AT&T revealed its Next plans which appears to be in response to the T-Mobile Jump! today. The plan further confuses the phone buying process by breaking up the price into monthly payments. The plans let users upgrade early and are not the best plans for everyone. AT&T Next will become available on July 26.
The bargain will come when all the year-old phones are returned for a new ones. If the previously used phones are great it number, the price of used smartphones will go down. Some analysts are saying that the plan is expensive because the monthly cost of the line of service are the same as subsidized service and you wind up paying for the phone twice.
With AT&T Next, customers buy a smartphone or tablet by the installment plan. After 12 payments, they can trade it in and upgrade to a brand new device or they can keep using their device and have no more payments after 20 months.
The interest-free monthly device installments cost from $15 to $50, depending on the model. The example they give is the Samsung Galaxy S4 for $32 a month, which will cost $384 for one year or $640 for 2o months. The costs of the phone lines of service remain the same as before.
In the case of the iPhone for $32.50 per month vs $199 with a subsidized contract. After six months when you've pad $195.00 your paying more for the iPhone and still paying the subsidy in monthly service and you have to trade-in the phone when you upgrade. Often you get up to$180 for a used iPhone that helps pay for the next one, which you can't do with this option. Android smartphones tend to have a lower resale value.
Other AT&T Next options include:
- Early upgrades – eligible for partial discount after six months or more of a two-year agreement.
- Share an upgrade – with another person on your account within the same device category.
- Trade-in program is required to upgrade after 12 payments.
- No-commitment pricing – purchase at full retail price without a two-year service commitment
AT&T Next is available for new AT&T customers or existing customers who are upgrade eligible.
We are working on a spreadsheet to compare the Next plans to the Jump! early upgrade plan, which by its nature of a lower monthly payment will be less expensive. The lowest pay up front for your iPhone 5 plan, however, is still Virgin Mobile.