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Report: AT&T ready with no-contract iPhone offer

If you don't want to sign up with AT&T for two years, but want an iPhone, the carrier might have an option for you starting next week.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Would you pay $599 for an iPhone without a contract? CNET

AT&T may be getting ready to offer the iPhone 3G at a very expensive yet no-commitment price.

The Boy Genius Report has a report out Wednesday that AT&T plans to offer iPhone 3Gs at $599 or $699 without requiring the customer to sign a new two-year agreement, starting next week. When the iPhone 3G launched last year, AT&T said it would offer such an option, but never pulled the trigger.

An AT&T representative declined to comment on the report.

The move would seem designed to rid AT&T of iPhone inventory ahead of the launch of a new product later this summer, as most of us are expecting. Apple didn't allude to any new hardware during its iPhone 3.0 event on Tuesday, but there have been a few signs, and the company has noted that iPhone releases seem to be falling into a yearly schedule around June or July.

iPhones sales soared after Apple and AT&T cut the starting price to $199 last year, but there are definitely some people who would like an iPhone free from AT&T and a two-year commitment to paying a monthly wireless bill, even if it costs them more up front.

Would you buy a $599 8GB iPhone if it meant you didn't have to sign a two-year contract?