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T-Mobile could abolish phone contracts later this month

T-Mobile could abolish phone contracts later this month

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T-Mobile may be unveiling its new contract-free system later this month. According to TMoNews, the company could announce its plans as early as March 4th, and set them into effect on March 24th. That would mean moving customers off contracts as they expire and ending early termination fees, while expanding its monthly options that separate the cost of a device from the price of a plan. As previously suspected, T-Mobile could also offer an installment plan to lessen the sticker shock of buying an off-contract phone. TMoNews suggests that it will attempt to offer all its phones with a down payment option of $99 or less, then add payments of $25 to $30 to bills until they're paid off.

T-Mobile branded itself the "un-carrier" in late December, when it said it would begin selling Apple products and move away from traditional contract-based subsidies as a way to distinguish itself from AT&T and Verizon. "You love your iPhone, but you hate AT&T," it told analysts. Its plans were originally slated to take six to nine months to achieve, but that timeline was moved up in January, though we still have no official date.

As a last note, TMoNews says we could be seeing some changes in how T-Mobile advertises. For one thing, the company's "4G" campaign could become "dual 4G" as it rolls out LTE networks on top of HSPA+. Much to our consternation, spokesmodel Carly's new Ducatti is also apparently being put back in the garage. All this is still tentative, but if it's correct, we should find out in a few days.