Starting on January 8, 2016, AT&T plans to introduce a "pricing simplification effort" that will see the end of device subsidies and two-year contracts. According to an internal training document shared by Engadget, new and existing AT&T customers will only be able to purchase a smartphone at full price or with an AT&T Next payment plan going forward.
As outlined in the document, the new rules apply to all of the phones that AT&T sells, including smartphones and more basic devices, which will be paid for using new installment plans. More information on how AT&T will handle corporate accounts and non-smartphone devices like tablets and wearables will become available after an official announcement from AT&T, but it appears certain corporate users will be able to continue making two-year contract purchases.
The shift away from two-year contracts and iPhone subsidies began with T-Mobile in 2013, when the company introduced its Un-carrier payment plans uncoupling device costs from plan costs. Verizon followed suit in August of 2015, debuting new smartphone rate plans and eliminating its subsidized two-year contract option for new users.
Existing Verizon customers can still renew their two-year contracts, but AT&T's no-contract implementation is more extreme and will not offer existing customers the option to keep their contracts once they expire.
AT&T has already been working on shifting away from two-year contracts by pushing its Next plans. In June of 2015, AT&T forced Apple and other third-party retailers to remove the option to purchase AT&T phones with a two-year contract, leaving customers with AT&T Next or a full-priced smartphone as their only third-party purchase options.
Update: AT&T has confirmed its plans to stop offering two-year contracts in a statement given to Re/code.
"With $0 down for well-qualified customers, the ability to upgrade early and down-payment options available with even lower monthly installments, our customers are overwhelmingly choosing AT&T Next," AT&T told Re/code. "Starting January 8, AT&T Next will be the primary way to get a new smartphone at AT&T."
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be.
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
Thursday April 24, 2025 2:14 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
If you missed the video showing dummy models of Apple's all-new super thin iPhone 17 Air that's expected later this year, Sonny Dickson this morning shared some further images of the device in close alignment with the other dummy models in the iPhone 17 lineup, indicating just how thin it is likely to be in comparison.
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be around 5.5mm thick – with a thicker ...
Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect.
As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup.
If you skipped the iPhone...
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes.
The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps.
In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner.
In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
I know full-priced phones aren't cheap, but contracts are so ****ing overpriced that they need to get removed eventually.
I've stayed on 2-yr contracts because they have been cheaper for me than buying the iPhone for full-price.
The iPhone costs $650 retail (plus tax). I could always sell the iPhone for about $200 at the end of the 2 year contact. Subsidy was $450.
So doing the math, I was always breaking even after 2 years. In other words I have been getting free iPhone upgrades for the last 6 years. Coupled with Unlimited data and it was a sweet deal.
If the 2 year contracts were soo overpriced, AT&T would be making a huge profit from it and would keep them. The fact that they are getting rid of them shows that they were actually too good a value for the consumer.
I know a LOT of people that are still with AT&T on contract because they are still being grandfathered in to their unlimited data plans. I wonder if this is also going to result in the death of unlimited data.
I feel sorry for these people since they are way overpaying for their plan.
Um no. You are wrong. I am on a grandfathered unlimited plan and I recently got a message from AT&T that I could save money by switching to AT&T NEXT. When I used their comparison tool I got the following:
So for $10 more per month I can have a data cap. No thank you.