AT&T, Verizon Rushing To Match T-Mobile’s “Jump” Plans

Being the underdog that they are, T-Mobile has quite a bit of leeway and open room to try new things, namely, unique plan and service options. And try they have. Over the last several years they’ve changed up their plan offerings quite a bit. But their latest plan is potentially the best yet, as long as you’re a phone junky of course.

Basically, it is renting your phone (more-so than before) and will allow phone junkies such as yourself to upgrade yearly (or even more quickly). Verizon and AT&T, meanwhile, have taken more and more steps over the last several years to limit customers’ options, increase their bills (countless times) and generally rain on everyone’s parade. But T-Mobile’s new Jump initiative is forcing the two biggest carriers to at least attempt to play ball.

AT&T Next is a new service option the carrier has been teasing recently that, like T-Mobile’s Jump offering, will allow far faster upgrades than the typical 2-year contract currently allows. In order to do this under AT&T Next, the activation and upgrade fees are waived in return for an extra monthly charge added to your bill. The handset is “yours” one you’ve made it 20 months into your contract or have paid off the entire cost of the phone in full. AT&T’s own example of the service plan had the Galaxy S4 dinging your bill an extra $32/month. It might sound a tad steep over the course of 2 years. But for those of you who are constantly playing the buy/sell/buy/sell game 1-2 times per year when new phones come out, it might be something to watch.

Verizon is also following suit with their own similar offering called “Edge”. Like AT&T and T-Mobile, the gist is the same – customers pay a monthly fee to essentially rent the phone and activation/upgrade fees are waived. What’s different from AT&T’s Edge plan at least is that Verizon will allow customers to upgrade their handset anytime after at least 1/2 the phone’s full price is paid for. The cost is spread across a 12-month period. So, in theory, one could get a new phone every 6 months.

AT&T Nexus is currently scheduled to go live July 26th while Verizon’s Edge offering is pegged for about a month later on August 25th, thanks to leaked an internal Verizon document by DroidLife.

Overall, phone junkies are going to soon have 3 great options for fast phone upgrades in the very near future. Any particular carrier’s offering pulling you one way or another? The pricing is all pretty similar in setup and amount so it might come back to old battling grounds (read: data speed and network coverage).

Via: Droid-Life | Electronista