A leak that earlier this month outed MetroPCS's plans for a new "Bring Your Own Phone" program that would allow consumers to bring their own unlocked Android, iOS and Windows Phone hardware onto the T-Mobile-owned operator. Today that service went live, inviting customers to bring their own smartphones for use with MetroPCS's prepaid plans and T-Mobile's GSM network. The BYOP program is currently only available in Boston, Dallas, Hartford and Las Vegas, but MetroPCS has told FierceWireless that it plans to expand the service to more cities soon.
As far as device compatibility goes, MetroPCS says that its BYOP program supports AT&T and T-Mobile iPhones, as well as the Sprint and Verizon versions of the iPhone 5. GSM Android and Windows Phone products are also supported. Unfortunately for BlackBerry fans, hardware from the company formerly known as RIM is not compatible with MetroPCS's program, nor are tablets or mobile hotspots. MetroPCS offers a compatibility checker on its website so that users can determine whether or not their phone is supported by the BYOP program.
Before the MetroPCS-T-Mobile deal was completed, one of the benefits that the two companies touted was that the merger would give MetroPCS customers a wider hardware selection thanks to T-Mobile's GSM network. Now MetroPCS customers can do just that, and it's good to see that Metro and T-Mobile are rolling out big changes just a hair over a month after finishing their merger. If you're interested in bringing your own GSM hardware onto MetroPCS, you can hit up the Metro link below to see if your device is compatible.
Via FierceWireless, MetroPCS
