T-Mobile announces ‘JUMP! On Demand’, trade your phone in up to 3 times a year

We knew that John Legere would be making another Un-Carrier announcement today that would take a bolder approach to its previous offerings. We weren’t sure exactly what the bad boy of wireless would bring to the table this go around, but we expected something big. The first of what we assume will be many announcements over the next few weeks/months, is called JUMP! on Demand. It is sort of what Sprint has been doing for a while now. You basically get to lease a phone for a small monthly fee on your bill and trade it in, in good working non-warranty void status, and get something else. For instance, you walk into T-Mobile and get yourself a LG G4 because you want to give it a run, but you really want the Note 5 later this year. Go for it. Bring the G4 back and trade it back in for the Note 5.

T-Mobile offers up the iPhone 6 as an example price device on JUMP! on Demand as being $15 a month. Just because you COULD jump to something else doesn’t mean you ave to though. You can make the payments for 18 months and then purchase the device. In the iPhone 6 example, you would shell out $164 to buy it after that 18 month lease period. However, you are more than welcome to trade that iPhone 6 in during the lease period and get something else plus, they will let you do that up to 3 times in a year. You could feasibly have a new phone every 4 months if you wanted too. The fine print also states that after the 18 month lease term you either have to buy the device or trade it in. Not that it is a big deal really, and who wants to keep a device over 18 months? Except maybe as a spare back up anyways. Mind you, this all has $0 down, $0 fees and there isn’t even any sales tax. Check out the 2.5 minute from John Legere. FYI, a bit NSFW if your workplace can’t handle a little profanity.

This really won’t be all that it is cracked up to be for a small set of users out there. Yes, I am talking to you modders and ROM junkies. Anything that would void a warranty will likely disqualify your trade-in. Although, the fine print doesn’t mention anything about that, it just states the device needs to be in good physical condition and working. I would assume that as long as you put it back to stock before trade-in then no one would really care.

The JUMP! on Demand option also kills off that $10 monthly JUMP! fee that allowed you to jump devices yearly. If you are an average user who takes good care of their equipment, then JUMP! on Demand is going to rock. Not only will it lower your monthly bill, but you will be that cool kid with all the latest phones without breaking the bank. The new option isn’t available just yet though, it officially goes into effect June 28th, that is this Sunday. I am headed to the store today to get the wife the LG G4, so I will see how it all works out when I am there. Hopefully there is an enrolment period so I don’t have to wait 2 days to get her a new phone.

Source: T-Mobile | @JohnLegere Twitter