Imagine being able to get a phone upgrade every six months (best value for least amount of time) over the life of a 24 month contract. Do I have your attention yet? UK carrier Phones4U has introduced a new model called JUMP, or “Just Upgrade My Phone.”

“Technology is moving fast and innovative handsets are launching all the time on the market but to date there’s been a disconnect between the frequency of smartphone releases and the length of mobile phone contracts on offer. We want to give our customers the freedom to own the very latest smartphones like the iPhone 4S without having to wait 18-24 months for an upgrade. The idea for JUMP was born out of research we conducted that revealed people were frustrated by the inability to upgrade their handsets sooner.”

With JUMP, you have the option of paying more per month in order to get a new phone after however long you want. Let’s say, for instance, that we want to sign a 24 month contract and upgrade to an iPhone 4S (we know, but just bear with us).

A £2.99 charge on top of your monthly rate of £35 for a Galaxy Nexus would have you paying £37.99 per month, split between airtime (£15.00 a month) and the JUMP agreement (£22.99 a month).

If you decide to get a new phone after 6 months, they’ll subtract six months’ worth of JUMP payments from the overall amount you’d have paid for JUMP over the life of the contract.

You then trade your old phone(s) and subtract the amount gained from those from the remaining JUMP balance. You’ll get a new rate plan depending on which phone you get + the standard JUMP pricing + new supplemental JUMP charges, and from there you do the same for your next phone, and so on and so forth.

You can keep doing this until your contract expires. You won’t be getting free phones as you would for upgrading a standard contract but being able to get such discounts on new phones without having to pay full MSRP is worth it. If you’re still confused, consider Recombu’s breakdown of it below (where my figures were initially pulled from):

In the examples we’ve been given Phones 4u looks at a price plan for an iPhone 4S with £20 worth of minutes, messages and data etc: JUMP to an iPhone 4S after 6 months: Balance outstanding on JUMP = 18 months @ £22.99 £413.82 Trade in value of old handset £175.00 Balance remaining £238.82 Split over new 24 month JUMP contract £9.95 (No need to pay upfront) Monthly cost of iPhone 4s on JUMP service agreement £28.49 + £9.95 over 24months Total new JUMP cost £38.44 Plus airtime (dependent on airtime package chosen) £20.00 New monthly price plan £58.44 JUMP to an iPhone 4S after 6 months: Balance outstanding on JUMP = 12months @ £22.99 £275.88 Trade in value of old handset £150.00 Balance remaining £125.88 Split over new JUMP contract (per month) £5.25 (No need to pay upfront) Monthly cost of iPhone 4s on JUMP service agreement £28.49 + £5.25 over 24months Total new JUMP cost £33.74 Plus airtime (dependent on airtime package chosen) £20.00 New monthly commitment £53.74

I know I wouldn’t mind being able to upgrade every six months without incurring early termination fees or buying devices outright. We don’t see many contract carriers, in the UK or otherwise, catching on to this but we will certainly keep our fingers crossed.