T-Mobile Debuts $99 IPhone Today to Stem Customer Exodus

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T-Mobile USA Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. wireless carrier, began offering Apple Inc.’s iPhone for the first time today, providing the biggest showcase yet for its new installment-plan approach to selling phones.

Customers with good credit can buy the iPhone 5 for $99.99 down and 24 monthly payments of $20, the Bellevue, Washington-based company said, breaking from a tradition of subsidizing smartphones in exchange for two-year service contracts. T-Mobile also will take old iPhones as trade-ins for a new iPhone 5 with no down payment and a credit toward future bills.