Mike Wuerthele
T-Mobile's prepaid MetroPCS brand on Friday began nationwide sales of Apple's current iPhone range, plus the iPhone 5s, following a soft launch in Florida.
Pricing is identical to that offered for the July 1 Florida debut. The iPhone 6s sells for $649 and up, with the 6s Plus starting at $749. The iPhone SE is available for $349 with a $50 instant rebate on the 16GB configuration, while the iPhone 5s is $199.
The iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, and SE are all sold new. The condition of iPhone 5s models available from the carrier is unclear at this time.
MetroPCS has a much narrower device and plan selection than T-Mobile. While T-Mobile's core Simple Choice plans start at $50, however, MetroPCS plans begin at $30, and the carrier will take an additional $60 off a device purchase if a customer ports an existing phone number to the service.
In 2013, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said that the iPhone would ultimately come to MetroPCS, but that it wasn't going to happen quickly. When T-Mobile acquired MetroPCS, Legere claimed that there were branding positioning and marketing issues to consider.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
6 Comments
MetroPCS is great, but they still have this one really irritating thing where they won't let you move SIMs around; you have to call them up to give them the IMEI of the phone you're using with your SIM, or it won't work. Only GSM carrier I ever heard of that does that.
I am using my iPhone SE on MetroPCS and I have one reservation. Currently it does not support Visual Voicemail. It uses the ancient practice of calling a central sever and makes you step through messages one at a time like an animal. Maybe this will be fixed soon.