probably championed the consumer a little too well - Flext was very successful, but went horribly wrong - they blew through their acquisition budgets and were left basically turning people away, and they failed with the retention of those acquisitions that were so expensive in the first place. I don't know, I think a lot must have gone wrong at the management and board levels.