Verizon Pushes Upgrade Cycle to Full 24 Months

[leemajors]

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/12/4216998/verizon-changes-upgrade-policy-24-months


If you're waiting for an upgrade from Verizon, you may have to wait a little bit longer. The carrier announced today it would now be offering discounts only after customers complete a full 24 months on their contract, extended from 20 months. It's not a huge difference, but it's a frustrating sign coming just two years after Verizon eliminated the 12-month upgrade. The changes will only affect customers whose contracts expire after January of 2014. The announcement also helpfully notes, you're free to buy a new phone at retail prices any time. AT&T, for their part, seems to be holding to the 20-month upgrade cycle.

[resistanze]

:lol, it's like 36 months here

[LarryDavid]

LOL at people still on contracts.

[UZER]

LOL at people still on contracts.

What do you use? Serious question.

[Drachen]

What do you use? Serious question.

who do you use now and are you satisfied with their coverage?

[UZER]

I'm on att and have never had a serious complaint with them coverage is great, speeds are great.

[Drachen]

Also, to the OP: This is a freaking ballsy move by verizon. The whole purpose of this is to snap your customers into another 2 years before they have a chance to get to the end of their contract and walk away. 22 months would have been smarter. I think that they end up reversing this within 1 year.

[Drachen]

I'm on att and have never had a serious complaint with them coverage is great, speeds are great.

That is a tougher one. If you want to keep ATT's network, the only one I know of is Net10 that has unlimited talk/text/ and 1.5 GB of ATT data (though it says unlimited) for about 50 bucks.
Tmobile and sprint have a plethora of MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), or in simpler terms network resellers. Sprint has Ting, virgin mobile (and more) and Tmobile has Straight talk, simple mobile, etc.... Heck, even Verizon has PagePlus, but you only get access to their 3g network. Each one has different pricing and (possibly) different agreements with the actual network.

[Drachen]

just google (network provider) MVNO and look through the list. I can't really recommend one, because I don't know your use case.

[LarryDavid]

What do you use? Serious question.

I use Simple Mobile. As someone mentioned earlier, they are an MVNO that run off T-Mobile's network. Coverage and speed is good, HSPA+ speed, but honestly 80-90% of the time on on a Wi-Fi network. I pay $50 before taxes for unlimited minutes, text, and data. I buy my phone unsubsidized, which currently is the Nexus 4.