How on Earth have Verizon and AT&T both decided to kill off their upgrade discount programs within a few days of each other? Hard to say, but we've gotten a little peek at some new policies designed to "streamline" things that are apparently coming into effect next Sunday, January 23rd -- and very few (if any) of them are going to bring a smile to your face. Here's the gist:
There'll be a new text package of 1,000 messages for $10 with overage at 10 cents apiece. This compares to 5 cents at the 1,500 / $15 level and 10 cents at the 200 / $5 level.
Speaking of those other text packages, they're going away. Both the 200 and 1,500 text plans are goners. Obviously, if you're already on them, you shouldn't be affected -- you just won't be able to select them for new plans or changes anymore.
Early upgrade pricing on new iPhones -- the standard subsidized price plus $200 -- will only be available six months into an existing iPhone activation.
$50 and $100 discounts on top of subsidized pricing for upgrading customers -- similar to Verizon's recently-killed New Every Two program -- are going away. If you're currently eligible, you'll still be eligible to take advantage through July 23rd of this year.
Family plan add-a-line activation is increasing $10 to $36.
International voice roaming prices are changing in 117 countries. That's a lot of countries! We're assuming most of those rates are going up, not down, though we don't have details at this point.
Calling to Canada is going from 29 cents per minute to 39 cents.
The 3G MicroCell is increasing in price from $149.99 to $199.99, which seems like a really bizarre move to us -- hard to say what the motivation is there. Certain "pre-selected" customers will still receive special discount offers for it in the mail, though.
Check out full details on the changes in the gallery below.
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
AT&T tweaking messaging plans, killing some upgrade discounts, raising fees and MicroCell pricing
