It seems like a lot of people are confused about AT&T's early upgrade policy on new iphone 4. I am here to help on any confusions you might have. However, here is a quick guide.
1. A lot of websites like Cnet and others are reporting that if your contract ends in 2010, you will be eligible for 199/299 dollars price. This is completely false. The upgrade dates and contract end dates are two different things. When you sign a contract with AT&T, you would sign a two years contract, normally. After 18 months of the day you signed, you would be eligible to buy any phone at discounted price. What AT&T is doing is pulling your eligibility date early by 6 months. Long story short, if your eligibility date was 12/31/2010 or earlier, then you are guaranteed to get iphone 4 at discounted price. If your eligibility date is 1/1/2011 or later, then sorry. Might as well as wait for iphone 5 or something else.
2. Some people say, "Oh, I was eligible on Feb. 2011 and now I am eligible. Why? I am confused."
Consider yourself lucky. This is most likely because of your plan. If you spend more than 99 dollars or higher on your line, (NOT any of your 9.99 dollars plans, but primary line that is associated with 99 dollars or higher.) then you are allowed to get it for 199/299 dollars. Normally, AT&T allows these customers as people who spend more money than others, so they allow upgrade every year. So, since AT&T pulled off 6 months earlier for everyone, there is a strong chance that you will be eligible.
3. Some people say, "I pay 105 dollars, and I am not eligible. Why not?" Because you are not paying 105 dollars to AT&T. You are probably paying 80 dollars. The rest is a tax. Just in case you have not noticed, you live in America and we have taxes here.
That's why. Stop whining please.
4. If you already own iphone 3GS, then some people might not be eligible for an upgrade because of various reasons. However, I don't understand why people are bitching about 499 dollars. If you sell your god damn iphone 3GS, you will get at least 300 dollars off ebay. So, you can use that money to cut your cost on iphone 4.
5. Finally, all of these upgrade eligibility dates are off for those of you who do not pay bills on time. If you have your lines cut off many times, or if you have not been paying on time, then sorry. But, if I were AT&T, I would not want you to upgrade early. I have seen people always pay late with bunch of excuses. If you are one of them, then all of these early upgrades won't work at all for you. AT&T always keep a record of everything.
PS: This is why I am staying with AT&T for now because they are nice with customers on getting latest handsets. I cannot ever imagine verizon do this for their customers. I had them long time ago, but I switched because of their lack of phones and customer service.
I understand AT&T might be up to something with this early upgrade policy to make up for their criticism on network. (Or it could be CDMA iphone who knows?) But, all of these are speculations.
1. A lot of websites like Cnet and others are reporting that if your contract ends in 2010, you will be eligible for 199/299 dollars price. This is completely false. The upgrade dates and contract end dates are two different things. When you sign a contract with AT&T, you would sign a two years contract, normally. After 18 months of the day you signed, you would be eligible to buy any phone at discounted price. What AT&T is doing is pulling your eligibility date early by 6 months. Long story short, if your eligibility date was 12/31/2010 or earlier, then you are guaranteed to get iphone 4 at discounted price. If your eligibility date is 1/1/2011 or later, then sorry. Might as well as wait for iphone 5 or something else.
2. Some people say, "Oh, I was eligible on Feb. 2011 and now I am eligible. Why? I am confused."
Consider yourself lucky. This is most likely because of your plan. If you spend more than 99 dollars or higher on your line, (NOT any of your 9.99 dollars plans, but primary line that is associated with 99 dollars or higher.) then you are allowed to get it for 199/299 dollars. Normally, AT&T allows these customers as people who spend more money than others, so they allow upgrade every year. So, since AT&T pulled off 6 months earlier for everyone, there is a strong chance that you will be eligible.
3. Some people say, "I pay 105 dollars, and I am not eligible. Why not?" Because you are not paying 105 dollars to AT&T. You are probably paying 80 dollars. The rest is a tax. Just in case you have not noticed, you live in America and we have taxes here.
That's why. Stop whining please.
4. If you already own iphone 3GS, then some people might not be eligible for an upgrade because of various reasons. However, I don't understand why people are bitching about 499 dollars. If you sell your god damn iphone 3GS, you will get at least 300 dollars off ebay. So, you can use that money to cut your cost on iphone 4.
5. Finally, all of these upgrade eligibility dates are off for those of you who do not pay bills on time. If you have your lines cut off many times, or if you have not been paying on time, then sorry. But, if I were AT&T, I would not want you to upgrade early. I have seen people always pay late with bunch of excuses. If you are one of them, then all of these early upgrades won't work at all for you. AT&T always keep a record of everything.
PS: This is why I am staying with AT&T for now because they are nice with customers on getting latest handsets. I cannot ever imagine verizon do this for their customers. I had them long time ago, but I switched because of their lack of phones and customer service.
I understand AT&T might be up to something with this early upgrade policy to make up for their criticism on network. (Or it could be CDMA iphone who knows?) But, all of these are speculations.
