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AT&T will reportedly begin to limit two-year agreements on June 1st
About a month ago, we reported that AT&T, the second largest mobile service provider in the U.S., was planning to move away from two-year contracts towards the end of May 2015. Under the codename “Project Alice”, new and current customers would only be able to sign up for the carrier using AT&T’s Next program. Though details were a tad scarce when we first reported this news, thanks to a new rumor, we’re getting a few more purported details on the new initiative.
According to the report, AT&T will begin to move away from two-year contracts on Monday, June 1st, pushing customers to sign up for service with AT&T Next. These changes will reportedly take place at local dealer and national retail locations. However, if you don’t want to sign up for Next, there may be another option for you. Apparently, local dealer locations will still be able to sign you up for a two-year contract via Direct Fulfillment, which means the representative will have to order the phone for you and it will ship it to your house a few days later. The report also states that you’ll be able to sign up for two-year contracts at company-owned retail locations, through customer service and through AT&T.com. Two-year agreements will also be available for tablets, feature phones and IoT products as well.
Of course, this isn’t the first carrier to move away from two-year contracts. More than two years ago, T-Mobile first announced that it was getting rid of the two-year contract standard, and it has definitely shaken up the wireless industry ever since. The Un-carrier has since (unofficially) surpassed Sprint as the third-largest mobile carrier in the U.S., and has pushed Verizon, AT&T and Sprint to adopt new contract alternatives to help get more consumers on board.
Keep in mind that these are all just rumors for now, so be sure not to treat this as official news quite yet. If AT&T happens to shy away from the two-year contract standard and (pretty much) only provide its Next plans to consumers, would you be interested in signing up for the carrier?