AT&T hikes smartphone activation & upgrade fee to $20, matching Verizon

AppleInsider

AT&T has quietly raised its smartphone activation and upgrade fee from $15 to $20, matching a similar fee imposed by Verizon earlier this week.

AT&T updated its fees document on April 6, according to Droid Life, making the change effective immediately. For people upgrading, the fee applies to both Next plans and paying full device cost.

Still intact is a $45 fee associated with two-year contracts, although like other major U.S. carriers the company is steering customers towards monthly installments or outright device purchases wherever possible.

AT&T has not offered an explanation for the price hike. AT&T and Verizon are however the two largest carriers in the U.S., leaving little competitive cost if they match each other's fees.

As of this week, T-Mobile is now the only major U.S. carrier without an activation or upgrade fee. Sprint can in fact charge up to $36.

rhinotuff

A race to the top, who can gouge their customers the most!

ceek74

So, besides the "because we can" excuse, why are mobile prices so high?

lkrupp

Enough with the fake outrage. For every AT&T hater there’s a corresponding Verizon hater, Sprint hater, T-Mobile hater, whatever hater. For every Fandroid Lemming there’s an Apple Sheep. Fort every Ford hater there’s a GM hater, Dodge hater, Tesla hater. Does it feel good to vent your impotence on a public forum? One bozo on another website called for the nationalization of the mobile industry. Really? Who would want that?

spamsandwich

The cell service providers remain the absolute worst thing about owning an iPhone.

wood1208

Monkey See, Monkey Do. I am a AT&T customer but we should thank T-Mobile to keep lid on rest of carriers to continue gouging pricing. If constant customer churning is an administrative cost than they should charge such fee upfront and return it by spreading over months. Hope AT&T don't charge if I upgrade my phone buying full price and jut swap the SIM to new one because there is no cost to AT&T..

larrya

It will be $45 again in no time. Seriously considering a return to flip phones. 

icoco3

Time for the Apple Wireless Network. 

edited April 2016

mnbob1

I have been an AT&T customer since 1999. Shortly after that they changed the name to Cingular for whatever reason (regulatory?) and then back to AT&T. In that time I've seen a lot of fee and plan changes but have been pretty happy for the most part. The thing about this fee increase though is that is was done to match their larger competitor. Not for an edge up on the competition by decreasing it or keeping it lower. 

Verizon and AT&T are the top dogs and don't seem to be concerned about T-Mobile and to a lesser extent Sprint. Two years ago I tried out my same iPhone model on T-Mobile at home but there was no signal. Earlier this month I did another test (thank you T-Mobile for being so willing to allow me to do this) and I had a much stronger and clearer LTE signal than AT&T. I'm considering switching to t-mobile when my contract comes up with AT&T or when t-mobile runs another buy out special. 

Having a teenager on my plan kills me with music and video streaming. My 30gb on AT&T are gone in 20 days. T-Mobile plans have streaming for free. 

mnbob1

lkrupp said:

Enough with the fake outrage. For every AT&T hater there’s a corresponding Verizon hater, Sprint hater, T-Mobile hater, whatever hater. For every Fandroid Lemming there’s an Apple Sheep. Fort every Ford hater there’s a GM hater, Dodge hater, Tesla hater. Does it feel good to vent your impotence on a public forum? One bozo on another website called for the nationalization of the mobile industry. Really? Who would want that?

The thing about this fee increase though is that is was done to match their larger competitor. Not for an edge up on the competition by decreasing it or keeping it lower. 

joe28753

Everyone else is asking why the fee is increasing. I'm sitting here wondering why there's a fee at all. Isn't that why you pay them every month for service? That should cover all the associated costs of having the account. If anything, they should give me the $20 as an incentive for choosing them. Like a sign-on bonus or yearly bonus you'd get for sticking with an employer. Just seems so backwards to me.

edited April 2016

pacificfilm

lkrupp said:

Enough with the fake outrage. For every AT&T hater there’s a corresponding Verizon hater, Sprint hater, T-Mobile hater, whatever hater. For every Fandroid Lemming there’s an Apple Sheep. Fort every Ford hater there’s a GM hater, Dodge hater, Tesla hater. Does it feel good to vent your impotence on a public forum? One bozo on another website called for the nationalization of the mobile industry. Really? Who would want that?

and one could say to you......Does it feel good to vent your impotence on a public forum?

regurgitatedcoprolite

SpamSandwich said:

The cell service providers remain the absolute worst thing about owning an iPhone.

Amen to that! We've been AT&T customers for a very long time, back when they were AT&T before they changed to Cingular then back to AT&T, and ever since. Overall, customer service at our local AT&T store is abysmal - the staff seem to hate iPhones and their customers who have iPhones. I guarantee if one were to go into this store asking about buying a smartphone, the staff would steer him straight to some fake iPhone. This local store has the iPhone display as far away from the front door as possible. 

Our cell signal at our home is terrible! Every single time I make a call / receive a call at home, even if I'm outside in our front yard, calls drop ALL THE TIME. It is annoying, especially considering how much we pay the buggers for our service.

jostermacedo

Why do people still use those big wireless carriers who do these type of overcharges? I recently immigrated to the US and went shopping for a wireless carrier. I did quote both AT&T and Verizon. Since I did not had a credit history, Verizon asked for a USD 1,000 deposit (yes, right!). At the end I got my service with Cricket (which I know is part of AT&T), but no hidden fees and no additional taxes. I pay USD 100 a month for 5 lines (son, daughter, wife, myself and my ipad) for 2.5GB data each. I can increase to 5GB each for USD 140. I could not find a better deal anywhere else. So, why use a post-paid service, which charges more with no additional benefits? I could understand in the past when you could buy an iPhone for a subsidized price, but now they charge even more to change your phone. Is there some advantage I'm missing?

Joster

jcs2305

lkrupp said:

Enough with the fake outrage. For every AT&T hater there’s a corresponding Verizon hater, Sprint hater, T-Mobile hater, whatever hater. For every Fandroid Lemming there’s an Apple Sheep. Fort every Ford hater there’s a GM hater, Dodge hater, Tesla hater. Does it feel good to vent your impotence on a public forum? One bozo on another website called for the nationalization of the mobile industry. Really? Who would want that?

Please tell me your post is a joke...   

jcs2305

mnbob1 said:

I have been an AT&T customer since 1999. Shortly after that they changed the name to Cingular for whatever reason (regulatory?) and then back to AT&T. In that time I've seen a lot of fee and plan changes but have been pretty happy for the most part. The thing about this fee increase though is that is was done to match their larger competitor. Not for an edge up on the competition by decreasing it or keeping it lower. 

Verizon and AT&T are the top dogs and don't seem to be concerned about T-Mobile and to a lesser extent Sprint. Two years ago I tried out my same iPhone model on T-Mobile at home but there was no signal. Earlier this month I did another test (thank you T-Mobile for being so willing to allow me to do this) and I had a much stronger and clearer LTE signal than AT&T. I'm considering switching to t-mobile when my contract comes up with AT&T or when t-mobile runs another buy out special. 

Having a teenager on my plan kills me with music and video streaming. My 30gb on AT&T are gone in 20 days. T-Mobile plans have streaming for free. 

These type of posts confuse me.. Does your teenager not have access to Wifi? I also have a teenager on my plan. He has been made fully aware that his phone is not on the $0.00 plan it costs money and he doesn't make the payments so my rules apply.  When he is at home..wifi...at his girlfriends he's on wifi ...etc in places that wifi is applicable.  Maybe Wifi assist is eating through your data? 

seankill

mnbob1 said:

I have been an AT&T customer since 1999. Shortly after that they changed the name to Cingular for whatever reason (regulatory?) and then back to AT&T. In that time I've seen a lot of fee and plan changes but have been pretty happy for the most part. The thing about this fee increase though is that is was done to match their larger competitor. Not for an edge up on the competition by decreasing it or keeping it lower. 

Verizon and AT&T are the top dogs and don't seem to be concerned about T-Mobile and to a lesser extent Sprint. Two years ago I tried out my same iPhone model on T-Mobile at home but there was no signal. Earlier this month I did another test (thank you T-Mobile for being so willing to allow me to do this) and I had a much stronger and clearer LTE signal than AT&T. I'm considering switching to t-mobile when my contract comes up with AT&T or when t-mobile runs another buy out special. 

Having a teenager on my plan kills me with music and video streaming. My 30gb on AT&T are gone in 20 days. T-Mobile plans have streaming for free. 

jcs2305 said:

mnbob1 said:

I have been an AT&T customer since 1999. Shortly after that they changed the name to Cingular for whatever reason (regulatory?) and then back to AT&T. In that time I've seen a lot of fee and plan changes but have been pretty happy for the most part. The thing about this fee increase though is that is was done to match their larger competitor. Not for an edge up on the competition by decreasing it or keeping it lower. 

Verizon and AT&T are the top dogs and don't seem to be concerned about T-Mobile and to a lesser extent Sprint. Two years ago I tried out my same iPhone model on T-Mobile at home but there was no signal. Earlier this month I did another test (thank you T-Mobile for being so willing to allow me to do this) and I had a much stronger and clearer LTE signal than AT&T. I'm considering switching to t-mobile when my contract comes up with AT&T or when t-mobile runs another buy out special. 

Having a teenager on my plan kills me with music and video streaming. My 30gb on AT&T are gone in 20 days. T-Mobile plans have streaming for free. 

These type of posts confuse me.. Does your teenager not have access to Wifi? I also have a teenager on my plan. He has been made fully aware that his phone is not on the $0.00 plan it costs money and he doesn't make the payments so my rules apply.  When he is at home..wifi...at his girlfriends he's on wifi ...etc in places that wifi is applicable.  Maybe Wifi assist is eating through your data? 

I agree with mnbob1, I don't yet have kids but if I had one right now and he was using 30GB up in 20 days.... I would turn his data off every month after 5GB. My wife and I barely use 5-7GB between us a month. We lean heavily on Wifi when possible and avoid video streaming on AT&T. Sounds like a lot of video streaming.

edited April 2016

sirlance99

jostermacedo said:

Why do people still use those big wireless carriers who do these type of overcharges? I recently immigrated to the US and went shopping for a wireless carrier. I did quote both AT&T and Verizon. Since I did not had a credit history, Verizon asked for a USD 1,000 deposit (yes, right!). At the end I got my service with Cricket (which I know is part of AT&T), but no hidden fees and no additional taxes. I pay USD 100 a month for 5 lines (son, daughter, wife, myself and my ipad) for 2.5GB data each. I can increase to 5GB each for USD 140. I could not find a better deal anywhere else. So, why use a post-paid service, which charges more with no additional benefits? I could understand in the past when you could buy an iPhone for a subsidized price, but now they charge even more to change your phone. Is there some advantage I'm missing?

Joster

Try traveling across the country and tell me how that Cricket service works. It won't.  Unless you live inside a major city's limits, Cricket and others like them don't work at all. 

boltsfan17

sirlance99 said:

jostermacedo said:

Why do people still use those big wireless carriers who do these type of overcharges? I recently immigrated to the US and went shopping for a wireless carrier. I did quote both AT&T and Verizon. Since I did not had a credit history, Verizon asked for a USD 1,000 deposit (yes, right!). At the end I got my service with Cricket (which I know is part of AT&T), but no hidden fees and no additional taxes. I pay USD 100 a month for 5 lines (son, daughter, wife, myself and my ipad) for 2.5GB data each. I can increase to 5GB each for USD 140. I could not find a better deal anywhere else. So, why use a post-paid service, which charges more with no additional benefits? I could understand in the past when you could buy an iPhone for a subsidized price, but now they charge even more to change your phone. Is there some advantage I'm missing?

Joster

Try traveling across the country and tell me how that Cricket service works. It won't.  Unless you live inside a major city's limits, Cricket and others like them don't work at all. 

Why wouldn't it work? Cricket is using AT&T's network. 

jostermacedo

sirlance99 said:

jostermacedo said:

Why do people still use those big wireless carriers who do these type of overcharges? I recently immigrated to the US and went shopping for a wireless carrier. I did quote both AT&T and Verizon. Since I did not had a credit history, Verizon asked for a USD 1,000 deposit (yes, right!). At the end I got my service with Cricket (which I know is part of AT&T), but no hidden fees and no additional taxes. I pay USD 100 a month for 5 lines (son, daughter, wife, myself and my ipad) for 2.5GB data each. I can increase to 5GB each for USD 140. I could not find a better deal anywhere else. So, why use a post-paid service, which charges more with no additional benefits? I could understand in the past when you could buy an iPhone for a subsidized price, but now they charge even more to change your phone. Is there some advantage I'm missing?

Joster

Try traveling across the country and tell me how that Cricket service works. It won't.  Unless you live inside a major city's limits, Cricket and others like them don't work at all. 

So far it has worked flawlessly. Even in Canada with no roaming charges...

emsmedic

lkrupp said:

Enough with the fake outrage. For every AT&T hater there’s a corresponding Verizon hater, Sprint hater, T-Mobile hater, whatever hater. For every Fandroid Lemming there’s an Apple Sheep. Fort every Ford hater there’s a GM hater, Dodge hater, Tesla hater. Does it feel good to vent your impotence on a public forum? One bozo on another website called for the nationalization of the mobile industry. Really? Who would want that?

I agree with the "this company is better than them" wars. But I strongly disagree with any company capitalizing on the consumer whome they need to stay in business. But it is not surprise as every company in the U.S. Gouges the American people. The big difference is, talk is cheap, unless enough people leave such company only then will that company rethink its strategy. This however is unlikely as people are too loyal. Even with metro PCS being so cheap, they too will jump on the band wagon once they get enough customers. because everyone else is doing it.  Even though the FTC tries to regulate fairness they do more harm than good.