amount/standards needed for a 2 year contract phone

Well, there are many variables in this process, so there is no "one right answer".

You will have to pay for your phone. With a contract subsidy, that can range anywhere from $0 to $499 or higher depending upon which phone you choose.

You will have to choose your service. Since this is a new contract, I'm guessing it's a new account as well, so it would be a Mobile Share plan. That would cost you $40/month for unlimited talk & text service on your phone, plus your data plan. Data plans range from around around $30 to over $300 depending upon how much data you sign up for. Expect at the low end, you will be paying at least $70/month for the service (voice & data). You will have taxes & fees added in there as well (the city, county, state and federal governments all want more of your money) so expect another $5-10 on top of that so you will be looking at $75-80/month for the service.

You will have a one time activation fee of $40 which will be added onto your bill. You will also have to pay sales tax on your new phone. Keep in mind that in many states, this is the sames tax on the full retail price of the phone so you may be paying sales tax on a phone with a retail cost of $949.99 or higher, once again depending upon the phone you choose.

Next, if this is a new account, AT&T will perform a credit check on you. If your credit is not good enough, they may require a security deposit to activate your service. Generally, this comes in at around $500/phone if you are required to pay one of these, and after 1 year of your making your payments on time, etc, you will get that refunded back to you.

Taking everything into account, getting a new phone/account with AT&T can vary greatly depending upon your choices. If you walk into the store and get low-end devices & service, it may cost you less than $200, but it you go with the top of the line devices, and have bad credit, it may cost you closer to $800 to start a new account for one phone.