AppleInsider StaffAT&T has spent $50 million to beef up its relatively slow wireless network in anticipation of next week's well-hyped iPhone debut, but any customer who isn't wowed by the new gadget will find it costly to cancel the service, reports Boston.com.
Even though Apple's $499 and $599 iPhones are not subsidized items, AT&T still plans to charge a $175 termination fee for users who want to break their two-year contracts.
The early termination fee is "a little odd," said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of JupiterResearch in New York. At the same time, however, the analyst doesn't believe it will be an issue for most consumers.
Gartenberg added that AT&T's termination fee is likely a bid to boost its revenues by raising the bar for cancellation and hanging onto these affluent customers as long as possible.
AT&T has not yet said how it will handle, or what it plans to charge, customers under existing contracts who want to upgrade to iPhone early.
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116 Comments
I don't mean to be naive, but are we 100% sure that is legal?
What are we getting for the $175 concession (should we choose to cancel)?
Boy AT&T is giving us bad news before they give us any good news.
Hrm...does this sounds like a *bad* deal to anyone else?
$500 phone, 2 year contract with *very* expensive data plan, $175 fee with breach of contract, bad service with AT&T, and no replaceable battery in the device?
It sounds like if you sign up AT&T has you by the balls.
It's BS, but atleast it isn't the 500 bucks you had to pay a few years back. I'm sure there's a penalty for breaking a contract with anyone.
Isn't $175 their normal contract cancellation fee? If I were to get a 1 year contract with a free phone, I think this is the amount of money I would still have to pay to get out of that contract. This does't seem to be news.