re: AT&T and their new smartphone charges

Just called Att and switched from old family talk 550 to mobileshare with 3 gigs. Going to save 35 a month.
When I upgrade both phones I have, it will go up 15 each to do contract with one time $40 charge per line. If I do next, it will go up 27 each, no one time charge, for 24 months.
Since I can trade in for same amount as I will pay to upgrade( 199), I think I'll stick with that.

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If I pay the phone off early will my bill be reduced to $65 and stay the same until I upgrade?

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it should, but I'm not sure that they will let you pay the phone off early

i believe its either all at once, or equal installments...no inbetween

I thought you could pay the phone off at any point and the next installments would go away. They are basically just giving you an interest free loan on the phone. You could go buy the phone outright at Apple and bring it to ATT to get setup for the same thing.

I changed my plan to the 3GB share and ordered the 128GB 6 plus. It will be 3 weeks before I get the phone, no one has them. My bill will come out to almost the exact same I've been paying.
What I read says that on the next plan, you can pay the phone off early after 2 months.
No point though on an interest free loan.

All posted above is correct. They brought down the service prices, but now break out the premium charged for the retail price, as it used to just be hidden in your bill.

Bottom line: don't ever re up your contract, they are a thing of the past. You have always paid retail for your phones, but had been baked into the monthly charge. Cheaper in the long run to just buy the phone unlocked outright, and you are free to move carriers at any time.

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I pay 45.27 per line (this includes taxes and fees) for 3GB of data for each line with Net10. They have a 5GB plan as well.

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This is within a dollar of what I pay on att with a family plan (no contracts), at 30GB (6GB per person) shared data. Att is just as good if using a larger pool of data.

Yea they had some earlier, not sure if they still there.

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Iphone6 64gb was back ordered 

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Person on my plan just ordered this via AT&T NEXT online, said ships in 3-5 business days. iPhone 6 space gray 64gb.

I just checked the website and they have 16, 64 and 128 all available in baton rouge if you are not particular on color.

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He told me that all the phone companies are having to pay retail prices for smartphones and they have always hidden this cost in the past but are now passing it in to the customer to pay for the phone. Has anyone else seen this at AT&T? Do I need to switch?

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I haven't read the thread so I don't know if it's been stated already, but here are the facts:

1. Phone companies have always paid retail prices for smartphones.
2. They have always passed this cost on to the customer through the price of wireless service. (example given: You had to buy outright the original iPhone (no subsidy) and sign a 2-year contract. My phone bill was $75/month. When I upgraded to the iPhone 4 with a subsidy, my phone bill went up to $95/month. So I paid an extra $20/month to reimburse ATT for the subsidized iPhone. Retail iPhone price = $649. Subsidized iPhone ($199)+ $20/month = $680.)
So that $20 extra a month was already built in, but now they're acting like they were being so very nice and kind by just eating the $450 remainder for your benefit.
3. This is their round about way of boosting revenue and profits because now you are paying for the phone 2x.