Have A "Cheap" iPhone 3G Plan? Don't Expect A "Cheap" iPhone 3G S Upgrade.
“We’re now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18,” AT&T writes. But don’t be fooled, that’s far from everyone.
If you read a few lines above you’ll see “For example, iPhone customers who spend more than $99 a month per line with us generally are eligible for an upgrade between 12 and 18 months into their contract.” As an iPhone 3G AT&T customer, I decided to check my eligibility using “check eligibility” tool on Apple’s website. The date I’m eligible for the upgrade according to that site is December 12, 2009 — well outside the July, August or September rule. I bought the iPhone 3G on day one, so why am I not eligible? Because I’m not paying enough — by 33 cents, apparently.
My monthly bill is $98.67.
But look at the wording from AT&T again. If those paying more than $99 a month are eligible for upgrades after between 12 and 18 months, I would assume those paying $100 are towards the 18 month part of that window, while those much paying much more are closer to the 12 month line.
So this is just a guess, but if my $98.67 isn’t eligible until December under the old rules, I would imagine you’ll have to have a monthly bill in something like the $120 or above range to hit the September window needed to trigger the fully subsidized iPhone 3G S price.
The new upgrade prices will go into effect tomorrow on AT&T’s eligibility tool, so we’ll know for sure then. But when that happens I fully suspect I’ll see my iPhone 3G S offer to be the same $399 or $499 as it is today. And if you’re on the lowest iPhone 3G plan, you can expect the same.
I completely understand why I wasn’t originally eligible for the subsidy (that’s how it works, AT&T subsidized my phone last year over the course of a two year deal), but I don’t like this new arbitrary pricing cut-off at customers with $99 a month contracts or higher. All AT&T iPhone plans are expensive — to the point where AT&T is trying to find a way to bring them down a bit.
I thought that it would be in AT&T’s best interest to offer all iPhone 3G early adopters a fully subsidized iPhone 3G S simply because it would lock us in for another 2 years of expensive monthly service. That’s something AT&T shouldn’t pass up given the rumors swirling about the company losing its iPhone exclusivity after next year. But now, for many users still not eligible for the iPhone 3G S full subsidy, who likely won’t upgrade, they’ll be free to do as they wish next year. Including leave AT&T.