T-Mobile has confirmed this story in their Virtual Analyst Day stream today.
The Uncarrier plans to bring T-Mobile to around 2,200 Walmart stores, around 1000 of which are in underserved rural areas. They will also be bringing T-Mobile to around 1,000 Best Buy stores.
“As one of the premier consumer electronics retailers in America, bringing T-Mobile to Best Buy will further solidify our ability to appeal to prime wireless consumers and fuel the switching environment.”
Jon Freier, EVP Consumer Markets
Original story from February 12th 2021 below.
According to an internal email back in January, T-Mobile will soon have a footprint inside Walmart and Best Buy stores for the purposes of selling phones and services. That appears to have already begun at some Best Buy locations according to a post on Reddit.
The post says that activations, new lines, and upgrades will all be available. The poster also states in the comments that locations in New York and Pennsylvania are currently testing the service, and that by April 1st all Best Buy locations will have full T-Mobile account access.
We also have independent confirmation that Walmart stores will also sell T-Mobile services in the near future, though the details of how it will work with Walmart is still unknown.
This isn’t a first for Best Buy, who currently sells phones and service for all 3 major carriers on their website, and currently sells other carrier services in-store, most notably Sprint. Walmart currently offers AT&T and Verizon postpaid devices on their website. It’s unclear if Walmart will have as much of an account-level access as Best Buy appears to be getting or if they will just sell device upgrades to existing accounts.
We’ll be sure to update this post when we learn more information.