U.S. carrier AT&T has made repeated efforts to eradicate two-year contract subsidies for new smartphone purchases, and that plan will become absolute in just a few weeks, a leak from the company has revealed.
In an internal document obtained by Engadget , AT&T revealed that as of Jan. 8, it will only offer smartphone purchases through its AT&T Next installment plans, or no-commitment full retail pricing.
The change is set to apply to all phones sold by AT&T, including iPhones, Android handsets, Windows Phone devices, and even barebones "feature" phones.
Two-year iPhone contracts have typically required carriers to pay high subsidies, sometimes to the point of losing money on the hardware in the hope of recouping the cost through service fees.