T-Mobile seems to be making waves in the industry as of late. Not even two weeks after the magenta carrier announced it would be paying customers' ETFs, Verizon is experimenting with a 30 day upgrade cycle on its Edge plan. However, it's not a free lunch – there is some fine print to contend with.

Verizon Edge is similar to all the early upgrade programs introduced in the last year like Jump (Tmo) and Next (AT&T). With Big Red's option, you simply finance the phone over 24 months and pay it off as you go. Previously, you had to wait a year before getting the free upgrade and starting the payments over. Now, you only have to wait 30 days. A new phone every 30 days? That sounds cool, but it's not at all what Verizon is offering.

In order to be eligible for the upgrade through Edge, you still must have at least 50% of the phone paid off – essentially a year of monthly payments. All Verizon has really done is allow people to pay off 50% of the phone as quickly as they want to get an upgrade. And yes, you still have to trade in the phone you just paid a few hundred dollars for. It's pretty unlikely anyone is going to pay $250-350 toward a financed phone in 30 days, then trade it in for a new one. The 30 day claim isn't really a lie (you could technically do it), but it's kind of a pointless change.

[Verizon, Cnet]