A growing number of subscribers in the United States are switching to prepaid phones, as they are no longer content locked into the more restrictive 2-year contract agreement. No contract is good for users, but they need to purchase the phone at full price and prepaid carriers typically don’t have significant competitive coverage.
Things are changing now as prepaid carriers begin to offer cheaper rates. The newly launched Just Upgrade My Phone (JUMP) program allows T-Mobile subscribers to upgrade their handset twice each year, instead of being tied into a 2-year contract. With JUMP, users will be charged an extra of £6 each month to lease the device to get the new flexibility.
AT&T has responded with the Next, which is nearly similar to the JUMP. With the new plan, AT&T allows users to prepay their handset in monthly installments before they can upgrade once a year. It remains to be seen whether these new programs will give subscribers some freedom or perhaps, a bit of savings.
