According to Bloomberg, In a note to his investors Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffet said Apple and Deutsche Telekom are “increasingly likely” to strike a deal for T-Mobile to offer the iPhone in 2013.
The iPhone is likely to help T-Mobile retain lucrative post-paid or contract customers after the telecom lost a reported 510,000 monthly subscribers in the first quarter. As T-Mobile lost the massive amount of subscribers, AT&T and Verizon saw a combined gain of 688,000 customers largely due to their iPhone carrying capability. T-Mobile previously blamed a fourth quarter 2011 loss of 706,000 contract customers due to not having access to Apple’s smartphone as well so the trend seems to be continuing for the carrier which is struggling to maintain any ground.
According to Moffet “iPhone (sic) availability at T-Mobile USA would likely reduce contract losses at that company, and push Deutsche Telekom U.S. to a net revenue growth position much sooner than the market expects.” T-Mobile was previously looking to bring the iPhone over to its network as part of the merger with AT&T though the agreement ended up falling through in December. As a result of the breakup, AT&T was forced to give Deutsche Telekom $3 billion in cash along with a transfer of $1 billion worth of spectrum.
The additional bandwidth has helped shift T-Mobile towards upgrading its network to support a iPhone-compatible 4G HSPA+ standard by expanding operations in the 1900 MHz spectrum. This report by Moffet is consistent with the carrier’s expansion plans and solving the frequency issues CEO Phillip Humm referred to as the “key reason” why the company doesn’t already offer the iPhone.
Representatives from Both Apple and T-Mobile declined to make any comments and didn’t provide any official statements regarding the situation so we’ll have to wait and see what comes of the whole ordeal.
Source: Bloomberg
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