After Apple started selling unlocked iPhone 4’s in US, there were questions raised on its utility. Apparently the only other GSM carrier in US, T-Mobile doesn’t support the 3G standard that iPhone ships with. So if anyone is using the GSM iPhone outside AT&T’s network in US, they would have to rely on EDGE. Add to that the fact that until recently, Apple only sold locked iPhones in US. So when T-Mobile comes up and says that they are running one million iPhone’s on their network, it’s quite a surprise.
1 million subscribers would amount to 3% of T-mobile’s customer base, which we consider is a handsome figure. T-Mobile personnel did confirm that a lot of these are not iPhone 4’s but a lot of people have cut their T-Mobile SIM’s to get the iPhone 4 working (iPhone 4 supports only MicroSIMs). But what is astonishing here is the unlocking part, a million users have unlocked their iPhones (or sourced it from other countries) just to use it on T-Mobile. Thats some effort.
Come september, the iPhone 5 would release in US and we wouldn’t be surprised if all carriers including TMobile and Sprint end up selling the new iPhone. Apple has already relented with a CDMA iPhone for Verizon and have also confirmed that they have no exclusive carrier tie-ups anywhere across the globe now. So a UK model with all carriers selling the iPhone makes a lot of sense to us.