AT&T is reportedly easing upgrade restrictions on when customers can upgrade their handset, a move reportedly in anticipation of Apple announcing a new version of its iPhone. The changes allow iPhone customers — who may not have been eligible — to upgrade without paying early termination fees.
Customers of the carrier can go to the AT&T website and click on “Check Upgrade Options.”
The easier upgrade is just the latest measure by AT&T preceding an expected introduction by Apple of an iPhone 4G at this week’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.
In May, AT&T nearly doubled its early termination fee to $325 from $175, a move some saw as a way to retain iPhone customers.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
