Roger Fingas
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.
Christine McKee
Andrew O'Hara
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Charles Martin
25 Comments
A race to the top, who can gouge their customers the most!
So, besides the "because we can" excuse, why are mobile prices so high?
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 cell service providers remain the absolute worst thing about owning an iPhone.
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..