Another round of AT&T pushing prices towards the sky. This time the Death Star is doubling the cost of upgrading a device from $18 to $36! Citing increased costs of smartphones, the carrier wants more money from any customer looking to grab a new unit. What does that $36 buy a customer? Nothing much really, basically a SIM card swap and pair. A process that takes no more than 10 minutes on a bad day and AT&T wants more cash for it.

Sprint already charges $36 for upgrading, T-Mobile takes $18 and Verizon charges nothing. Big Bell is certainly trying to earn back all that cash it lost due to the failed T-Mobile merger at the expense of nickel and dimeing the customer. If you want to avoid that extra fee, hit up AT&T before Sunday. Will this send customers away to the rival companies or will they get more ingenious in avoiding the raping?

Thanks to Android Police for the heads up!

Related articles

• With some extra cash, you can buy an early upgrade at Sprint. (donthatethegeek.com)
• AT&T doubles handset upgrade fee to $36 (bgr.com)