T-Mobile's iPhone Deal Levels Playing Field

By Jessica Binns, Contributing Editor
T-Mobile and Apple have reached an agreement under which T-Mobile will sell iPhones beginning in 2013.

Central to the deal is T-Mobile's new strategy of ending smartphone subsidies and asking customers to pay full price for new devices — but in installments over the course of their contracts. The company expects the deal to contribute to profit and cash flow starting in 2014.

T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom, is the last and smallest of the “big four” carriers to sell the iPhone. The deal is said to be smaller in scope than Sprint's agreement, reached last year, to sell 25 million to 30 million iPhones.

At the end of 2011, the company accounted for 8.7% of U.S. wireless contract subscribers.