God I love this bullshit spin. First mention the lowering of the ETF for the phones that basically no one breaks their contracts with because they don’t care which phone they have. Then mention you’re jacking up the fee for those more likely to cancel a contract.

And it’s bullshit to spin this as “fair” since they subsidize phones — they’ve been doing that forever, and making plenty of money.

So what’s this really about? I think it may be the most tangible sign yet that AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity is set to end — and they know it. This could be anytime over the next two years, but AT&T has to enact this now, before the new iPhone comes out and people sign their new contracts or they wouldn’t be able to jack it up for those customers retroactively.

It’s all about getting customers to stick around (or getting something out of it if/when they don’t). And I believe they’re making it more expensive now because there will be a big reason to switch sometime in the next year or so.

They say it’s not about one phone. Sure. It just happens to be a few weeks before WWDC where Apple will announce the new iPhone. Total coincidence.