You are correct. Their business model is to hope their ok customer service (not great, just better than the others!), combined with their small footprint urban coverage and family plans will keep them from bleeding customers who crave a decent smartphone with 3-G capabilities. If they can do that, they can make loads of money by not having to offer decent smartphones at a discount to keep their customers.

Their “dumb” phones, family plans and now this unlimited talk plan are strong indicators that T-Mobile will brand themselves forever as the low-tech discount cell service provider… watch out Jitterbug, all T-mobile needs now is a big-keyed phone to take your Luddite retiree cell business away from you!

“Something must be wrong here. What’s the point of offering it to currently contracted users when a lot of non contracted users can leave at anytime? Maybe it’s because I’m not in the SF area.”

T-Mobile is not like its competitors, who want to commandeer the market share and then water down the service. As a customer for 7-years, I really believe that T-Mobile is so confident of their rock solid service that their business model does not call for locking customers into a contractual commitment.

Read the Cell Phone Reviews:

http://alertsforconsumers.com/2007/07/11/toprated-cell-phone-company-outpaces-the-competition.aspx

http://alertsforconsumers.com/2009/02/17/best-cell-reviews.aspx