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Second Time In 9 Months: AT&T Raises Phone Activation Fee $5, Now Charges $25 (arstechnica.com)
For the second time in 9 months, ATT is raising its activation and upgrade fee. In April 2016, the fee for non-contract customers was raised from $15 to $20. Today, it has been raised another $5, from $20 to $25, according to PhoneScoop. Ars Technica reports: As the mobile carrier switched from contracts to device payment plans, ATT initially did not charge an activation and upgrade fee for customers who brought their own phone or bought one from ATT on an installment plan. But in July 2015, ATT started charging a $15 activation fee to customers who don't sign two-year contracts. (ATT also raised the activation/upgrade fee for contract customers from $40 to $45 in July 2015.) The $25 fee is charged for new activations or upgrades when customers purchase devices on installment agreements, ATT says. Customers who bring their own phone to the network are charged the $25 fee when they activate a new line of service, but not when they upgrade phones on an existing line. "We are making a minor adjustment to our activation and upgrade fees. The change is effective today," ATT told Ars. ATT also still charges the $45 activation and upgrade fee on two-year contracts, but those contracts are "available only on select devices."
Why do you all insist on predicting a future you don't know... lacking a 1980's stainless steel-bodied car equipped with a flux capacitor? Once again a valid post about technology we all use.. is suddenly used as a soap-box when the incoming candidate doesn't fit your Utopian view of the world? Grow a pair there is no trophy for showing up after you leave the 8th-grade soccer program.
This is likely a result of the influx of epically cheap Chinese smart phones (ZTE, Huwaei, etc.) sold as pay-as-you-go for ~50 dollars or less that people are buying and using to create a new phone plan with a corporate carrier. They aren't making profit off the phone (expected since the introduction of the iphone) so they have to find some mechanism to offset the cost of their brick-and-mortar stores.
Peace out (and please stop using threads on technology-based themes like slash dot) to help you elevate your opinion another 10 inches closer to the stratosphere)