Apple Online Store stops offering iPhone with 2-year AT&T contract
Apple removed the option to buy an AT&T iPhone on a two-year contract from its online store on Thursday night, reflecting AT&T's wider shift away from two-year contracts.
Shoppers wanting to go with AT&T at the Apple Online Store must instead pick up an iPhone through Next, the carrier's upgrade program. Although there's no required down payment, Next customers must make monthly payments for 12, 18, or 24 months on top of the cost of a voice and data plan.
A 16-gigabyte iPhone 6, for instance, starts at $21.64 a month. The lowest rate for a 128-gigabyte 6 Plus is $31.64.
People wanting to avoid Next can still do so by buying an unlocked phone, or by going through AT&T's website or retail stores, where the older pricing scheme is still an option, if no longer the default. Rival carriers Sprint and Verizon are continuing to offer subsidized contracts through Apple, despite having their own upgrade programs. Apple is only offering T-Mobile models at full unlocked price or through the carrier's Jump upgrade plan.
Two-year iPhone contracts have typically required carriers to pay high subsidies, sometimes to the point of losing money on the hardware in the hope of recouping the cost through service fees.
Shoppers wanting to go with AT&T at the Apple Online Store must instead pick up an iPhone through Next, the carrier's upgrade program. Although there's no required down payment, Next customers must make monthly payments for 12, 18, or 24 months on top of the cost of a voice and data plan.
A 16-gigabyte iPhone 6, for instance, starts at $21.64 a month. The lowest rate for a 128-gigabyte 6 Plus is $31.64.
People wanting to avoid Next can still do so by buying an unlocked phone, or by going through AT&T's website or retail stores, where the older pricing scheme is still an option, if no longer the default. Rival carriers Sprint and Verizon are continuing to offer subsidized contracts through Apple, despite having their own upgrade programs. Apple is only offering T-Mobile models at full unlocked price or through the carrier's Jump upgrade plan.
Two-year iPhone contracts have typically required carriers to pay high subsidies, sometimes to the point of losing money on the hardware in the hope of recouping the cost through service fees.
Comments
My habit has been to purchase at the 2-year contract price, and then immediately buy out the contract for $325. That works to about $150 less than the non-contract price. Can you buy out a Next contract immediately too?
As soon as you buy out the contract, you get the $25/month non-contract discount, per phone. Doing that, makes AT&T quite competitive.
I still can't find any info about the trade in upgrade policy. I don't want to trade in my phone at the end of the contract. I want to keep it to use internationally and eventually hand it down to family member or friend.
I mean lower than what I am paying now with a two-year contract. Seems that people who are paying for their phone outright, or through a payment plan, should pay a lower rate because they are paying for the phone themselves rather than the carrier subsidizing the cost of the phone with inflated data and voice plans.
Yes,
Are the prices of their voice and data plans lower if you finance a new phone purchase with Next? If not, this is not a very good deal. I am going to have their service for the next 2 years regardless of whether I have the contract or not. I think I will be switching to T-Mobile once AT&T gets rid of the 2-year contract upgrades.
Yes, depending on what share plan you are on, it could be $25 lower for each line access fee (40 on contract, 15 on NEXT with 10GB/mo and up data)
I may switch to T-Mobile anyways next year as their plans seem to be cheaper anyways (at first glance, at least)
Are the prices of their voice and data plans lower if you finance a new phone purchase with Next? If not, this is not a very good deal. I am going to have their service for the next 2 years regardless of whether I have the contract or not. I think I will be switching to T-Mobile once AT&T gets rid of the 2-year contract upgrades.
Yes. Service prices are lower on non contract phones. Whether you buy the phone through the Next service or own it already.
The basic monthly fee on contract is $40 per line plus your data.
On a non-contract phone it is $15-$25 per line plus your data. $15 for 10GB or greater data plans, and $25 for less than 10GB data plans.
If you have a 10GB data plan, your overall cost (phone plus service fee/data) is about $190 less in 24 months than buying on contract.
I still can't find any info about the trade in upgrade policy. I don't want to trade in my phone at the end of the contract. I want to keep it to use internationally and eventually hand it down to family member or friend.
What do you mean? If you don't want to trade it in, you don't have to. You keep the phone at the end of the installment term.
Not lower until you own the phone out right.
Not true. The service fees are lower immediately. But you have to pay the installment loan monthly payment which makes it about the same.
The totally opaque pricing is obnoxious (though not unexpected from cell service providers). Love the "From"... idiocy. why not just list the damn prices?
They do once you choose which phone you want. It all depends on which phone and term you choose. The "from:..." just shows the minimum it would be and you have to choose your options before it can tell you the complete amount.
Next: The AT&T logo appears on the iPhone along with preloaded trialware that AT&T got paid to preinstall... it's how AT&T provides "value."
I sure hope you're being facetious. I've been with Cingular/AT&T my entire adult life, I really don't want to have to pull up stakes...
Some upgrade plans require you to trade it in to get the discount
No upgrade plan requires you to trade in to get "the discount" on your monthly service fees.
Next12 allows you to trade in after 12 months if you want but you can carry it to the complete 18 month term and keep the phone if you want. Either way you get the discounted service fees immediately.
Next18 is the same but trade in after 18 months and full term of 24 months.
Next24 is the same but trade in after 24 months and full term of 30 months. (30 months on a phone????)
Yes,
Yes, depending on what share plan you are on, it could be $25 lower for each line access fee (40 on contract, 15 on NEXT with 10GB/mo and up data)
I may switch to T-Mobile anyways next year as their plans seem to be cheaper anyways (at first glance, at least)
I dunno. I am paying AT&T $87/month for 2 iPhone 6, non-contract w/7GB of data between them (incl 26% discount through wife's employer). T-Mobile will be hard pressed to beat that. They can get close, but there's that coverage thing again.
Hence not lower as I mentioned until you own it and don't upgrade again.
You "own" the phone immediately and your service fees are lower. Immediately.
Your overall monthly outgo will be about the same as you have to pay off your phone loan. But your service fees are lower. They are two different things you are paying for.