T-Mobile is wasting no time calling out AT&T for copying its own Jump upgrade program just announced last week. T-Mobile’s program is quite simple: pay $10 per month per phone and you’ll be able to upgrade your device every six months. While other carriers have recently been shying away of letting customers upgrade, especially with the new 24-month upgrade cycle policy, T-Mobile has taken the always-good approach of actually trying to please its customers.
Of course since T-Mobile has received generally positive feedback after the announcement of Jump, AT&T got on board with the idea with its own Next program. Andrew Sherrard, a T-Mobile executive, says it’s a “poor imitation” of Jump. He added that AT&T is charging “twice on the same phone and calling that a good deal.”
AT&T Next works slightly differently than T-Mobile’s Jump. With AT&T you can upgrade every 12 months instead of every six (which is still decent) and rather than paying a flat $10 per month, the full cost of the device is split over 20 monthly payments with no down payments or activation fees. If you upgrade after 12 months, the remaining 8 payments are cancelled out and you can begin Next again with your new phone.
It’s probably a fair criticism to call Next an imitation though. It’s questionable whether Next would even exist had Jump never been unveiled.