AT&T Raises Smartphone Upgrade Pricing From $15 to $20 to Match Verizon's New Fee

[MacRumors]

Starting last year, AT&T began charging a $15 activation fee for customers who wanted to upgrade to a new smartphone purchased outright or through an AT&T Next plan, and as of yesterday, that fee has been increased from $15 to $20.

As Droid Life noticed yesterday, AT&T updated its wireless activation and upgrade fees document to reflect the new $20 pricing on April 6, matching Verizon's recently implemented fee.

On Monday, Verizon started charging $20 for activating smartphones purchased through an installment plan or at full retail price, $5 less than AT&T was charging at the time. Less than two days later, AT&T raised its prices to $20.

AT&T customers who bring a phone to the AT&T network, purchase a phone using AT&T Next, or purchase a device through Apple's Device Upgrade program will need to pay the one-time activation fee as outlined below. Customers with a two-year contract will need to pay the standard $45 fee, which has not changed.

Wireless activation and upgrade fees,1 are one time fees that may be added to your first or next AT&T bill.
- Activation and upgrade fees for smartphones with AT&T Next - Activation and upgrade fees are $20 per smartphone added or upgraded with AT&T Next.
- Activation fees for installment agreements and bring your own devices - The fee is $20.
- Activation and upgrade fees for two year agreement - Fees are $45. Note: Two year agreements are available only on select devices.

As Ars Technica points out, AT&T doesn't provide any explanation or justification for the fee that it charges on its website, nor does it give an explanation for the price increase. In a leaked document we shared last week, Verizon said its own fee was to cover "increasing support costs associated with customers switching their devices."

Of the four major carriers in the United States, T-Mobile is the only carrier that does not charge an upgrade or activation fee. AT&T and Verizon both charge $20, while Sprint charges a fee of up to $36 per device.

Article Link: AT&T Raises Smartphone Upgrade Pricing From $15 to $20 to Match Verizon's New Fee

 

[garirry]

"Let's rip off our customers even more now!"

 

[gigapocket1]

10 hours late

 

[krfr]

Why not keep it $5 less as an incentive? C'mon AT&T, just cause others are doing it doesn't mean you need to match. Its called competition!

 

[MadDog31]

Competition in the wrong direction.

 

[rorschach]

Price fixing? I would hardly be surprised with these two companies.

 

[sk1wbw]

When Verizon buys Yahoo, there's going to be a $50 fee to use it.

 

[ChrisTX]

10 hours late

Who cares this is still relevant if you're an AT&T customer. AT&T charging customers more, not because it makes sense, but because they can!

 

[NovemberWhiskey]

Laissez Faire dickwadism

 

[BeSweeet]

Wouldn't be AT&T if they didn't do something like this. No surprise here.

 

[DrewDaHilp1]

I never understood why they charged the fee in the first place. I do all the work.

 

[Truckondo]

I love the concept of price matching but usually it helps the customer save money.

 

[ephemeralreason]

Utter BS.

 

[henryaaron]

If I put my SIM card in a new phone, I get billed $20?

 

[oneMadRssn]

Yay free market competition!

 

[ziggie216]

I never understood why they charged the fee in the first place. I do all the work.

So ether one of the company can later on go, "We dropped our activation fee, we're better than our competitors"

Of course the other one will go Me too!

 

[stiligFox]

Not sure how or why this is even needed to charge a fee for upgrading a phone - is there anything besides a little bit of labor used? Nothing physical gets used up... It's just a employee changing what phone is tied to an account, right?

 

[Andres Cantu]

They are the duopoly after all, as T-Mobile says. Until their customers start demanding change, they'll never change their ways.

 

[samcraig]

I find the activation fee practice to be obnoxious. Even more so when you're an existing customer. When I was an ATT customer I was (fortunately) able to thwart it most of the time by speaking (nicely) to a customer rep though.

 

[CE3]

"Oligopoly is a market structure in which a small number of firms has the large majority of market share. An oligopoly is similar to a monopoly, except that rather than one firm, two or more firms dominate the market. There is no precise upper limit to the number of firms in an oligopoly, but the number must be low enough that the actions of one firm significantly impact and influence the others."

The illusion of choice.

 

[oneMadRssn]

At least Verizon made it clear that "customer provided equipment" that only requires an ESN change would not result in a $20 fee.

The way AT&T has it written, if the customer provides their own phone that requires merely to associate the SIM with a different IMEI number results in a $20 fee.

 

[Vanilla35]

Wow, gotta love that. Thank god I switched to T-Mobile.

They're one of the few companies you can trust when they claim it's cheap, easy and works (assuming they have good coverage in your area, of course).

 

[Cmd-Z]

"Because we can."

 

[iPlaid]

Of the four major carriers in the United States, T-Mobile is the only carrier that does not charge an upgrade or activation fee.

T-Mobile does now! I can show you the receipt for $20 each activation for our new iPhone SEs... and that was signing up for their $120/month Unlimited LTE plan!

 

[henryaaron]

At least Verizon made it clear that "customer provided equipment" that only requires an ESN change would not result in a $20 fee.

The way AT&T has it written, if the customer provides their own phone that requires merely to associate the SIM with a different IMEI number results in a $20 fee.

I've never done any of that IMEI stuff, just pop my SIM out and pop it into a new phone. I do it a few times a month to activate some iPhones. I certainly hope this isn't the case. Pretty ridiculous