AT&T prorates ETF – Early Termination Fees now pro-rated on AT&T
By Will Park on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 2:54 PM PST In AT&T, Announcements, Financial/Corporate News, Services
Good news for anyone considering a shorter-term stay on AT&T (NYSE: T)’s HSPA network. AT&T has announced that it has gone official with its new Early Termination Fee (ETF) policy.
Customers can now expect to have their ETF reduced by $5 for every month that they pay their bill. What that means is that customers won’t have to worry about paying a ridiculous $175 ETF with just a few months left on their contract – although, AT&T customers looking to terminate the contract a month prior to its expiry date will still have to pay $60 dollars worth of pro-rated ETF.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless already has pro-rated ETF policies in place and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA is expected to fall in line on June 30. No word on when Sprint (NYSE: S) will be going live with their pro-rated ETF.
The move is a step in the right direction amidst a changing wireless environment where consumers (and even Congress) are rallying against wireless carriers’ traditionally accepted practices of rolling out exclusivity contracts, locked handsets, and unreasonable ETFs. Of course, we probably won’t ever see the demise of the ETF (even multi-billion dollar corporations have to make back the money they eat for subsidized handsets), but here’s to hoping that carrier-locks and hardware exclusivity deals (like AT&T and the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone) soon bite the dust.
Pro-Rated ETF’s… Big Deal… show me better plans at better prices. Sprint has the right idea with the unlimited everything plan, too bad their service sucks. I hope AT&T follows suit SOON! not the sucking part… the unlimited everything part.
lets face it, unless you have a ridiculously high monthly bill (which you can always lower your plan anyway) pro-rated ETF doesn’t really help, it is at best a crumb tossed to those not looking at the bigger picture. If you have a month left to go on a contract… its cheaper to bring it down to the $39.99 plan (or lower if you can convince the agent)and run down the month. EFF The ETF!