Everyone is waiting eagerly for iPhone 5’s arrival. Though most of the sources point towards June release of the handset, nothing is confirm yet.

No one has yet noticed that with the arrival of iPhone 5 in June, a hell lot of upgrade eligibility issues for AT&T and Verizon users (who have been using iPhones already) will also arrive. As first considered by Beatweek Magazine , AT&T allows its customers to upgrade pricing only 12 or 18 months after they have purchased their last iPhone. In fact, several other factors like size of their monthly bill or how often a user makes late payments also influence their eligibility for an upgrade. Now, noticing the fact that iPhone 4S arrived in October last year, if iPhone 5 releases in June this year, a time gap of only 9 months between the two launches will exist. This would probably mean that no one in the United States will be able to purchase iPhone 5 at its advertised pricing on the day of launch.

Similar is the case with Verizon customers. Verizon launched iPhone 4 in spring of last year (which is 8 months after AT&T launched it). It follows a standard upgrade eligibility policy of 20 months, which means that a person who bought iPhone or iPhone 4S will not be able to purchase iPhone 5 at its standard price after its launch. So who exactly will be eligible to use an iPhone 5? Well, AT&T users who bagged an iPhone 4 early enough to complete required time period for eligibility, iPhone 3GS users and Android and BlackBerry customers who are planning to take a switch to an iPhone will be eligible to buy the next generation iPhone. However, unfortunately, none of the iPhone 4S users will get to enjoy the next generation iPhone at its standard pricing on its launch.

Solution? Well, the best way out is to stick with whatever you have right now. Apple offers new iPhone software system updates to users of older generation iPhones for free. All new features of iPhone 5 will be available on iPhone 4S through these upgrades, while only some of them will get down to slower iPhone 4. Else, you can wait for some time until you satisfy the eligibility criteria for upgrade. One can also buy iPhone 5 by paying $200-$250 extra (as overage fees) and later can sell their current iPhones in an online auction. For your information, iPhone 4 still has a value of over $300 on ebay. In case a customer falls few months short of fulfilling eligibility criteria, he can call up his network operator (Verizon or AT&T) and threaten to switch to some other network unless it gets ready to match his eligibility date with iPhone 5 release date. Believe me! This has worked before!