I love it when companies change business models. The planning, the rollout, and watching how the industry reacts to these decisions is one of the most exciting aspects of business. If you haven’t heard, T-Mobile and WalMart just re-announced their new BFF relationship, giving unlimited talk, text and data for $45 a month.

The past few years have been an interesting one for the wireiess industry. For years, Verizon was the 800 lb gorilla. While their phones were nothing to write home about, this is the company you wanted if you wanted the best reception. You may recall the “can you hear me now?” campaign of a few years back.

ATT tried to counteract by providing a larger array of handsets and the rollover minutes fad, but they took a big leap forward when they scored the exclusive contract with Apple’s iPhone. This helped them surpass Verizon in a lot of ways in the mind of the consumer. Many consumers who were not willing to give up their cellular coverage before were now giving it up, and paying an extra $10 for data to boot. AT&T became very profitable despite rumblings of heavy payouts to the fruit company.

When Verizon and Sprint recently announced iPhones for their product lineup, the game had changed. A lot of customers were leaving AT&T again. There were new entrants to the field such as Android and Windows Phone. It’s not hard to see that perhaps Verizon taking back its crown as “best” wireless provider.

T-Mobile, flush with about $4 billion in cash from the failed AT&T merger deal is taking a different approach. They are letting AT&T and Verizon spend the big bucks to fight each other. Instead, they are lowering their prices. They know they can’t compete with the big boys directly, so they created this little niche between the big players and the up-and-comers like MetroPCS.

T-Mobile is not interested in having the iPhone (at least not bad enough to pay for it). They are interested in becoming a value player, and teaming up with a brand known for low prices couldn’t hurt. Especially when they are addressing the major complaints about the big two – high prices, long-term contracts, and less than stellar customer service.

It’ll be interesting to see what you do with that $4 bil, T-Mobile.