Rogers/Fido May Revert Back To Old Hardware Upgrade Policy

I think everyone remembers on August 21 2009 when Rogers/Fido yet again amended their hardware upgrade policies. If not, you can read all about it here.

Well, earlier last week I spoke with a little birdie and here is the highlight of that conversation. Check it out:

“There have been many concerns regarding the recent changes RCI has made to the Hardware Upgrade Program. These concerns have been brought to Rogers’ attention and over the last two weeks, Rogers has been in talks with its various Dealers regarding the impact on sales due to the new HUP changes. There is a very good chance that in early October Rogers will be re-evaluating the recent changes made to the Hardware Upgrade Program.”

Now that is juicy.

As a refresher, the change made to the Hardware Upgrade Program on August 21 2009 was a new policy that stated that you can only get a hardware upgrade after 24 months (30 months for Fido). The new policy affected all consumer accounts (business accounts seem unaffected) and all devices (smartphones and consumer phones).

Previously, everyone was able to get a hardware upgrade after 12 months and then that was amended to only include “dumbphones” or consumer devices; smartphone users had to wait 24 months (30 month for Fido) instead of 12 months. Now the new policy does not discriminate at all and throws everyone into the 24 month (30 month for Fido) tenure pile.

So if my little chat has any truth to it and I like to think that it does, Rogers/Fido may be reverting back to the previous policy which allowed consumer devices to upgrade every 12 months instead of 24 months (30 month for Fido). Smartphone users are still at 24 months however (30 month for Fido).

This is potentially good news for those of you that are with Rogers/Fido and have a consumer device with a contract that is about to hit 12 months or exceed 12 months. Those people may be able to once again qualify for an iPhone 3G/3GS because when the August 21 2009 HUP amendment went live, those users lost that upgrade opportunity.

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