Following up our leak from yesterday, it looks like the new Partial Upgrade Pricing Discounts will officially go into effect tomorrow and not January 29 as stated previously. Basically, beginning January 27, customers can upgrade their smartphone every year for the same price as new customers. In addition, customers with voice and text phones can also upgrade to a smartphone at month 12 of their contract for the new customer price. Additional discounting periods are also launching for customers with 1-11 months of service and 12-21 months. As we stated before, the “Early Upgrade Discount” consists of Tier 1, which will require 1-11 months of active service on a $29.99 or higher individual rate plan or a $49.99 or higher individual family rate plan. Also you must have 1-11 months since the last discounted handset purchase. On the other hand, the “Early Upgrade Plus” which consists of Tier 2, will require 12-21 active months on a $29.99 or higher individual plan or a $49.99 or higher individual family rate plan. For the “Early Upgrade Plus” you must have 12-21 months since the last discounted handset purchase. But here is something to take note of. Smartphones will qualify for a full discount pricing at the “Early Upgrade Plus” level.

Customers on a 1-year contract agreement, are not eligible for the partial discounts. Obviously, since this requires a contract agreement, Even More Plus customers are not able to take advantage of the partial discounts as they have to pay the full retail cost for their handsets. Puerto Rico customers, these changes will be implemented on February 3rd.

Leave your thoughts in the comments!

NOTE: This is for Partial Upgrade Pricing ONLY. The regular upgrade pricing terms still remain the same. For all upgrades after 21 months, systems will show the full upgrade price for all devices.

UPDATE: A list of eligible smartphones for the full discount and a short Q&A after the jump!

UPDATE 2: We have removed the myTouch 3G example as some people are coming back and saying it may not actually be what users are seeing. We’ll update you guys when we get more info! Stay tuned!

Smartphones Eligible for Full Discount at the Early Upgrade Plus Level

· BlackBerry Pearl 8120

· BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220

· BlackBerry Curve 8320

· BlackBerry Curve 8520

· BlackBerry Curve 8900

· BlackBerry Bold 9700

· HTC Touch Pro2

· Motorola CLIQ

· Samsung Behold

· Samsung Behold II

· Sidekick 2008

· Sidekick LX 2009

· T-Mobile Shadow 2009

· T-Mobile Dash 3G

· T-Mobile G1

· T-Mobile myTouch

· T-Mobile myTouch Fender LE

FAQs

Q: Can customers on Even More Plus pricing plans receive a discount on Handset Upgrades?
A: No. Customers on Even More Plus plans purchased their handsets at full price to receive lower rate plans, so are not eligible for the new upgrade terms.

Q: Will Nexus One customers also be eligible for the new upgrade pricing?
A: No. As with other non-T-Mobile locations, pricing for devices is set by the selling location. In the case of the Nexus One, Google is the only retailer offering the device, and while we are continuing to work with them to align pricing, today there are no changes to share