re: AT&T only offering the Next plan now?

On the next plan you get to upgrade a device without having to wait two years.

Just went through this with Verizon. Obviously not exactly the same as AT&T but very similar. You were always paying full price for your phone. They just made you pay ~$200 up front and hid the rest in your note. Now, they aren't hiding it. They are going towards share plans (which the price of is not part of this discussion. They do not affect the deal as the price is the same for data on and off contract). The difference is in the monthly line fee and monthly phone charge. Sounds like line fees dropped from 40 to 15 per month. But the new phone charge is added and is dependent on the phone you choose. You do not have to pay the up front fee though. For me, I saved at least 250 up front by not having to pay for the S6. But because of the phone charge, I pay $11.25 more per month. Over 24 months, I'm paying $20 more (11.25x24=270 compared to initial 250 charge. I lose more in pocket change than that over two years so I don't care. Plus I have the freedom to adjust my plan since there's no contract.

Obviously if you are grandfathered into a better data plan, it's not a good plan, but we had to deal with that issue a long time ago (switching to shared plan saved a lot of money, but got rid of unlimited). The plan prices are not really changing though. Just how you pay for the phone. And as you can see, the difference is chump change.