T-Mobile to extend smartphone financing to customers with bad or no credit

Under the program, any T-Mobile customer who has made payments on time for 12 consecutive months will be eligible for all of the carrier's financing options, including those that offer no-interest payment plans with no down payment. Customers who have already been with T-Mobile for at least 12 months will immediately be eligible when the program goes live on Jan. 25.

"This is not only the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do, too," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said in a release. "Fact is, your past payment history is the best way to tell if you'll make future payments on time. So this is good for customers and good for business."

"Ultimately, this initiative will lower the barrier for millions more Americans to get a smartphone - the most transformational technology in our lifetime," Legere added in an accompanying blog post. "At a time when mobile connectivity is sweeping the globe, the United States ranks a miserable 13th in the world in terms of smartphone penetration − behind a dozen countries including Australia, Ireland, Israel and Saudi Arabia among others."

Customers who currently have a prepaid relationship with T-Mobile can use that time as credit toward the smartphone equality program if they move to a postpaid plan.