Wife wanting a 6 now--Next or 2-year?

[placidity44]

Third parties no longer offer it, but AT&T themselves still offers contracts.

Thank you for the clarification. Curious as to see how much longer phones will be available via subsidies.

 

[rui no onna]

I t certainly look like things are going in that direction. For me the customer loyalty (staying with one carrier for 2 years), will be out of the window. If I have to pay full price for my iPhone than I'll have no obligation to stay with my carrier and will be able to leave them at will instead of waiting until my contract expires. I guess having customers with a long term commitment are no longer important to cellular providers.

To be honest, the installment pay-off/balance pretty much has the same function as the ETF on 2-year contracts. The fee structure just got changed for a clearer delineation between service fees and device pricing.

Granted, with the switch, AT&T seem to have effectively raised rates for 1-2 line plans.

 

[Small White Car]

And how is that? What did T Mobile do?

They were the first major U.S. carrier to break up the phone-owning half of the contract from the service-having part of the contract. Not everyone does it exactly the same way now, obviously, but no carrier can be competitive if they only offered the draconian contracts of the past. That's over now.

 

[AJsAWiz]

Thank you for the clarification. Curious as to see how much longer phones will be available via subsidies.

Me too

I hope AT&T still offers subsidized pricing when the next wave of iPhones are released.

 

[spacemnspiff]

Not sure if I'm reading your table correctly but it looks like, under the Next plan, it will be 2 years before you pay off your phone in installments. Is that correct?

Good point, I was trying to compare apples to apples for a 24 month period. So the monthly cost that I calculate is based on the 24 month contract and comparable to what the monthly hypothetical cost would be.

 

[lakaiordie]

Me too

I hope AT&T still offers subsidized pricing when the next wave of iPhones are released.

2 weeks ago i was at a corporate store and they were no longer doing that. just Next plans.

 

[C DM]

2 weeks ago i was at a corporate store and they were no longer doing that. just Next plans.

Something isn't right since they are supposed to still offer that themselves. Maybe they won't push that or make it as obvious, but they have to still offer it.

 

[AJsAWiz]

Good point, I was trying to compare apples to apples for a 24 month period. So the monthly cost that I calculate is based on the 24 month contract and comparable to what the monthly hypothetical cost would be.

Okay, I'm sure that you or someone else will correct me if I'm wrong but . . . from what I understand you will be paying full price for an iPhone in 24 installments, which is 2 years. That doesn't sound like a good deal at all to me.

 

[Joe Rossignol]

We're well past the halfway mark of the annual iPhone release cycle -- 9 months in to be exact.

I would personally wait another 3 months and get the next-generation iPhone in September.

Anyways, I buy my iPhones unlocked for full price, but I would get a 2-yr contract over Next if you insist.