AfterDawn: News

AT&T to charge more for early upgraders to smartphones

AT&T has confirmed today that it will be increasing its smartphone early upgrade by $50, the second time it has done so in the last 6 months.

If you somehow have a one-year contract through the carrier, the early upgrade fee is now $150 higher. The fees are only in effect if you try to upgrade to a smartphone before your contract is up.



Says the carrier (via BGR):

We've updated our early upgrade and no commitment price points for smartphones and feature phones. Only customers who are not yet upgrade eligible or who do not want to sign a contract are impacted. As mobile devices become more sophisticated, their cost goes up. This change reflects the increased costs, while still allowing us to offer customers the latest device before they qualify. We're happy to discuss individual account and upgrade needs one-on-one with customers.

Furthermore, other unconfirmed reports have AT&T raising the early upgrader fee on feature phones by $20.

Last October, AT&T pumped the fee to $200 from $75 on the same logic, "increased costs."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 5 Apr 2011 0:03

• Previous article

• Google bidding on 6,000 Nortel telecom patents

• Next article

• 'Anonymous' to go after Sony

• 5 comments

• Ryoohki

  All the more reason to buy knockoff phones from china.

  5.4.2011 00:37 #1

• lissenup3

  I'm all for this. Users that upgrade every year should be penalized as phones should last at least 2 years and current models should provide almost 3 years of solid performance.
  
  Those that want to maintain the luxurious lifestyle of wastefulness in purchasing a new damn phone every year should get knocked. Maybe it'll help mold their wastefulness down a little.

  5.4.2011 10:22 #2

• Smacks

  Cell phones are disposable and becoming outdated even faster with the technology rapidly increasing. I'm looking at getting the Bionic with a dual core processor and in a year from now the quad cores will be close to coming out. It doesn't surprise me AT&T is charging more for people who want to keep current with technology.

  5.4.2011 19:00 #3

• pcrazy99

  I'm sure glad I didn't switch my service to at&t. With my current carrier I get to upgrade my phone every year. Nothing like keeping up with technology.
  

  7.4.2011 17:12 #4

• pontiac005 (unverified)

  Originally posted by pcrazy99: I'm sure glad I didn't switch my service to at&t. With my current carrier I get to upgrade my phone every year. Nothing like keeping up with technology. And what carrier is this?

  22.4.2011 10:03 #5