T-Mobile has never been shy about making their feelings towards other carriers known. To be more precise, T-Mobile’s John Legere has never been that shy about it. Not to mention, T-Mobile have been quite active in holding their routine Uncarrier events in which they announce the latest game-changing move they are making. The latest in these Uncarrier events happened yesterday when T-Mobile announced their ‘JUMP on Demand’ program. Most T-Mobile customers will already be well versed in the standard JUMP program which was made available roughly two years ago, but for those new to the news, JUMP allowed its customers to effectively jump to a new smartphone. This meant, those who were in good standing and with good credit could upgrade their smartphone early.
Well, in the Uncarrier Amped event, JUMP on Demand was unveiled as an amped up version of JUMP. Those same customers who could previously upgrade their device, under the new program, can upgrade, upgrade and upgrade again and all on a yearly basis. To clarify, JUMP on Demand offers T-Mobile customers the option to upgrade three times a year. So not bad on the face of it. That said, now the program has been announced, analysts are doing their usual after digestion of the news and making predictions on how, if at all, the latest T-Mobile move will impact on the industry. One of the first analyst firms to make their feelings clear is Jefferies.
Analysts at Jefferies are predicting that as much as 25% of customers next year will take advantage of the JUMP on Demand program. Although, on the face of it that will sounds like a reasonable number, the analysts also make a point of noting that it will be less than what they predict for Sprint’s rate for their upgrade equivalent option. The reason for this, is that the Sprint option to upgrade is less than its competitors, making it a more attractive proposition. Not to mention, the analysts note that another difference between the T-Mobile and Sprint options will be the way in which the Uncarrier financially accounts for the deal. Unlike Sprint, T-Mobile will account for the lease payments as equipment revenue and not subsidized at the point of sale. Whether the adoption rate is what is predicted or higher will of course, be down to whether T-Mobile’s mainstay customers see a reason to upgrade as many as three times a year.