Following Recent Moves by Verizon, AT&T Is Now Charging a $20 Upgrade Fee

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Late last year, AT&T became the latest of the big-four domestic wireless carriers to formally introduce a smartphone upgrade fee set at $15. However, the company’s Big Red rival, Verizon, has recently unveiled a similar fee, though they’ve upped the ante to $20 — perhaps seeing the otherwise lucrative window to bank even more money off of customers wanting nothing but the latest and greatest devices. Check, mate, Big Red. Check, mate indeed.

Although, for its part, AT&T announced just yesterday that, for customers looking to upgrade their smartphone one the company’s Next monthly installment plan, the fee has since been increased to $20, a la Verizon.

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Originally discovered by Droid Life, as of April 6th, 2016, AT&T has officially updated the terms of its wireless activation and upgrade fee to reflect the new $20 pricing. Seems like a bit of a cat and mouse game, if you ask me — you know, Verizon had just announced an upgrade fee of $20, just last week; and then, only a couple days later, AT&T comes to the table crying, “me too, me too!”

I guess that’s just business as usual, though, right?

In any event, this is basically how it’ll work for AT&T customers from here on out – customers who elect to either bring a phone to the AT&T network, purchase a phone using AT&T Next, or purchase a device through Apple’s Device Upgrade program will be required to pay the $20, one-time activation fee.

“Wireless activation and upgrade fees are one-time fees that may be added to your first or next AT&T bill. Activation and upgrade fees for smartphones with AT&T Next – Activation and upgrade fees are $20 per smartphone added or upgraded with AT&T Next. Activation fees for installment agreements and bring your own devices – The fee is $20.”

Additionally, for customers looking to upgrade via AT&T’s two-year contract pricing, (which is still available for select devices), the standard $45 fee has not changed.

“Activation and upgrade fees for two year agreement – Fees are $45. Note: Two year agreements are available only on select devices.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, as noted by Ars Technica, AT&T doesn’t provide any additional explanation or justification pertinent to the new fee. However, Verizon, on the other hand, has come out indicating that its own fee was to cover “increasing support costs associated with customers switching their devices.”

Of the big-four domestic wireless carriers in the U.S. — T-Mobile remains the lone wolf, opting not to charge an upgrade or activation fee, whereas AT&T and Verizon both charge $20, and Sprint charges up to $36 per device.

Learn More: How to Fix Your iPhone or iPad When it Won’t Turn On

What are your thoughts about AT&T’s recent move to up the ante by $5? Let us know in the comments below.

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