AT&T to enforce full two-year upgrade cycle


AT&T issued some bad news for those who like to upgrade their phones early, even if just buy a few months.

Today, we're announcing a 24-month upgrade policy across all of AT&T's wireless products and services. This aligns device upgrade eligibility with our standard two-year wireless agreement and it applies to any customer whose agreement expires in March 2014 or later.


Early upgrades are still available, although customers should expect to pay a fee for the privilege. AT&T said after six months customers can qualify for a partial discount off of a full retail price of a new device. Another option is a trade-in program where customers can get a small credit towards a new device.

Eventually it would be nice of U.S.-based carries would uncouple the rate plan from subsidized devices. So, for example, customers can better choose to either pay a lower rate and bring your own device or pay a higher rate that goes towards a two-year device subsidy. As it stands now, those buying their own devices also have to pay full monthly fees with no benefit of a subsidy.