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Mid-contract upgrade on Family Plan dilemma

C

coasterswim

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I'm wondering if anyone has gone through this process and if it's possible.

Our family plan has 5 lines, 1, 2 & 3 are iPhones and 4 & 5 are regular phones. This plot only concerns two lines.
Line #1: My iPhone 3GS purchased June 2009. Contract is up June 2011 and full upgrade-eligible February 2011
Line #2: Other iPhone 3GS purchased February 2010. Contract is up February 2012 and full upgrade-eligible October 2011.

When the new iPhone is announced tomorrow, I planned on doing a mid-contract upgrade on my Line (#1) which would be at the (assumed) $399 and $499 price points. AT&T's site says:
As a valued AT&T customer, we can offer you a discounted iPhone upgrade at a reduced discount, along with a 2-year commitment. You may qualify for a full discount on a standard iPhone upgrade on 02/20/2011
Click to expand...
Line #2 gets the same message, but of course has an October 2011 date quoted. Rather than push Line #1's competition dates out a year each, it would be smarter to buy my new iPhone with Line #2's semi-eligibility (same prices, of course), but that contract would only be extended by 4 months.

In regular phones, this wouldn't be an issue: buy the upgrade for Line #2, when the phone arrives, put my old full SIM card into the new phone and give the SIM card that arrived with the new phone to Line #2's old phone. However, the new iPhone will most likely have a Micro SIM which means we can't just do the SIM swap.

Has anyone ever done a transaction like this where AT&T allows you to order the phone for Line #2 but have the new SIM card be programmed for Line #1's phone number? Alternatively, do you think it will be possible for me to trade my full SIM for a Micro SIM after the new iPhone arrives?

Thanks in advance!
 
You would be able to cancel that line 1 earlier, then, but line 2 will still be for 2 years from when you buy it. Therefore, it really doesn't matter, since you can't cancel your ATT account for 2 years from your purchase date anyways.
 
But doing so this way, my Line #1 will be eligible for a fully discounted upgrade June 2011 when the next iPhone comes out. Otherwise, it would still be semi-eligible.
 
coasterswim said:
But doing so this way, my Line #1 will be eligible for a fully discounted upgrade June 2011 when the next iPhone comes out. Otherwise, it would still be semi-eligible.
Click to expand...

Your line #1 is eligible Feb2011, you said line 2 is June2011, so it really doesn't matter which you upgrade, since you will get a full upgrade on either next year if an iPhone comes out in june.
 
shamash said:
Your line #1 is eligible Feb2011, you said line 2 is June2011, so it really doesn't matter which you upgrade, since you will get a full upgrade on either next year if an iPhone comes out in june.
Click to expand...

But if I upgrade my Line #1 right now for the new iPhone, Line #1 then won't be fully upgrade-eligible until Feb 2012. Since Line #2 already doesn't get fully upgrade-eligible until October 2011, pushing it back to Feb 2012 is only a 4-month penalty as opposed to the 12-month penalty for Line #1.
 
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