T-Mobile Selling Unlocked Nokias On Contract

By TheGuru on November 9th, 2008

T-Mobile Selling Unlocked Nokias On Contract

I seriously never thought I would see the day where a major carrier offered a contract discount on an unlocked/unbranded phone, but I saw that today, when I went up to Best Buy to pickup a Belkin powerstrip thing. I’d seen the rumor on Friday, but didn’t think it would be real this soon. Sure enough, there was the Nokia E71 (in white or grey, even) priced at $199.99 with a 2-year contract from T-Mobile. I asked the sales guy, and sure enough, it’s unbranded. They also have the N96 available for $599.99, which is still far too expensive for that phone, but whatever.

This is *huge* for the U.S. market. The country’s biggest electronics retailer is now able to offer you an unlocked/unbranded Nokia S60-powered smartphone, competitively priced with a contract discount. Whoever at Nokia hooked up this deal, I *really* hope that they got a raise or something, and I’d love to buy them a beer. In a country where carrier branding runs rampant, to the point where Verizon is simply replacing phones’ entire firmware with their own, this is a refreshing change.

It’s sad, however, that the E71 is the NAM version, which means that if AT&T would wisen up and get on board with this, you could get a rockin 3G-capable S60 phone for $200 on contract. How brilliant would that be? As much as I love AT&T (I’ve been a customer since it was SouthwesternBellWireless), I’m getting *really* annoyed with their increasingly-obvious lack of ability to work with Nokia. Bravo to T-Mobile for opening the doors with an open mind.

In any case, if you’re on T-Mobile or looking to switch, you can now pick up the E71, unlocked and unbranded, for $199.99 with a 2-year contract in the U.S. Times are a changing, people, times are a changing, and for the better. Once again, bravo to whatever Nokian scored this.

If you’re on AT&T or still in your contract on T-Mobile, you can also snag the E71-2 NAM from Amazon for under $400.

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Comments

  1. very exciting news indeed. i wonder if this might indicate that tmobile will subsidize the 5800 xpressmusic when it hits US shores? if so i'll be picking that one up quick!   by meggman
  2. Just as speechless, myself.   by genXhippie
  3. This is indeed a very awesome first step. It's a shame it's only T-Mobile...perhaps eventually they'll be able to coerce AT&T to do this. The area I live doesn't have a T-Mobile market (though BB still sells their devices, for some reason), so I can't take advantage of this. But I am very excited to see this happen.   by laurenke
  4. Sorry but this is old news. I work at a Best Buy Mobile and we have had unlocked phones available almost since the beginning of the year.   by Unregistered
  5. So can you buy unlocked handsets unsubsidized thru Best Buy?   by phoneboy
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
    Sorry but this is old news. I work at a Best Buy Mobile and we have had unlocked phones available almost since the beginning of the year.
    You've had unlocked phones available, sure. That's not the big deal. The big deal is that you can now buy those unlocked phones WITH A CONTRACT SUBSIDY, through T-Mobile. This has not been available in the U.S. before. In fact, several months ago I confirmed that it was indeed against the agent contract to sell unbranded phones with a contract.

    I for one am pretty pumped that T-Mobile has opened up to this.   by TheGuru
  7. Amazon.com have been selling the E71 recently in the US for around $370, Sim-Free, unlocked, no contract, which is amazingly inexpensive for a phone *this* good...

    http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-E71-Unlo...6613329&sr=8-1   by Unregistered
  8. Is there any way to do this on-line? Anywhere I can get a listing of the stores having this deal? Our local Best Buy does not offer this.   by Unregistered
  9. Last week and over the last six months, I have been talking to the Nokia folks about the poor market campaign (or even a lack of campaigns) they run in the US, they told me it was happening... hope they continue pushing their way through.

    As I get to talk to 200-300 different Symbian users on a daily basis, I always run into the occasional guy from the US And that invariably leads to some talk on the Nokia phones being available in the US and how hard it is to get a phone or to get it unlocked and get the correct GPRS settings. For an average user, this can be very frustrating and one has to be a real Nokia enthusiast to go through the pain to get through and get the phone working.

    I truly hope to bump into more folks from a closer time zone lol while on RockeTalk for download to the phone http://m.rocketalk.com or http://www.rocketalk.com from the PC. If we can finally have the folks in the US send unlimited voice, video or pictures painlessly to any email or RockeTalk ID across the Pond or anywhere in the world within the fixed cost of unlimited data- ATT as low as $15 per month and t-mobile at $24.95 a month (think that is what I pay) It is a truly neat way stay in touch with friends and family and if you are in a mood, make new friends! BTW- if you bought an unlocked phone, don’t expect the ATT or t-mobile folks to have the settings on their finger tips

    Now if I could get the simpler N73 or the N70... that would be something.   by phonetechgal
  10. Yep! You sure can and also from Amazon @ Phoneboy
    Quote:
    So can you buy unlocked handsets unsubsidized thru Best Buy?
       by phonetechgal
  11. I was more concerned about physical, brick-and-mortar stores. I know you can get the phones everywhere online.   by Unregistered
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Unregistered View Post
    I was more concerned about physical, brick-and-mortar stores. I know you can get the phones everywhere online.
    Yes, you can walk into the Best Buy store and pick from either the E71, N96, or N95 8GB (at least in my store), unlocked, with a contract and discount on T-Mobile. Not the online stuff, this is all in-store.   by TheGuru
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