While a T-Mobile iPhone is certainly possible, two things have kept the iPhone from coming to T-Mobile to date: Verizon and technology.
First, even though the iPhone isn't exclusive to it, it's hard to imagine that Verizon would have signed the deal to carry the iPhone without some assurance that another competitor wouldn't come into the market for some amount of time. It's not clear how long such a grace period would have lasted, but that's likely to be one reason that we haven't seen the iPhone come to T-Mobile yet.
The second and bigger reason is that the technology in the current iPhones won't work with T-Mobile's network. To bring the iPhone to Verizon, the challenge was great: AT&T and Verizon don't use the same kind of network, so Apple had to develop an iPhone with a different kind of wireless chip.
AT&T and T-Mobile's networks are similar--both use the same basic technology. However, AT&T's phones operate in the 850Mhz and 1900Mhz parts of the 3G spectrum, whereas T-Mobile's work in the 1700Mhz and 2100Mhz bands. So, to make an iPhone for T-Mobile, Apple would have to add support for those bands to its iPhone chips.
iPhone for T-Mobile Release Date
With AT&T's proposed purchase of T-Mobile, the prospect of the iPhone coming to T-Mobile is certainly greater. T-Mobile seems to be indicating that it won't offer the iPhone until the AT&T deal is complete, in early-to-mid 2012.
Some rumors have the iPhone coming to T-Mobile before then, but a T-Mobile executive says the company won't be getting the iPhone 5 until 2012. That seemed to have been confirmed in early Oct. 2011, when the iPhone 4S was announced on Sprint, but not T-Mobile.
Last Updated: Oct. 4, 2011
