T-Mobile’s New JUMP Program Offers Phone Upgrades Twice A Year

T-Mobile a new early upgrade program today called JUMP! — Just Upgrade My Phone — that will allow customers to buy new phones at subsidized prices twice a year, instead of every two years or so. What’s the catch? There’s a $10 a month fee, which isn’t too bad for those customers who always want to get a, well, jump on newer phones. Pun totally intended.

Most other providers require customers to wait it out for months on end before they can get a new phone at a lower price than if they were buying one without a plan. The $10 monthly fee also acts as protection against malfunction, damage or theft, at $2 more than the normal cost for such insurance.

Says T-Mobile CEO John Legere in a press release announcing JUMP!:

“At some point, big wireless companies made a decision for you that you should have to wait two years to get a new phone for a fair price. That’s 730 days of waiting. 730 days of watching new phones come out that you can’t have. Or having to live with a cracked screen or an outdated camera. We say two years is just too long to wait. Today, we’re changing all that with the launch of JUMP! Now, customers never have to worry about being stuck with the wrong phone. And, yes — it’s really as good as it sounds.”

Here’s how it’ll work: Starting July 14, customers can upgrade to a new phone financed through T-Mobile’s Equipment Installment program. You can upgrade twice every 12 months — but have to have been in the program for at least six months first.

Customers can then trade in any eligible T-Mobile phone, eliminating any remaining payments on the old one, and purchase a new phone upfront for the same price as a new customer would, with device financing.

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