AT&T upgrade period lengthened to two years

4. Daftama (Posts: 619; Member since: 03 Nov 2012)

They want ppl to get used to the 24 months first so eventually when they release what tmobile has ppl will have to pay full retail price.. $20 a month for 24 months

25. Jeradiah3 (Posts: 1121; Member since: 11 Feb 2010)

If your contracts ends after March 2014, it will be. my contract isnt up until December of 2014 so Id have to wait a full 2 years to upgrade BUT im not waiting that long to do that

9. max9777 (Posts: 78; Member since: 11 Dec 2011)

Lucky you, I am on sprints employee line and I dont get any upgrades, but if I still work there, they would of kept on giving me free phones.. =/

10. Sniggly (Posts: 7305; Member since: 05 Dec 2009)

Yeah, on ATT and Verizon's indirect employee lines they give you upgrades every ten months. Verizon even gives you a hundred dollars off the consumer contract price.

Now all I need is the Moto X, and I'll jump for that employee line. I'm counting the days.

15. g2a5b0e (Posts: 3814; Member since: 08 Jun 2012)

It is 24 months & while it may be a contract under the definition of the word, it's definitely not one in the same vein as the other carriers.

20. Ruckus (Posts: 286; Member since: 20 Oct 2011)

Marty, T-Mobile raises the price of their plan $20 for 20 months before lowering it for 4. I hope Sprint doesn't because id pay more. Do the math guys. T-mobiles plans aren't cheap anymore.

23. Lboogey6 (Posts: 281; Member since: 31 Jan 2012)

Marty please listen to ruckus he ignores the same signs of lies that have been told to us for years. its per device ill keep it simple but keep up
$50 ultd talk text web(500 mb of 4g) + $10 (2g of 4g) = $60
" " + $20(ultd 4g) = $70
all that is just service so for one you already have more options
now the phone they can vary high end phones mostly yes $20
so your bill $80 or $90
or depending upon the other phones that can be between $2 and $17
you can be paying a variety of prices lg optimus L9 $48 down $8 a month your bill $68 or $78 then when the phone is paid off whether you go the full 24 or pay it off early your bill drops the phone so if you hang on to your phones for a while or bring in your own device its a huge benefit.
you do the math and logic before attempting to educate others

14. Sniggly (Posts: 7305; Member since: 05 Dec 2009)

Well, with the Galaxy S3 coming to Boost and Boost and Virgin offering LTE supporting phones, I can definitely see why. If their coverage was better I'd recommend them more often.

*shrugs* ah well. If it gets bad enough the market will respond and the carriers will bow to market pressure. Why do you think carriers went nuts with free phones, shortened upgrade eligibility and extra incentives for upgrading in the first place?

I know I'll get booed for this, but I still maintain that the iPhone's popularity has a lot to do with the accelerated drying up of consumer benefits at the carriers. The pattern is as follows:

1. The iPhone reaches AT&T. Unlimited data, early upgrades, and premier customer extras disappear.
2. The iPhone reaches Verizon. Other high end phones shoot up to 300 dollars for a time, taking a year to come back down to non insane prices. Unlimited data disappears, with an aggressive program to kill grandfathered data features. New Every 2 disappears. Early upgrades disappear. Upgrade fees introduced. Contract length extended.
3. The iPhone reaches Sprint. Slow LTE rollout for major markets. Early upgrades disappear, then reappear, but are only offered after a 50 to 100 dollar payment. Upgrade fees doubled.
4. The iPhone reaches T-Mobile. Phone subsidies disappear entirely.
5. The iPhone reaches US Cellular. US Cellular sells off half its market to Sprint, displacing bewildered customers who were satisfied with their service with the carrier.

There are other indicators I'm forgetting, but I'm calling it: the iPhone is poison to consumers when it comes to the carriers.

16. suneeboy (Posts: 201; Member since: 02 Oct 2012)

I don't agree with you, but the iPhone did change the smartphone market and carriers took advantage with higher pricing.

I just didn't foresee $80-$100+ a month for a single line.

22. Phoenity (Posts: 16; Member since: 12 Dec 2011)

I used to work for Radioshack in Target (3.5 years of BS) and I'll tell you right now why those indicators happened. It's good for an OS (and hardware manufacturer in the case of Apple) to be able to dictate what a carrier can do to a phone, because otherwise they'll strip it of everything good and make it a brand monster like Verizon has done with most of their android offerings, but the situation was flipped ALL the way in the other direction with Apple. They have always charged the carriers significantly more for their phones than any other handset maker, so profit margins are by far the lowest on every model of iphone. carriers don't make the money but NEED to carry the phone or they lose customers, so other things have to give. Every one of the things on your list were asked to my connections at the carrier level, and the answer was always the same; we have to balance against the iphone. We're losing too much money. SMDH.

26. Lboogey6 (Posts: 281; Member since: 31 Jan 2012)

its all about money and since no one is putting a stop to apple they are going to get away with it

18. Sniggly (Posts: 7305; Member since: 05 Dec 2009)

You will if your contract ends before March 2014.