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Does this change mean that we can terminate our contracts since the terms of the contract have changed?

I think sprint people have cited this before.
 
I'm with T-Mobile now. I'm tired of waiting for TMo to get the iPhone so with the merger possibility, I looked into getting an iPhone with ATT. Since the iPhone will probably be upgraded this year, I thought I would get a $20 refurb 3GS with the new contract and upgrade early (probably at full phone price) when the new model comes out. I used the online ATT chat with a rep to make sure this was possible. She swore up and down that the iPhone is the only phone you can't upgrade early so there would be absolutely no way for me to get the new iPhone when it comes out, even if I paid full price for it. Then I see this post that specifically addresses early upgrading and no-commitment pricing. WTF?? Is she just a clueless rep or was she lying to me?

Clueless...

AT&T had a program with the 4's to upgrade early...
 
I would gladly pay a $50 fee to continue to upgrade my phone every year. My bro in-law who just got the 4 through VZW will not have the chance to upgrade for almost 2 years!!! I can sell my current iPhone 4 on ebay subsidize my new iPhone and still come out ahead.
Not sure what all the problems are about. ATT allows you to upgrade earlier in most cases. Now they are throwing a $50 fee at you. It's still better than waiting 2 years imo. If you don't care about upgrading sooner just wait and you will be the same as the VZW customer as far as price goes.
ATT may seem like the devil but they are not necessarily any worse then the rest of them. I switched from VZW and although the service isn't as good. Where I do get it the 3g blows VZW's away. I will not be switching back.
Relax everyone. It's just the cost of doing business and it will continue to rise everywhere.:D
 
tick toc tick toc

Let me get this straight. You upgrade your phone, will that not start the contract clock again? Won't the carrier get all their money back with the so called subsidy?
 
I would gladly pay a $50 fee to continue to upgrade my phone every year. My bro in-law who just got the

Seriously.

For those having a hissy fit and saying this is going to make them go to Verizon, how does that help you? Verizon doesn't give you any early upgrade price so with them you just end up paying full price (Which is more expensive than the subsidy AT&T is giving for one year upgrades).

I fail to see the logic here on why Verizon is better than AT&T in this regard? Because AT&T got more expensive (but still has a better option than Verizon)? So you'll go and pay more at Verizon that doesn't even offer an early upgrade because AT&T got a little more expensive? Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I'll be the sensible consumer and go with who gives me the better deal, regardless if one of them increased their prices. IF they still have the better deal, I might be upset it's not as good as a deal as before, but I'm still going to pick it. I'll save my spiteful boycotting for when they actually try to scam me or do something it is worth paying more for (no one see the irony in paying more somewhere else cause the place you're ticked off at increased prices but still is cheaper?).
 
Randall L. Stephenson Jr. (wife: Lenise Stephenson)
5404 Walnut Hill Ln.
Dallas, Texas 75229

This is AT&T CEO address feel free to drop him a line to let him know how pleased you are with his company.
 
This is rather amusing. People rush out to buy cheesy $30 iPhone Bumpers that cost .10 to make or some other overpriced case and have no issue. Many even buy multiples before they decide on one.

But ATT raises the cost of a early upgrade phone by $50 and people go bonkers.

1) It's an early upgrade. Do you really need to upgrade your phone sooner than every 18 months? If you do, that is your decision as a consumer. You certainly have no God given right to a cheap upgrade though. Stop whining.

2) Inflation is here. Deal with it. Have you been to the grocery store lately? It's the price we pay when the Fed prints money like Chinese knock-offs.

3) Last I checked the government enacts laws regarding the cell phone industry and also regulates the frequencies. There has never been anything stopping either congress or the executive branch or independent commissions from imposing rules to require cellcos to unlock phones after x months of service or to require them to sell unlocked phones.
This... end of discussion.

Everyone wants state of the art high speed networks AND cheap phones and plans.
Ain't gonna happen.

And so how is merging with T-Mobile going to open up choice, provide more competition and benefit customers? Sounds like they are just getting an early start on price gouging here.

Not only should the merger be rejected but AT&T should be broken into about 5 separate companies.
AT&T broken up??? For what reason?
The merger will go through.
It's not about customer choice, this merger is solely about gaining network assets.
There are no other options for expanding. All the frequencies are sold.
The only way to gain more is through mergers and acquisitions.

As they gobble up T-Mobile AT&T and Verizon can agree to price increases.
No, they can't. That's called price fixing and is VERY illegal.

Just so you know, Verizon's 4G LTE speeds blow AT&T out of the water.
If you're happy with only having 3 hours of battery life. ;)
 
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I'm at a loss for how GV makes any difference in this scenario. If you move to another carrier, you can port your number to that carrier and not lose the number, so how exactly does GV help?

You're aware that GV is NOT a carrier service right? All it does it route calls to the carrier(s) you are using...

But to stay with the same carrier with the same number and upgrade earlier you will pay this advertised price, which just went up. My point is that in order for you to retain the number and not go on contract, GV is one of the best options. Let me fully spell out my two options, as they are right now:

1) Pay early upgrade pricing to upgrade my 16GB iPhone 3Gs to the 32 GB iPhone 4. This would cost $549 under the new pricing arrangement.

2) Transfer my number to GV. This part costs $20 once, and AT&T will give me a new number. I suppose that this may also include an activation fee, as well, so I'll give my cost with and without it. This will definitely incur an early termination fee, however, so I will add this in regardless. Then, the price to upgrade to a new phone, while still being able to use the same number would be: $299 + $20 + $175 - $5/month * 18 months = $404 without an activation fee or + $36 = $440 with the largest activation fee.

As you can see, option two is cheaper in both cases. The only difference is that you end up with a different number to call your phone directly, but I'd prefer to route my number through GV anyway, and I could give out my direct line for those that really need it (my wife) and route everything else through GV.

Here's AT&T's support section for activation fees, which actually appear to favor my theory that I would NOT be charged an activation fee. But even if I did, it would be more cheaper than early upgrade pricing if, like me, you started your contract prior to June 2010 when they changed their ETF. Their ETF section is here.

Just for the fun of it, I'll run through the calculation for those that purchased the iPhone 4 last June to see if it makes sense for them to upgrade, assuming the prices stay the same and the iPhone comes out in September (Fall 2011, which seems to be pretty likely): $299 + $20 + $325 - $10/month * 16 months = $484.

So, either way, it doesn't seem to make much sense to pay the early upgrade prices unless you want to avoid GV.
 
After iPhone lost its ATT exclusivity

this move was expected. I do not understand why some iPhone owners expect to be treated any differently than owners of other phones. Because they "want" to upgrade their phone every year? What if Apple starts releasing new model every 6 months? Will you demand ATT to pay for this?
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

**** AT&T.

The wrong foul word was starred out there. Probably a bug in the forum software.
 
Mmm Australia

Just to emphasize the AT$T rip-off point, for new connections, check out the linked chart from the telco down under Optus

http://personal.optus.com.au/web/oc...=d3e72a394f6196ccf6addc933bea2cdd213041e9f|24

For the $29/month plan with $18/month subsidized phone cost you're paying a total of $47/month over 24 months (taxes & fees included) for a total of $1128. Gives almost 200 anywhere minutes, texts incl in monthly total, plus free mobile to mobile on same account (for family) and 200mb each month 3G included. Only calls out are charged as part of your minutes, not calls you receive in Australia (so the above could be doubled).

Compared to AT$T, the min monthly payment is $40 for 450 min (call min both in and out going) + $15 for 200mb, plus cost of texts, plus taxes & fees is going to be min $60/month + $199 upfront for the phone = $1640 over 24 months.

With one for one exchange rate currently, that's over $500 diff for like 25 mins more in calls/month.

You could buy an extra phone as backup lol...
 
I wonder if Verizon will offer some kind of special offer for current customers who purchased the iPhone 4 to upgrade to the iPhone 5 for a good price.
 
Chupa Chupa I'm with you and others that have agreed with you.

You people want to bitch about at&t so much you don't even know what you're bitching about. You signed a 2, two, dos, zwei, hulät, ǧūǧ, laba, שְׁנַ֫יִם, year contract..... No matter what language you say it in that number is TWO. AT&T has no obligation to let you upgrade early at any price. Stop whining and crying and throwing a fit and be a grown up and deal with the contract you signed. Don't like it pay the ETF and go else where.
 
After I switched to Verizon, AT&T sent me a letter offering all sorts of deals if I'd change my mind (although they didn't offer to buy out my new 2-year Verizon contract).

This must be how they were planning to pay for my special discounts, by raising fees for everyone else!
 
Not sure why anyone would be surprised at this

AT&T has always wanted to increase prices across the board whenever they have a product that is going to sell well

They never give an actual answer as to why thus it is pretty easy to see that they are doing it strictly to get more money and little to do with actual increases in costs.

Typical ISP
 
Why can't WiFi be everywhere so that we won't need cell phone carriers anymore?

:)
 
I dont even know why people are complaining about the AT&T mobile merge.
Seriously, VZ stocks actually had a higher yield because of the merging than ATT.
The deal will pass, you know why? It actually somehow benefits more Verizon rather than ATT. Also, ATT is a private company, they have all the right to acquire another company.
Now if ATT acquired VZ (hahah which might be never) that would cause a monopoly but seriously monopolies arent that bad.
Everyone that lives in the "free world" is so entrenched in the idea that monopolies have the right to blow prices out of the water but they cant... and it is a fact.
Anyways, ATT will spend more money trying to merge differences between staff and other stuff, deciding how to merge the different cultures (since ones a German the other is American), and spending up to 8 billion dollars just in switching to the Tmobile towers. (good luck with that)
Verizon could equal the size of AT Tmobile if 1/8 people switched out from the merge. Which probably 1/16 will. I mean, why wouldnt they?
Only reason why ATT has managed to live for the past 3 years is because of the iphone.
In conclusion: ATT sucked, sucks, and will suck.
 
?.... but seriously monopolies arent that bad.
Everyone that lives in the "free world" is so entrenched in the idea that monopolies have the right to blow prices out of the water but they cant... and it is a fact....

Phew. Thanks for clearing that up for us. Until you explained it so well I was really worried.
 
crybabies

OMG I've never seen so many crybabies in my life...Really crying because a business raised prices...Better not go to wal-mart, they have price increases there all the time:eek::eek:
 
Inflation

Hey people, it's inflation, get used to it. The price of everything is going up in case you live under a rock and haven't noticed.
 
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