Legere is CEO of T-Mobile USA. The firm is the third largest wireless carrier in the US with 72.6 million customers as of the first quarter of 2017. Legere said he was responding to customer “frustrations” about the plan announced earlier by the firm to limit data on the Apple 3 Smartwatch. He promised that watch customers would be able to use full 4G LTE speeds at no extra charge. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a high-speed wireless communication standard for mobile devices and data terminals. Its aim is to increase the capacity of and speed of wireless data networks.
Adding an Apple Watch to a T-Mobile One plan costs an extra ten dollars a month. This is still better than the company’s original plan of limiting download rates to 512kps by default. For faster speeds customers would have had to fork out another $20 to $25. One reason for the change of heart may be the fact that Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and Sprint the main competitors of T-Mobile gave no indication that they would introduce similar charges. Originally, T-Mobile was intending to also cap other company’s smart watches at the same rates. Originally a T-Mobile spokesperson sent an email to the Verge saying: “Customers can do everything they want to do with the watch at 512kbps. If customers feel they need high-speed data, they can choose high-speed data with paired DIGITS for $20 with auto-pay.” If autopay in not enabled in the plan, the cost is 25 dollars.
But now Legere tweeted: “I heard your frustration about the Apple Watch plan. I sincerely believe in listening to our customers & have dug into this…7:30 PM – Sep 15, 2017 130 130 Replies 73 73 Retweets 680 680 likes”. Then he added: “The Apple Watch Series 3 plan on @TMobile will be $10/m for unlimited 4G LTE. Thanks for your feedback. We always listen & act! #uncarrier 7:31 PM – Sep 15, 2017 347 347 Replies 478 478 Retweets 1,751 1,751 likes”
It is not clear why T-Mobile planned a limit in the first place since it was unlikely to place a burden on the company’s network. The company has said that its network is built for the unlimited. In any event, now users of the Apple Watches Series 3 will not need to worry about any potential slowdowns and can use full power from the start at no extra charge. It is full speed ahead.
