Tech | July 20, 2009 | 2 comments

T-Mobile's sneakily buying grey market iPhones for UK customers?

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FreshPlastic
The word on the street is that T-Mobile's UK operation is buying up a bucket load of SIM-free iPhones from abroad. Why, and how..?!

The Telegraph believes it's a desperate bid by the German-owned telco to hold onto customers who want to churn 'cause they yearn for the O2 exclusive iPhone.

That was the why - now for the how...

The iPhone is available SIM-free in markets across Europe, anyone can buy them and they'll work fine with any network i the UK.

The Telegraph: 'Sources at T-Mobile said Apple will be powerless to stop the ingenious plan as Apple's contract with O2 does not prevent other companies importing SIM-free iPhones from abroad.'


Picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Aido2002 (CC-BY-SA-2.5)
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2 comments // T-Mobile's sneakily buying grey market iPhones for UK customers?

  • FreshPlastic
    • 0
      FreshPlastic  
    • They probably won't make it economically viable but it'll look good on paper - 'Tis all about the churn. Loads of companies offer loss-leading deals just so that they can say they have so many subscribers when the figures come out. It's nuts!

    • 3 years ago
  • mattbrawn
    • 0
      mattbrawn  
    • But surely it'll be massively more expensive for them to work like this. It's kinda ingenious, but I'm at a loss to figure out how they'll make it economically viable.

    • 3 years ago
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