[NewsPoster]

AT&T is developing special "iPhone 7" promotions that it plans to announce in time for the expected September launch of the next-generation smartphone flagship from Apple, according to Nomura Securites analyst Jeffrey Kvaal. AT&T's total annual subscriber churn is currently running at 1.42 percent. This is a figure that AT&T is hoping to minimize, by trying to retain subscribers who could potentially leave the network for another when the next iPhone launches, while also attracting new subscribers to its network.


According to Kvaal's latest research note, Nomura expects that AT&T "iPhone 7" upgrades to run in the order of seven to eight percent in the second half of 2016. This should help drive up AT&T's post-paid subscriber base up for a net gain of 1.01 million subscribers, helping it to fend off competition from T-Mobile in particular. Currently, AT&T is losing two subscribers to T-Mobile for every one that it gets back. It second-half push should help reverse this trend, according to Nomura.

The competition between AT&T and T-Mobile is fierce, with a pitched battle being fought over iPhone subscribers, in particular. Last year, T-Mobile launched an aggressive plan to attract customers, offering existing AT&T customers who switched to T-Mobile a 128GB iPhone 6s at the same price as it normally charged for the 16GB model. Rather than waiting to offer customers an incentive at the end of their two-year contract, it also offered iPhone 6 owners an immediate upgrade to the iPhone 6s when it was released.

[Inkling]

Speaking from bitter experience, if someone can afford an iPhone 7, they can afford the difference between an AT&T plan and one from Verizon. In the college town where I live, only Verizon has decent coverage. I tried AT&T and gave up. Only about half my calls were connecting and AT&T's solution was to suggest I buy a $200 device from them. AT&T has two stores closer than its closest cell tower. That's a near-perfect illustration of misplaced priorities. And yes, coverage does vary by location and provider. But that makes it all the more important to check the coverage in your locale before being seduced by anyone's special deal on the hardware. If you don't have reliable coverage, that new iPhone might as well be a brick.

[pairof9s]

I agree with Inkling. My experience was with switching to Sprint from AT&T. The promos would cut over 25% from my bill plus allow a new iPhone with each new model along with pay offs for our existing AT&T phones.

However, the cellular coverage and data bandwidth speed was horrendous. Luckily, Sprint provides a 30-day (normally 14-day) switch back and AT&T allows a 30-day return period, so it was relatively painless to go back.

Needless to say, check with "locals" for the coverage strengths of each carrier before switching for pretty promos.