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Lol, install a spyware app to opt out of their spyware? Something something Inception?

Presumably you only need to have it installed briefly to opt out.

I wonder how Apple would react. There was rumors years ago that Apple wanted to start their own cell service and currently, the only thing they don't control on iPhones is the data connection. I can foresee a future Apple wanting to close that gap.

Apple has already reduced MNOs to 'big dumb pipes' [1]. Hard to see the motivation to take over a low-margin and mature business.

Their motivation seems to be to gradually reduce in size, and eventually eliminate SIM cards - presumably just to free up internal volume. But they've been successful in forcing MNOs to do that anyway.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumb_pipe

This has nothing to do with "running afoul of Apple's privacy rules". Apple has effectively killed the IDFA, so even if T-Mo built a profile of an iOS user, there's no "key" to be used later on to identify the user when they try to show an ad based on the data collected.