AT&T: Phone buyers are hanging up on subsidies

April 23, 2014

Installment plans for cellphones are starting to squeeze out the time-honored practice of paying a subsidized price up front, AT&T says. Buying installments is catching on in a big way, according to AT&T’s first-quarter financial results Tuesday. About 2.9 million people signed up for the carrier’s Next plan, in which subscribers pay for a phone in monthly installments and can trade it in for a new model after a year. That was more than 40 percent of AT&T’s postpaid customer additions or upgrades for the quarter. Paying in installments is an alternative to buying phones at a price subsidized by the carrier, the way most U.S. consumers have done it up to now.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2147020/phone-buyers-are-hanging-up-on-subsidies-atandt-says.html#tk.rss_all