Hey ATRL, I was wondering your thoughts on these new early upgrades that the phone companies are doing.

These companies for example:
T-Mobile's Jump
AT&T Next
Sprint's Upgrade Now
Verizon's Edge

About:
Its basically a program where you could upgrade your phone early instead of waiting for 2 years to upgrade.


I think this may be helpful for some people who want to upgrade early or trade in their phone.

So ATRL what you think?

I like it. Apple and Samsung surely aren't waiting 2 years between phones.

More choices for the consumers so, yes.

What are the stipulations? or is it actually as easy as just trading in your phone for a new one every year?

Yes. i never wait.

pretty sure you gotta pay the price of the phone on contract.

On Jump, your allowed to upgrade every 6 months. So I'm here for it.

I believe you have to pay the phone off completely before doing so. But I put $100 towards the phone itself ever month, so no biggie for me.(my phone's full price is $530, btw)

Yes, I love them! I love how you have the option to pay it in full or just pay the phone by monthly payments. I hated being stuck with a phone for 2 years. I'm a happy consumer now

They are off contract. The US is one of the few countries that have contracts, other countries pay full price for the phones.

Yup, here for it. It's time for me to upgrade anyway.

My 2 year contract doesn't end until this January, but I'm already eligible for an upgrade. I'll be getting the gold iPhone 5S when they release it next month, and I can't wait!

I have to wait till like September 2014 for a upgrade. But thanks to Edge I could do it early. I'm going to ask my local Verizon.

Not worth it. If you buy phones with high resale values (e.g. iPhone) you can sell it for slightly less than retail and then still have extra money after paying for an early upgrade.

For example:

An iPhone 5 is $200 on/$650 off contract. You can still get over $500 for a used one in good condition. The early upgrade fee for AT&T is $250 after 6 months in the contract, so $450 total to get a new $200 phone. And you still have money to spare.

This might be fine for the average consumer but it's just more price gauging from phone providers.

I think high end phones are much better with contracts.

For example, an iPhone 5, 16 gb is 30k

Plan is 1799
Unlimited 3G
800 consumable
600 free texts
30 mins free calls

For 2 years = 36000

If you buy it outright = 30K
Unlimited 3G = 999x24 = 24k
Unlimited call and text = 500x24 = 12k

=66k

It's huge savings. Well in my country.

But low end phones with a 2 year contract is unreasonable imo.

Plans in America suck anyways. The price should go down after you pay the phone off in full but they don't.

For AT&T and its Next program, the one and really only stipulation is if your phone is lost, stolen, etc and you don't have insurance to cover it, then you'll have to pay the remaining balance on the phone. So if you receive an iPhone 5 from the program and lose it that next month without insurance, on your next month's bill expect to see a $600 charge.

I just went to my local Verizon its basically the same thing you pay for a phone during 24 months but you have to pay $30 dollars more.

That's weird. An AT&T customer doesn't pay any more than the price of the phone -- if they do choose the Next program -- but they are taxed by the retail value of the phone. Where does the $30 come from?