AT&T customers who want to upgrade their smartphones will now have to pay double the fee.
"Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before," spokeswoman Cathy Lewandowski said in an email. "And because of that, the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased and is reflected in our new upgrade fee."
The fee isn't unique to AT&T, and it is the first time the company is changing the fee for the first time in 10 years, she also said.
The new fee went into effect Feb. 12, and it doubles the cost to upgrade from $18 to $36.
Lewandowski said that AT&T makes efforts to keep costs low and give customers access to features, such as Wi-Fi.
"We offer our smartphone customers unlimited access to our entire Wi-Fi network at no extra cost," she said. "We also offer entry-level data plans with lower price points than some of our competitors."
She said that smartphone data plans start at $20, tablet plans at $15.
AT&T recently increased the data plan fee, but they remain lower than Verizon.
Gizmodo reported that Sprint increased its upgrade fee last year.
