Rogers has made some changes to their hardware upgrade program (HUP) that is effective today. The note we received is that “Rogers customers will now be eligible for the same pricing as new customers on all devices at 24 months since initial activation or last upgrade.”

Any upgrades are still subject to a lovely $35 administration fee, but the nuts and bolts of it is that it’s faster to upgrade to a new device, it just depends on which new category you choose. Rogers has created 5 “device categories” that consist of: voice (classic phones); quick messaging devices; BlackBerry; other smartphones; and iPhone

Rogers states that:

all customers will be eligible for an upgrade to select basic voice phones at a discount after 12 months, and our full range of devices including higher-end smart phones after 24 months. What’s new is that customers with a higher average monthly spend may be eligible for smartphones even sooner.