The idea of bringing your own device to a mobile carrier is one that many love. Just the other day, I was remarking about how awesome it is that Verizon sells certain phones unlocked (like the iPhone 5). That means that after you’re out of contract, you can hold on to your existing phone instead of splurging on a new one. The downside is that the providers that let you bring your own usually require a contract anyway for a SIM these days, and the only contractless that does BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is Ting, but they have to be Sprint devices and only a few of them at that.
iPhone on Ting? It is to laugh.
MetroPCS, a no-contract provider recently purchased by T-Mobile, now lets users bring any iPhone, Windows Phone, or Android phones when switching over. Interestingly enough, the site doesn’t mention Windows Phones, but they do work. Only BlackBerry and feature phone users are left out in the cold, which I’m sure is something of a familiar sensation. The catch is twofold. First, MetroPCS has a fairly small network, and I’m not sure how roaming is going to work on T-Mobile. Play it safe and make sure it’s available in your area. The second is that the BYOD is only available in Hartford, Boston, Las Vegas, and Dallas for now. Not exactly Podunk, but not widespread either.
If you live in one of the above cities and want to live the out-of-contract life, you may want to give this a spin using one of the ten old phones that you have sitting in a drawer. Wait, is that just me? I may have a problem.
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