Some bean-counter somewhere figured out they make more money through NEXT, so they try to entice 2-year contract holders to switch. They may be trying to get people off the old "unlimited" plans, too. I'm with you, though. It's just a big "F-U" to us who are on contract.
This sounds really weird to me. Do you realize that the whole 2yr contract thing was a huge "F-U" to the American consumers from day one? It created artificial carrier lock-in and drove service prices up. We all should be incredibly grateful that market pressures (ie T-Mobile) have forced the hands of the Big Duopoloy.
And for the record, Next is cheaper than a 2yr contract if you just keep the phone for 2 years to pay it off under free financing.
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128gb iPhone 6 full retail is $849.
On AT&T next it's $35.38/month for 24 months = $849.12
Not sure where Next is a bad deal?
Well, to be fair, it's a bad deal if you trade in the phone for the "free" early upgrade. To make Next work for you, you have to pay off the phone before upgrading so you can maximize your resale value.