The fee to upgrade your phone to a new handset on contract at AT&T has doubled.
AT&T increased its fee to $36 from $18; the change took effect Sunday, as reported by BGR.
An AT&T spokesperson told the tech website that it's the first time the nation's second-largest wireless carrier has changed the fee in nearly a decade.
"Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before," the spokesperson told BGR 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."
In its fourth-quarter results, AT&T reported that about 57 percent of its 69.3 million postpaid subscribers had smartphones. That's up significantly from 42.7 percent a year earlier and 32.8 percent two years ago. AT&T sold a record 9.4 million smartphones in the fourth quarter.
