I've had a 2 year contract on ATT. My full upgrade eligibility is in April, 2016. Would I still get that discount after January 8, when ATT contracts are discontinued? Could I use it in the fall/winter, when the iPhone 7 is rumored to come out?
@powerdog: Hi Powerdog. I likewise am an AT&T customer. To tell you the truth, I think your best answer would be to call 611 from your mobile. However, I would venture to say that the end of their "offering" 2 year contracts does not imply they are letting everyone out of them. Example: When a restaurant puts up their "Closed" sign, they don't kick out everybody that is still eating. They merely lock the doors to prevent others from entering and then unlock the doors as customers leave. (Or, they have a door mechanism that allows departures but not entrants.) The "Next" program with AT&T is an interesting one. Even before the phone is paid off (via monthly installments), after you've paid about 3/4ths of the payments, they allow you to turn in the phone and get a new one and start a new payment period. For me, I'd just as well buy it outright even though that really doesn't have any benefits.
It will be interesting to hear what 611 tells you. I think they had to lower their voice, text and data rates so low to stay competitive, I doubt they can subsidize the cost of an iPhone now. I pay $90 a month (before tax) for two phones with unlimited voice and text and 6GB of shared data (it was 3GB of shared data before they gave me the free boost to 6GB)
I wonder if the discount shown for my next phone will disappear from my account page on the 8th. I have a partial subsidy now. I guess I'll call.
FYI, I decided to just wait and check my ATT page on the 9th. Sure enough, my partial subsidy had disappeared, along with any mention of a full subsidy date. The only choices I had were to upgrade my line and/or buy a full price iPhone. I guess they'll only offer me Next when my contract expires in Sept. Since my data and voice usage are always very low, far less than what I get on the cheapest plan ATT offered on contract, and since the only two viable networks in my area are ATT and Verizon (Sprint and T-Mobile pretty much don't exist here), I might consider switching to Cricket when my contract dies.
Yes. $649 would get me the basic 6S regardless of carrier. The only "bargain" is selling or trading in the old phone.