It looks like more US-based carriers are forced to increase prices of their services. The majority have one thing in common, they have one of Apple's iPhone into their portfolios.
Rumor has it that no carrier that considered itself lucky to offer an iOS smartphone had anything to gain from the deal other than subscribers. Currently, most of these carriers announced huge losses. Some of them already decided to increase costs for some of their services, such as AT&T.
The folks over at
Engadget got their hands on an AT&T internal document, which confirms that the carrier plans to double the upgrade fee starting February 12.
This is rather a marketing move, as more customers are inclined to purchase a new device for their loved ones closer to Valentine's Day.
According to this document,
AT&T customers upgrading to a new device will have to pay an increased $36 fee, rather than the usual $18.
[IMG=2For some this might be outrageous, but the carrier claims that the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased, which is the main reason for this change.
Apparently AT&T felt the need to explain its decision further and sent
Engadget the short explanation that you can read below:
“
Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before. And because of that, the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased and is reflected in our new upgrade fee. This fee isn't unique to AT&T and this is the first time we're changing it in nearly 10 years.”
As bad as it may sound, it's unlikely that a strong negative feedback received from customers will make AT&T change its mind about this cost increase of its
services.
So, if you are one of the many customers who though to upgrade to a new device for this Valentine's Day, you better do it faster if you don't want to pay more.
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