By 
With T-Mobile announcing its new early upgrade options and Verizon expected to do the same sometime next month, AT&T didn’t want to miss out on the fun. The company has announced AT&T Next, some exciting new plan options or those who don’t want to be tethered to the same smartphone for two years. This is quite the undercut, if I do say so myself. Here’s why: you can upgrade every year with no strings attached. That includes:
- No down payment.
- No activation fee.
- No upgrade fee.
- No financing fee.
The customer can trade in the device after 12 months, or they can keep using their device and have no more installment payments after 20 months. Beyond the monthly device installment, there’s no additional monthly fee required to participate in AT&T Next.
Users will also be able to take advantage of the program and keep their plans intact — yes, that also includes those who are still fortunate enough to be rocking unlimited data
It does require trading in your older device if you want to take advantage every year, but that’s a small price to pay when you consider you’ll be up on the latest and greatest devices in mobile tech each and every year. It’s easy to see why all these carriers have switched to 24-month upgrade cycles — they all seemed to have cooked up similar early upgrade schemes just as fast as the next carrier has.
AT&T next launches July 26th nationwide, though the company will begin piloting the program today at select Las Vegas locations, and possibly others as we approach the launch date. Anyone looking to ditch their old smartphone for something new in a week and a half?
Sounds pretty epic. I mean, it’s an ingenious way for AT&T to keep customers locked down, but at the same time, we get the latest and greatest every year. Not bad for those like me who are happy with AT&T, and plan on sticking with them for a long time (even if in the end, it’s more expensive than T-Mobile and JUMP).
It is, and there’s no doubt that AT&T is evil beyond compare but the quality of my actual cell service with them is solid.
Ah, the infamous “Death Star”. BTW, Verizon is just as, if not more evil. mahahaha
I wish T-Mobile Jump didn’t require a down payment like AT&T Next. I hope T-Mobile will adjust Jump to keep it competitive with AT&T.
Do the math and AT&T’s is much more expensive than TMobile’s.
Yeah I know. I spoke with a T-Mobile rep yesterday to get some more info on JUMP. I think they should change it to something like this…
•Initial 10$/month for 6 months for it to become active.
•6 months later, you get a new phone.
•Put down payment on new phone and pay monthly payments.
•6 months later, get a new phone.
•Trade in old phone, no down payment, just pay monthly payments.
Now you might say, well someone would get one of the cheap or even free phones and not have to put down the first initial down payment… Well then they change their down payments even across the board on all devices. $99 doesn’t sound so bad does it?
Think of it as leasing like you do with cars.
Now I wonder, what if you paid off the phone while being a member of JUMP, and you decode to upgrade… Are they still going to ask you for your “old” device???? They better not!
No because when you pay off your device you are free to put the same down payment as a new customer just like before. The reason you trade in the device is for exchange of the remaining balance
That’s probably because you’re not on a contract with Tmo. But with Tmo you don’t have to turn in your old phone if your old phone is already paid off.
Your living on the death star Chris!
Their LTE spans across the far reaches of the galaxy ._.
So does the eye of Sauron… ;) Do you find my lack of faith disturbing? Please don’t choke me Mr. Chavez!
The AT&T Tower in Nashville, aka, the batman building. It would look so much better with that damn blue globe gone….but keep the eye!
Yeap couldn’t agree more, I’m actually quit happy with att, have been with them for about 5 years, still grandfathered into the unlimited data, so best believe I’m not going anywhere lol
Compared to oh say T-Mobile…
ATT does not give you a cheaper plan option if you bring your own unlocked/unsubsidized phone into your plan. You still pay the same monthly payment whether you have an ATT phone or not. Therefore… where is the device installment payment in this pricing structure?
So does this amount to an increase over a subsidized phone? You pay for the phone on top of the plan price instead of the phone price technically rolled into the plan price?
Guess that means sprint should be next with announcing something similar. Maybe sprint premier will be making a return
I hope so, but I hope this time with Family Plans they’ll allow the upgrade on every phone in the plan and not just the primary line.
T-Mobiles program also functions as your insurance plus you get two upgrades a year not one so gotta give the edge to JUMP
Nice nice. I do this anyway, added an extra line to get a new phone every year. Wonder if this will actually save me any money?
Was there anything stated about the condition of your old phone? for example, my galaxy s3 has a broken screen. Does this mean I can trade it in in two weeks and get a galaxy s4 for the new customer price?
now you see why we needed tmobile to stick around by themselves, this is the aftermath of what tmobile is forcing these blood suckers that are Verizon and AT&T, a win win situation for customers.
No fees at AT&T — My ass
Not sure how it works for existing users… How do I sign up for at&t Next? Does it have additional $10 / month fee like the T-Mobile Jump?
Now all of kids can say thanks T Mobile.
There’s no mention of different rate plans vs. subsidized phones. If they don’t do that, it’s essentially paying twice for the phone.
^ this. My current AT&T plan is priced a *lot* higher than a Tmo or Sprint plan to cover my subsidized device.
But I suspect that’s what AT&T (and VZW) will hope, that people just keep their plans as is and then pay an extra $30-50 a month for the phone.
I had the unlimited plan with AT&T and was happy with them. Then I switched to tmobile in May. The grass really is greener on this side.
The whole point of paying full price for phones on T-Mobile was that they lowered the price of the plan to compensate you for paying full price. It came out cheaper than a subsidy in a 24 month period.
At&t and Verizon are charging the SAME price for service. So their installment plans are pointless and only serve to distract their customers from what T-Mobile is doing..
This is actually a pretty decent program if you do the math. According to another site I saw you would pay an estimated total of $32 a month for a Galaxy S4 on AT&T…with no down payment, over 12 months the total would be $384.
By comparison with T-Mobile you would pay $199 down, $10 a month for jump and $20 a month installments on the phone….over that same years time you would pay $559. Six months would be $379
You fail to understand that you are ALREADY paying for the phone with a standard at&t plan. T-mobile subtracts that cost when you buy a phone from them at full price.
Your math is completely wrong because total ownership of phone is plan times number of months plus total cost of phone. Its also not fair to include jump because it is a replacement for insurance NOT additional for many people.
Customers on these major carriers also implementing these changes, owe T-Mobile a huge Thank you for taking the lead caui. Now will they also be dropping their rate plans or high data cost?
All I can say to at&t is when my contract is up I will be going to sprint ,