Verizon officially kills off New Every Two upgrade discount program

There's already been plenty of evidence over the past couple weeks to call this a lock, but let's just go ahead and close the loop on this one: Verizon's official FAQ list has been updated to indicate that its New Every Two upgrade discount program is toast. In short, that means that new lines of Verizon service won't be eligible for an equipment discount -- which used to run between $30 and $100 -- after your two-year contract is up, and folks that are currently enrolled in an NE2-eligible plan will only be able to redeem the discount one more time before being taken out of it. The move kind of dovetails with Verizon's decision a few months back to bump the smartphone ETF to a groan-inducing $350, and it seems to be part of a larger industry trend toward making phones wincingly expensive to replace. Don't drop that Droid X, folks!

Note: To be clear, you'll still be eligible for normal subsidized pricing once you pass into the upgrade period on your contract -- you just won't get an extra discount on top of that.