At Mobile World Congress 2025, T-Mobile, owned by Deutsche Telekom (DT), has announced plans to release an “AI Phone” created in collaboration with AI search startup Perplexity, along with contributions from Google Cloud, Picsart, and ElevenLabs.
Key Points
- Device will launch in second half of 2025, with sales beginning in 2026 for under $1,000
- Perplexity’s assistant will operate from the lock screen, aiming to end the “confusing app jungle”
- The partnership represents T-Mobile’s strategy to position itself as “an AI company”
- A separate “Magenta AI” app will bring similar features to existing iOS and Android users on T-Mobile
For years, telecom carriers have watched from the sidelines as Apple and Google built ecosystems that relegated network providers to utility status. Now, T-Mobile seems to think AI might be its way back into the game.
“We are becoming an AI company,” said Claudia Nemat, DT board member overseeing technology and innovation, during Monday’s press conference. She clarified that while the company isn’t building foundational large language models, “we do the AI agents.”
The announcement builds on a partnership between Perplexity and Deutsche Telekom that began in April 2024, following DT’s initial discussion of an “AI Phone” concept at last year’s MWC.
What makes this partnership particularly noteworthy is Perplexity’s expanded ambitions. “Perplexity is transitioning from just being an answer machine to an action machine,” explained Aravind Srinivas, the company’s co-founder and CEO. “It is going to start doing things for you, not just answering questions. It’s going to be able to book flights for you, book reservations for you, send emails for you, send messages, place phone calls for you, and all those sorts of things.”
While specifications remain scarce (the concept renders suggest an Android-based device), T-Mobile emphasized that AI will be integrated at the system level, accessible directly from the lock screen. For those not interested in purchasing new hardware, T-Mobile will offer a “Magenta AI” app for existing iOS and Android devices – though you’ll need to be one of T-Mobile’s 300 million customers to access it.
The partnership comes at an interesting moment for both companies. Perplexity, despite its innovative approach to AI search, faces formidable competition from deep-pocketed rivals like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, which has integrated its Gemini AI into core search products. For Perplexity, a hardware partnership provides a potential distribution channel that bypasses traditional search entry points.
For T-Mobile, the AI Phone represents yet another attempt by a telecom to break free from commodity status. “The days of the confusing app jungle are over,” Nemat declared, suggesting that T-Mobile sees an opportunity to simplify smartphone experiences through AI.
History gives reasons for skepticism. The smartphone market has proven notoriously difficult to crack, with dominant players Apple and Samsung maintaining their positions while even established manufacturers like LG have exited the business altogether. Building competitive hardware isn’t easy, and convincing consumers to adopt a carrier-branded device may prove challenging.
Still, the magnetic pull of AI is undeniable. Jon Abrahamson, Chief Product & Digital Officer at Deutsche Telekom, boldly claimed: “‘Magenta AI’ stands for amazing, useful, secure AI services. Once used, you will never give it back.”
Whether this confidence is warranted remains to be seen. What’s clear is that as AI capabilities expand beyond simple Q&A toward more proactive assistance, both established telecom giants and cutting-edge startups see an opportunity to reshape how we interact with our devices. T-Mobile’s AI Phone may succeed or fail, but it represents a fascinating attempt to use AI to redraw the boundaries between carriers, hardware makers, and software providers that have defined the smartphone era.
