AT&T Customers Will Wait Even Longer for Upgrades Now
AT&T tacks an extra four months onto its upgrade policy.
With the rate at which smartphone technology is progressing, your smartphone probably started to feel a bit dated only a few months after you bought it. Never mind the fact that it is still an extremely powerful mobile device with more processing power and RAM than your first computer, we know the pull towards the new, shiny, more powerful devices can be quite strong. All of this makes AT&T's latest decision all the more depressing. The company has announced that it will be upping the wait time that customers must endure before they are entitled to an upgrade.
Back in April, Verizon announced that come January 2014, customers would only be entitled to an upgrade after they had fulfilled their 24-month contract. Previously, customers could upgrade after 20 months of their two-year contract. Now it looks like AT&T is making the same move. The company today revealed its revised upgrade eligibility for customers on two year contracts, which includes a 24-month upgrade policy.
AT&T assures customers that they'll still be able to share upgrades with others on their account, purchase subsidized devices with two-year agreements, and trade in their phones as well as bring their own device to the carrier and buy new phones outright. Early upgrades, where customers receive a discount on new devices six months into their agreement (conditional on signing a new two-year contract), are also not affected.
AT&T's new policy covers all of its wireless products and services and applies to any customer whose agreement expires in March 2014 or later.

So... we all want carriers to not be responsible for OS upgrades right? So your complaint is you didn't get an upgrade from them, and instead you got a MUCH BETTER upgrade free of carrier garbage??
I agree with your point, the carriers need to let go of the OS completely and let updates come from the manufacturer, but they never will. Especially in the US.
And this is a tiny nitpick, but the people bringing you these great Android OSes are NOT hackers. Android is open source. WE own the hardware. there is no "hacking". Just great software development.
So... we all want carriers to not be responsible for OS upgrades right? So your complaint is you didn't get an upgrade from them, and instead you got a MUCH BETTER upgrade free of carrier garbage??
I agree with your point, the carriers need to let go of the OS completely and let updates come from the manufacturer, but they never will. Especially in the US.
And this is a tiny nitpick, but the people bringing you these great Android OSes are NOT hackers. Android is open source. WE own the hardware. there is no "hacking". Just great software development.
It would just be nice if someone, the carrier or manufacture gave updates. And yes, they aren't hackers, but are to a small extent as a lot of stuff has to be hacked to work great. Don't get me wrong, I'm a XDA member, have added a few things with my limited knowledge and donated to the people that work hard on my phone, but it's a lot harder for them to go from a GB to a JB update and make it all work when the phone can run it as fast as a Nexus but gets left behind.
So... we all want carriers to not be responsible for OS upgrades right? So your complaint is you didn't get an upgrade from them, and instead you got a MUCH BETTER upgrade free of carrier garbage??
I agree with your point, the carriers need to let go of the OS completely and let updates come from the manufacturer, but they never will. Especially in the US.
And this is a tiny nitpick, but the people bringing you these great Android OSes are NOT hackers. Android is open source. WE own the hardware. there is no "hacking". Just great software development.
It would just be nice if someone, the carrier or manufacture gave updates. And yes, they aren't hackers, but are to a small extent as a lot of stuff has to be hacked to work great. Don't get me wrong, I'm a XDA member, have added a few things with my limited knowledge and donated to the people that work hard on my phone, but it's a lot harder for them to go from a GB to a JB update and make it all work when the phone can run it as fast as a Nexus but gets left behind.
Completely agree. And xda is amazing. Yea, they have to bypass BS boot loaders and carrier crap. Some consider it "hacking". I just consider them "software developers" who give their free time to better Android. It's open source. They have the right. We own the phones. And they do amazing work. And as someone in software development... I really appreciate everyone who puts their time in.
I'd like to learn when I stop working 8 days a week.
but im sure they have more passion.
TMobile charges the same for phones. AT&T unlocks phones for free. There is a SLIGHT service discount with TMobile, but they have no network. And their customer service is horrible. WAY worse than AT&T. You should Pay less as you get way less. ALL US carriers are over charging and forcing services people don't need/want.
Where? I am with Wind which is min $30 a month for unlimited no contract and that is the cheapest I know of.