AT&T to Offer iPhone 3G at No-Commitment Prices

It seems that AT&T's users will be able to purchase the iPhone 3G from the carrier at no-commitment prices starting with March 26. The mobile phone operator will start offering both the 8GB and the 16GB models, and it is said that it won't ask users to perform the on-site activation previously needed, while the signing of a two-year contract is not a requirement either.

The no-commitment prices that AT&T will make the iPhone 3G available at are $599 for the 8GB model and $699 for the 16GB variant. The news is based on internal AT&T training slides describing the new policies, yet the offer targets only the existing customers of the carrier. At the same time, there is a limit of “one per line,” so those who would like to benefit from the offer will have to provide an active line.

Those who do not have a contract with AT&T already will still have to sign a 2-year service contract agreement to be able to activate the iPhone on the carrier's airwaves. At the same time, the handsets that have been activated for AT&T services will have to be coupled with an iPhone data plan, reports BGR.

AT&T also says at one point in the aforementioned training slides that there will be “no indicator in the billing system” that could show whether a user has already acquired an iPhone at the no-commitment price. Still, the transaction should be viewable from an AT&T store in case the handset has been purchased through AT&T COR, says the carrier.

It is rather interesting to see that the mobile phone carrier is offering the iPhone 3G at no-commitment prices. This might easily point towards the fact that it is considering clearing up its inventory, yet we could only make assumptions on what has driven AT&T to make this move. Maybe a new high-end device will soon be added to its offering or, who knows, the upcoming launch of Palm's Pre is seen as a real challenge.