Expert: DebiN - 9/20/2010

Question
I currently have a contract with Centennial Wireless. My contract expires in Feb. If I sign a new contract with AT&T (who bought Centennial) am I voiding a contract with Centennial or AT&T? My hope was that I could sign a new contract with AT&T, cancel it within 14 days without paying a termination fee and then go with another carrier. However on AT&T's site, it says if you cancel within 30 days you revert back to your previous plan until the end of your contract. So I guess I'm wondering if my Centennial contract is now an AT&T contract.

Answer
You were very smart for reading the agreement and unfortunately what read is totally correct. AT&T is working with their Centennial customers by allowing them to upgrade early and go with AT&T phones and plans, but if you cancel during the intial 30 day period, you do revert back to completing your old agreement. This gives you the ability to try AT&T and if you don't like them, you aren't stuck, you can go back to the Centennial phone and plan. But you can't go to AT&T and then cancel and move to another carrier without penalty because your contract with Centennial is not up yet. That would be like AT&T letting all the Centennial customers go without fulfilling their contract and they wouldn't do that since it is not smart financially. So, basically, your contract is with Centennial until you have been with AT&T for 31 days (under a new agreement), so the cancellation penalty is the Centennial one for the first 30 days and then reverts to the AT&T cancellation penalty on day 31. HOpe this helps.