AT&T Doubles Upgrade Fee for Cellphones

AT&T doubled the price of upgrading to a new cellphone — a one-time fee that you pay in addition to the cost of the phone itself. The company said it was raising the fee because today’s cellphones are more complex, so the costs of upgrading are higher. The new upgrade fee is $36, up from $18. Sprint, a smaller wireless carrier, raised its upgrade fee to the same price last year. Verizon Wireless does not charge an upgrade fee for people whose contracts have run their course, though it does charge a one-time $35 activation fee for new customers.

AT&T’s statement raises more questions than it answers. It’s unclear how a customer’s switching to a new and improved phone incurs more costs for a carrier. And the new upgrade fee applies not only to smartphones, but also to traditional cellphones, which aren’t “more sophisticated than ever before.” “There are the costs we need to recover,” said Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T. “There’s time and work involved in upgrading you to a brand-new device. Because those devices are increasingly more complex, the upgrade process is more complex.”