Last Wednesday, T-Mobile covered the city in pink with its Un-carrier event and concert at The Paramount Theatre. You’ve heard about CEO John Legere’s extremely and Twitter apology by now, so we’re looking on the bright side of things. My parents may still pay my cellphone bill (thanks Mom and Dad, you guys are the best), but all this tech talk was actually kind of cool.
I also may have looked over the shoulder of the person from CNET in front of me once or twice to understand what the hell LTE meant, but fear not, I broke down all the happenings for you here.
1. Unlimited data for all!
Disclaimer: I am an AT&T user. Ok, well my parents are but…that’s beside the point. AT&T and Verizon don’t offer unlimited data because, as Mr. Legere pointed out, they either A) can’t B) are greedy, or his favorite C) “both!” T-Mobile’s network is designed differently where it serves areas that have the densest population. But if you go on vacation to say, Wyoming, currently you are shit out of luck.
2. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis performed.
Fan girl moment! For a corporate event, the two put on a really, really impressive set. They even played “Can’t Hold Us” twice – just as they did at those three sold out Key Arena shows. The audience was weak, but Macklemore was still able to get T-Mobile’s Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray on his feet. And me, obviously.
3. Have a 7-night stand.
Here’s the gist: Un-carrier 5.0 let’s you take the latest iPhone out for a spin for free – no strings attached. T-Mobile is convinced that you will be so blown away by the speed of their network in seven days that you will “cheat” on your carrier and make the switch. T-Mobile will also pay for “the breakup.”
4. Un-carrier 6 was released.
The words “music freedom” were thrown around a lot, which is kind of a stretch, but it’s still a cool idea in theory. Basically, you can stream all the music you want from some of the biggest carriers (Pandora, Spotify) and not have it count against your data plan. T-Mobile also announced the debut of Rhapsody unRadio in partnership with Rhapsody. I’m not really sure how it’s different than the other thousands of streaming music services out there, so let those CNET guys tell you…
It may be a David and Goliath-type situation, but T-Mobile is doing it’s best to change the conversation. Millennials are listening, but the jury’s still out on whether I’ll have the guts to tell AT&T I’m cheating on them or not.