Last week, T-Mobile made a big announcement that many felt had the potential to tip the scale in its favor at long last

The carrier unveiled a new scheme for its customers called Jump!, billed as T-Mobile’s answer for gadget freaks who always wants the latest and bestest new device in the palm of their hands the moment its release. The scheme gives consumers a way to change their smartphone every six months, without having to pay through the nose.

So here’s how Jump! works: Lets pretend you get an iPhone 5 from T-Mobile under its UnCarrier plan for an initial payment of $155.99 plus $21 every month on top of your data plan for the next two years. You do this today, but then in September Apple suddenly launches the next-generation iPhone, and you just have to get your mitts on it.

Well, you’ll be disappointed, but only for a few months. Jump! allows you to replace your smartphone after a minimum period of six months, which means that even if you buy an iPhone now (July), you can swap it for something new next January – still not bad huh?

So what’s the catch?  There’s always a catch, but in this case its purely financial. You’ll need to subscribe to Jump! by paying an additional $10 monthly fee – when your six months is up, you can then surrender your old iPhone 5, provided it is still working. If it’s a bit worn out you might pay somewhere between $20-$70 to be eligible for an upgrade.  Your old financial plan for your iPhone 5 will be swept under T-Mobile’s rug and will be replaced by a new financial plan for your new iPhone 6 (or 5S, or whatever the hell the next one is).  The good thing is that Jump! is a recurring plan, and in another six months you can upgrade to another phone, and by this time, Samsung might have unveiled its Galaxy S5, so you’ll be in luck :)

But is Jump! as good as it sounds? That probably depends on how much of a hardcore fanboi you are – the plan isn’t exactly cheap, and you might be spending more and not getting your money’s worth.

Let’s break down the costs of Jump! There’s the $155.99 (down payment for the device plus a SIM starter kit) + $126 (6 months of paying in installment) + $60 ($10 Jump fee)= $341.99, and that price is without figuring in your monthly plan. Lets add another $50 (T-Mobile’s cheapest plan with unlimited calls and text and 500MB of data) per month to it, and suddenly there’s another $300 in 6 months to contend with – so you’ve spent a total of $641.99 for your iPhone 5 for the last six months, which is $7.01 short of a brand new 16GB iPhone 5.

If you upgrade to the next iPhone as soon as your 6 months is up, no worries, but if you wait a year before you upgrade, you would actually be spending more on a device that you can’t actually keep, because T-Mobile’s installment plan entails that you pay $20 for the next two years before it becomes your very own.  So by exchanging your phone after one year, you would end up paying double for your existing device (that you cannot use or give to someone else as you will be returning it to T-Mobile in exchange for a new phone), before the costly cycle starts again.  That’s $155.99 + $252 + $120 + $600 = $1,127.99 spent on a phone you don’t even own.

Sounds confusing? Well, lucky for you T-Mobile isn’t the only one luring consumers with timely upgrades.

AT&T’s Next

AT&T is said to be launching Next, its answer to Jump, ‘next’ week.  The program works much the same as Jump!, only on a one-year cycle rather than six months, which might be ideal for those whose preferred brand only launches a flagship phone once a year.

With Next, subscribers will no longer be tied to a two-year contract. Instead, they’ll be introduced to a financing plan much like what T-Mobile is offering.  The device’s full cost will be split into 20 monthly payments, but after just 12 months subscribers can return the old device in exchange for a new one, then the remaining 8 months of payments will be swept under AT&T’s rug and a new financial plan will be provided for the new device.

Unlike Jump!, Next doesn’t require a down payment and no need to pay $10 per month to be eligible for the upgrade.  A 16GB iPhone 5 costs $649, so that’s $32.45 per month for 20 months.  If you upgrade in a year, you’ve spent $389.40 on the device alone, add a $60-prepaid plan that includes unlimited call and text plus 2GB of data, that’s $720, for a total of $1109.4 spent on a device that you don’t actually own.  This makes Next a cheaper option than Jump!, and therefore a smarter choice for those who’d prefer to upgrade just once a year.

VZ Edge

Not to be outdone, Verizon is reportedly set to bring out its own competing offer for early upgraders. Rumored to be called VZ Edge, Verizon’s new plan is likely to be released on August 25 – just over a month away, so you might want to hold your horses if you’re thinking about a new phone now.

Verizon’s plan is a little less clear, but according to leaked presentation, VZ Edge will effectively be a 10-month upgrade cycle, since it states that a subscriber is only eligible for an upgrade after they’ve paid 50 percent of the old device’s price (standard Verizon contracts being 20 months long).

The leaked document states the VZ Edge will have “Low upfront cost”, which may mean lower down payments than its rivals. Plus, there will be no upgrade fees like Next.

Sounds enticing, but how does it add up? Hypothetically, Verizon asks for a $99 down payment for the iPhone 5, meaning that there’s $550 left over to pay.  If we split this figure into 20 monthly repayments, that amounts to $27.50 each month.  Totting it all up, that comes to $99 + $275 (50 percent of the device’s price, 10 months of paying $27.50), then add on a $60-prepaid plan for Unlimited calls and Texts plus 2GB of data ($600) for a total of $974.

Going by our flaky maths, it looks like Verizon might just have the cheapest offering and also the perfect upgrade cycle too.  Six months is in all likelihood a bit too short to fully enjoy a device, while one year is likely to be too long for many. Verizon’s 10 months seems like the perfect compromise for us – just enough time to contemplate whether you really want to pay for a new upgrade, and of course long enough that there should be plenty of new devices to choose from by then.

We still need to read the fine print of these affordable upgrade plans before we can conclude which plan really is the best.  For now, AT&T and Verizon’s offerings aren’t set in stone so these numbers could easily change, and of course, everyone has their own preferences – for some people, even six months might be too long to wait!