T-Mobile’s early upgrade program in JUMP! will be undergoing changes beginning on February 23rd with the following changes from the current upgrade program as JUMP! will no longer have any restriction on when phones can be upgraded or limits on the number of times one chooses to upgrade devices. In addition:
- No more 6 month (180 days) waiting period
- No limits on how often customers can upgrade
- Customers can JUMP! whenever they want – with trade in of an eligible device and receiving full credit for all remaining payments on that device, up to half of the phone’s original cost
- Expansion to Tablets
The third point was explained in further detail, and resembles Verizon’s EDGE program in terms of device credit value for trade-ins for the carrier to cover the whole cost of the old phone by the trade-in:
- Current customers with the original JUMP! feature will be grandfathered in and will still be able to upgrade before paying off half of the device, as long as they’ve had JUMP! for 6 months or more.
- New customers adding JUMP! will be able to upgrade whenever they like, as long as they trade-in their current phone and 50% of the phone cost is paid by doing so. In essence, T-Mobile will pay the rest if the remaining amount is at least half of the purchase price or less after the trade-in, if not the customer will end up paying the difference out of pocket
Update: T-Mobile has confirmed all of the above changes in a statement to FierceWireless and has sent out the following PR trumpeting the changes:
T-Mobile sparked a revolution in the wireless industry in 2013, beginning with the elimination of service contracts and a call for ‘Contract Freedom.’ Our innovative JUMP! handset upgrade program is an important cornerstone of our Un-carrier movement, and soon (starting February 23) you will be able to upgrade as many times as you like:
- Whenever you’re ready to upgrade, trade in your device and T-Mobile will pay your remaining device payments up to 50% of the device cost. There is no more waiting period or limit to the number of times you can upgrade per year.
- And we didn’t stop there – we’ve also added tablets to the program! We’re excited about how these program enhancements give our customers even more freedom to upgrade when they want, instead of when they’re told.
The old-guard carriers all tried to follow our lead last year, but none can match the variety of freedoms we provide to our customers with JUMP!
