Phones 4U launches its Just Upgrade My Phone deal

UK MOBILE PHONE RETAILER Phones 4U has announced a national rollout of a tariff that allows consumers to get a new handset every six months.

The deal is called 'Just Upgrade My Phone' (JUMP) and is coming to all of the firm's 600 odd stores. The additional monthly cost of the tariff will start from £2.99 per month.

Alistair Firth, director of customer development at Phones 4U said, "Technology is moving fast and innovative handsets are launching all the time on the market but to date there's been a disconnect between the frequency of smartphone releases and the length of mobile phone contracts on offer."

"We want to give our customers the freedom to own the very latest smartphones like the Iphone 4S without having to wait 18-24 months for an upgrade. The idea for JUMP was born out of research we conducted that revealed people were frustrated by the inability to upgrade their handsets sooner."

Phones 4U said the contract, which will be a minimum of 24 months, will be split into two parts. One will be with the mobile operator for the usual calls, texts and internet and the other will be with Phones 4U for the handset.

However, the catch is that every time an upgrade is taken the user must sign up to a rolling contract. Ernest Doku, a technology expert at Uswitch said, "The JUMP tariff does offer a new level of flexibility in terms of switching handsets mid-contract without fear of incurring penalties or any up front fees, but consumers will be paying a bit of a premium for the privilege."

"Each upgrade does place consumers into another rolling contract, and at a higher monthly commitment to pay for the new phone. This can make overall handset costs higher than normal over the course of a 24-month JUMP deal." he added.

The firm told us that JUMP is available for new and existing customers and will have the usual type of upgrade rules as normal, where the available smartphones depend on the tariff. It guarantees that new handsets will be worth at least £100 for the first 12 months and users can even trade in up to three at a time.

The full blown rollout is a result of a successful trial of JUMP in 100 stores since May 2011. As well as the regular upgrade, Phones 4U will give users remote back-up and storage for content such as contacts, music, pictures and videos. µ