Back in May of 2011 Rogers introduced a new early upgrade fee policy and as of today that fee has jumped back to the original $20 per month for smartphone and premium smartphone customers according to MobileSyrup, and will only affect a select number of customers.
Previously, this early upgrade fee was $13 per month for premium devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry. Essentially, if you signed a term contract prior to January 22, 2012, you will now pay $20 per month to upgrade depending on how many months you have remaining until your eligible hardware upgrade date. Let’s provide an example.
If you have a Rogers iPhone 4 (smartphone, premium smartphone category) with 8 months until your upgrade eligibility date and wanted to upgrade early to an iPhone 5, you would pay:
Months remaining until HUP: 8 months x $20.00 = $160.00
New HUP device cost: 16GB iPhone 5 (regular 3-year price) = $159.00
Total paid: $319.00 on a 3 year voice and data plan
The memo notes customers will be able to continue to upgrade as early as one month into their terms. For quick messaging devices, Rocket Stick, tablets and Smartphone Lite, the fee remains at $10 per month. Thoughts?
