AT&T increases upgrade fee to $200 for some smartphones

If you're still feeling the sting from AT&T jacking up its early termination fees earlier this year, then you aren't going to like this latest bit of news. AT&T will now charge $200 for anyone that upgrades to a new smartphone model "early," before their original two-year contract term is up. This fee will definitely affect those that change handsets more often than every two years.

Previously, the company typically charged $75 to upgrade early if you qualified, though it has charged many iPhone 3G users the equivalent of $200 to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS after one year. In some cases, however, the company made exceptions based on how long a contract had been in effect or whether a customer had a more expensive voice and data plan. For the launch of the iPhone 4, AT&T even allowed some customers to upgrade without any fee at all.

In a memo to AT&T sales staff, the company noted that the change was necessary due to the increasing prices of smartphones like BlackBerrys and Androids. The pricing change does not apply to feature phones, which will still carry the $75 fee for early upgrades. It also doesn't apply to the iPhone, which, as we mentioned above, AT&T often treats as a special case.

"This change to our exception pricing is necessary to maintain our ability to provide customers with the best selection of devices," the company wrote in the memo. As long as consumers still expect to get smartphones for $200 or so with carrier subsidies, we'll have to expect these kinds of fees for the foreseeable future.