AT&T early-termination fee nearly doubling for iPhone
 

Following the lead of rival Verizon Wireless, AT&T says it will raise the penalty for canceling your new two-year smartphone contract early to $325, starting June 1 — and yes, that includes the iPhone.

AT&T early-termination fee nearly doubling for iPhone, other smartphones - Yahoo! News

greed

Trying to lock their customers in for the remainder of the contract so they don't bail to android platform phones... Doesn't ATT have all smartphone platforms except for android? (iphone, pre, windows mobile, blackberry)

If they do that, they should be like O2 in the UK and unlock your iphone provided you pay out your contract.

Doesn't bother me that I'd be tied into 2-year contract. AT&T service suits me just fine. It does mean that I might skip the 5th gen model (assuming that comes out next summer).

In the last year, AT&T have unlocked two phones for me that were out of contract. Neither was an iPhone though. I will probably attempt to get them to unlock my current iPhone 3G when I upgrade to the 4th gen model.

consistent dropped calls = breach of contract for service.. done.. :)

:iagree: But proving that may be a problem.....:dunno:

easy... they have logged my dropped calls.. it even happend 3-4 times calling 611 on single conversation..

If its an iphone I am pretty sure it shows a log of dropped calls in the phone. I know when I went to Apple and complained about the amount of dropped calls the genius hooked up my iphone to a mac and without hesitation gave me a replacement phone. This was for a 1st gen phone. Since the 3G much better service.

Ploy to prevent switching to Verizon iPhone! :)

Didn't work! A friend of mine just paid out his contract termination fees to get out of his ATT iPhone and switched to the HTC incredible on Verison! (after seeing that my moment android phone one ups his iPhone and has better service, he wanted to one up mine :rofl:)

Droid on Sprint > iPhone on ANY network. My phone can do ANYTHING and more than an iPhone can do, and I got it for free. Battery dying, no problem...swap in another and throw the battery on a wall charger. Low on memory...I got a 32GB MicroSD on eBay for $11, shipped!! 4G...software update and it's done, instead of buying another obnoxiously overpriced iPhone. iPhones are for sheep who follow along with what everyone else is buying. Not to mention AT&T is SCREWING those who wanna leave...you asked for it.

Next caller. ;)

The Incredible is pretty cool, but I still need a phone w/ an actual keyboard, hence why I stayed away from iPhones and the HTC Pro or the EVO 4G. Besides, a faster processor doesn't always guarantee a faster phone. The Snapdragon is quick, but about 10 minutes of rooting our phones will get us there just as easily...it's already happening since the EVO 4G software is available for download. Us guys who love to mod anything from cars to phones won't take long :thumbup:

m5james...Don't take it personally..its just a post about at&t..This isn't about your phone is much better then my iphone so at&t sucks...Get a grip..phones are phones, 2yr contracts are what they are...thats it.

I'm not taking it personally at all man, I just saw the writing on the wall. People have been jailbreaking iPhones and using them on other networks for years just to get away from AT&T. The fact that AT&T is doing this is insulting, but it's just business to them because once you're gone, you'll probably never come back. I don't blame them for getting a pound of flesh before people leave in droves.

I was in Reno this weekend and my aunt and cousin were complaining about the service, and I practically started laughing when they told me what they pay a month for service...calls, a data plan, etc. I just think it's funny how people defend their decisions, even if they know it wasn't a wise one. When I told them I pay $100 for unlimited everything shared between two phones, my uncle jumped in and said that he's ditching his BB and the whole family is already planning on dropping AT&T all together. I'll have to warn them about what AT&T is trying to pull on it's "loyal" customers.

Per the article, Sprint (rocks :thumbup:) and T-Mobile still have their ETF's set at $200, which is still too much IMHO. I'm waiting for the day when ETF's starting getting really bad and lawmakers get involved.

What is so hard to understand here? Yes, the ETF was increased for certain smartphones. They were also lowered for non-smartphones. The smartphone is a much more expensive device, so why shouldn't there be a differential in the ETF? Why should someone that is not purchasing a smartphone be saddled with the same ETF as someone that opts to buy a smartphone?

The bottom line is that all U.S. based cellular providers subsidize the consumer purchase of the handset in exchange for agreeing to a 2 year contract. Without the ETF, what is to stop someone from buying a device at a subsidized rate and turning around and canceling the service and selling the device for a nice little profit?

The point of the ETF is to ensure that the cellular provider is able to recoup the handset subsidy over the term of the agreed upon contract. And if you need to terminate early, you know upfront at the time you purchase the device what the ETF is. Further, if you don't like paying an ETF or being locked into a contract, you can purchase an unsubsidized phone and simply pay for service month to month with no contractual obligation. Pretty simple.

Your argument makes no sense. This does not apply to those currently under contract. Only to those entering into a new contract.

Verizon's ETF on smartphones is $350 and AT&T's is $325, so I'm not following you here. Unless you are saying that because AT&T's ETF is lower that it will keep people from switching? :dunno: :popcorn:

Well I paid extra to get out of my T-Mobile contract so I could get an iPhone with AT&T

Haven't looked back...

I absolutely agree, and I understand why they do ETF's. Signing a new 2yr contract is why I got my phone for free, otherwise I would have had to pay $200+ for my phone. I've had two Treo's for years..upgraded and custom ROM's, hacked software, etc so I was happy. Ironically, the only reason why I "upgraded" to a Droid phone is because the speakerphone on my 755p blew 2 days after I cancelled the insurance. Fortunately, since I've been using my Treo's for so long (they always got the job done...stream music and video, internet, IM, apps galore (just not a "store" to find them)), so I had no reason to change. SInce I hadn't changed in so long, I had two $50 credits for each one of my phone lines, then a $100 rebate for buying the Moment and I was out the door w/o spending a dime.

"AT&T says it will raise the penalty for canceling your new two-year smartphone contract early to $325, starting June 1"

The way that I read the story is that they're increasing the ETF amount for both renewing and current owners in an attempt to deter them from leaving to other carries. Maybe we're both right. Either way, as far as I know, I'm still at $200 w/ Sprint, but I have absolutely no reason to leave.

17 Percent of Verizon Customers Would Upgrade to iPhone.

Analyst: Apple iPhone From Verizon Unlikely to Hurt AT&T | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

They're going to be waiting a looooooonnnnngggg time....

It aint gunna happen... :popcorn:

Oh wait there is a prophet among us........:D

The prophet of lost profits...

No, this only applies to new contracts entered into on or after June 1st. All contracts entered into prior to June 1st are subject to the ETF that was agreed to at the time the contract was entered into.

You are ruining the complete corporate-evil-conspiracy theory being put forth by the android fans :thumbup:

The Android OS is certainly a viable competitor to the iPhone OS. But you need to keep in mind that the fundamental reason why Google deployed this technology is to extend its near monopoly powers that is has in the on-line advertising space to the mobile phone space. It wasn't because they felt bad for all of the non-AT&T customers that couldn't get an iPhone.

And Verizon didn't get itself into good graces with Apple with all of the bashing it did on the iPhone when the Droid was launched. So I look for the iPhone to come to Verizon eventually, but don't expect it to be rushed to market all that soon. At least that's how I read the tea leaves.

Google is getting their hands in EVERYTHING to the point that one paranoid friend of mine doesn't even wanna use my phone! His point was that he google searched "google is" and the very first suggestion... from google, is "google is skynet!

Damn skynet phone... always knows where I am and junk... knows what I do and where I go, what I search for, who I call, etc. Google knows more about you than you know about yourself!


(:rofl: had to add to the conspiracy theories :rofl:)

ps: I love my skynet phone! ;)

Great Logic, and works with T-Mobile or Verizon in the US or anyone in the UK. I wish that worked in France, would have saved me a mint.

I think that AT&T should have to unlock the damn iPhones if we either pay ETF or buy an unsubsidized phone to replace one. Question: does this apply to existing lines? I need to cancel the line I started to replace my broken iPhone today then.

I agree. But I think that is just as much an Apple issue as it is AT&T, as I suspect that Apple gets a portion of the data revenue from iPhone accounts that are on AT&T but it doesn't get anything if the device is on the T-Mobile network. So Apple has no incentive to have the device working on any GSM network in the U.S. other than AT&T's

I'm not following your question, sorry.

I already have a line that I created solely to get a new phone at a subsidized price. Am I subject to the new ETF since my contract said 175, or am I grandfathered to the old one?

The unlocking thing is interesting - I'm researching an internship in the UK, and not only will the providers go month to month with an iPhone contract, but also will let you unlock them. hmm....

You will not be subject to the new ETF unless you purchase a device on or after June 1st.

You will be subject to the ETF stated in your contract ($175), and I also think that gets reduced by a certain amount for every month that you were under contract

Hmmm, Googlism. You could join the Church of Google.

» The Church of Google

This comes up on Google in response to "Google is"

As if jacking up ETF's weren't enough, now those who sign up will get less than what other providers offer - AT&T phases out unlimited data plans - Yahoo! News. Why do people stay with AT&T? Sprint is looking better and better each week.