T-Mobile USA covers its jailbroken iPhone customers

Cleve Nettles
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May 07, 2009
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T-Mobile, the company that carries the iPhone in Germany and a few other countries, does not have access to the iPhone in the US...Officially. However, it is known that many people jailbreak their iPhones to be on TMobile, for whatever reason. 

The Consumerist follows a story where T-Mobile is supporting a phone they don't offer and awarding a service credit

T-mobile recently changed some aspect of their voicemail system, which cause iPhones (and some other unlocked non T-mobile branded phones) on their network to FREAK OUT. You'd get blank text messages from the future (2012!) when people left voicemails, and calling voicemail caused a flurry of the blank texts to arrive. These were notably NOT free texts either, so you were being charged per message if you didn't have an unlimited plan. Some iPhone users on T-mobile's network e-mailed Executive Customer Service, and got a very nice phone call in response, acknowledging the problem and awarding a 1-month service credit.

The T-mo rep stated that "T-Mobile, though they do not offer the iPhone, and that they are committed to supporting users on their network who have them."

Sure enough, within a day or so, in response to the problem, a T-mobile Tier 2 service rep posted an acknowledgment of the problem in a hackintosh forum, and indicated they'd fixed the issue.

All in all, this cements my loyalty to T-mobile. Even without officially supporting a particular phone, they are willing to make accommodations to ensure the iPhone users on their network continue to enjoy good service. And, it is worth noting, can continue to do so for tens of dollar less per month than they would if they were still using a 2G iPhone on AT&T.

Before we had iPhones, we had T-Mobile Sidekicks here.  Honestly, sometimes we miss T-Mobile's service.  It'd be nice to have a choice between carriers.

Comments (15)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 9:37am

Some people cant afford to switch carriers until their contracts end. If no one complains then how do we know something isn't wrong? i am sure you would want to know the wireless provider you were going to switch to was horrible.

TMob (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 10:05am

That's the thing tho, Carrier A customers complain and go to Carrier B. At the same time Carrier B Customers complain and go to Carrier A. This goes on constantly everyday of every year.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 10:40am

I agree. If I were compile all the complaints I've heard amongst friends, family, and colleagues... every cell phone company sucks.

Jay Ray (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 12:20pm

I'd like to think that, though, yes, every cell phone company does suck, T-Mobile tries to be the lesser of the two GSM Evils. Gotta love those price points!

beez1717 (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 10:17am

some people can't change carriers because their parents are still paying for their cell plans, and it isn't AT&T

geez if I had my choice, i'd get iphone to be on every single network ever made. then there would be no need for an ipod touch.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 11:12am

some people can't change carriers because their parents are still paying for their cell plans, and it isn't AT&T

You can just get another plan, you don't have to CHANGE carriers. Unless, of course, you want your parents to pay for EVERYTHING.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 11:47am

I would love to see something like that as well. Unfortunately, politics, bureaucracy, and money drive these things in another direction. In other words the real world :)

TuckBodi (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 11:36am

Man, I wish Apple would go with T-Mobile as I miss using them and really hate AT$T. I used to have great service and coverage with T-Mobile whereas, with AT$T, my coverage has gone down since they rolled out 3G and I have 1/3 the strength of what I had with T-Mobile!

Todd Cochrane (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 11:58am

The pricing of T-Mobile plans really cannot be beat. With 3 phone including a iPhone plus there @home service and 2000 minute plan plus data it is still 1/3rd cheaper what it would cost me with AT&T with the same plans and a iPhone.

Todd..

NSXRebel | May 07, 2009 - 12:46pm

 I don't hate AT&T, but I do miss T-Mobile's pricing. It's $10/mo cheaper and you get more minutes. As for coverage, they're both GSM, so wouldn't you be covered by one service if the other didn't have service in an area? Alot of these companies have roaming partnerships don't they? I remember having T-Mobile, and sometimes I would have a AT&T/Cingular or another carrier's signal. Of course you probably wouldn't get 3G since that's on a different frequency, but wouldn't Edge still work?

 Semper Fidelis

Tom (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 12:58pm

Perhaps they had problems with offering the iPhone on a non-American carrier :-(

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 07, 2009 - 2:57pm

Argh. The iPhone has been out how long and sites like this are still making this mistake? Jailbreak does not equal Unlock. You can jailbreak an iPhone and it wouldn't necessarily let you use a T-Mobile SIM card. For that, you would need to unlock the iPhone.

Cory Schulz | May 07, 2009 - 3:10pm

You can buy iPhones unlocked in Europe and use them on any network, so why would it be surprising that people would use iPhones on T-Mobile in the US if they are openly for sale?

Bozoka (not verified) | May 08, 2009 - 12:46am

We have T-Mob in Europe for iPhone, still without Visual Voicemail.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 08, 2009 - 12:43pm

it's not just the jailbroken unlocked iPhones. Apple is/was selling unlocked iphones on buy.com for like 699 last month.