By now, everyone knows the new face of T-Mobile, the great “Uncarrier.” They revamped their wireless pricing plans by ousting contracts and expensive subsidies. Basically, consumers pay the full price for their device either up front or through monthly installments but they remain free of contract obligations. Furthermore, wireless service plans are less expensive thanks to the exclusion of traditional subsidies.
T-Mobile made a bold move and it definitely paid off for them. Consumers are all for the new service plans, and many have even showed interest by asking their own wireless carrier to offer similar plans. One of the major carriers, Verizon Wireless has shown significant interest in adopting new pricing strategies.
Fran Shammo, said during the J.P. Morgan tech conference, said that Verizon has actually looked into these new service plans “a number of times,” but they have no interest in changing prices for their existing “Share Everything,” data heavy plans.
“We may give users more options to buy phones, but it won’t affect the service pricing.”
Apparently, Verizon is not against dropping contracts either as they’ve stated publically in the past that they would consider doing so if customers demanded it. Although, it’s pretty clear that Verizon is not ready to give up those subsidy fees any time soon.
As it stands, Verizon’s Share Everything plans offer unlimited phone calls, and text messages alongside allotted data limits which can be used across multiple devices like a smartphone, or tablet. Undoubtedly, this approach has been adopted by Verizon because of the sheer number of consumers that supposedly use their shared data plans with alternate devices.
Shammo says that current smartphones are “extremely expensive” and as such they have very high subsidy costs for wireless carriers. This is also why Verizon extended the traditional 20 month upgrade cycle to 24 months, so they could reel in those extra few subsidy payments from customers. The change will be effective over the coming year.
When pressed about the new upgrade policy, Shammo said that the current two-year upgrade cycle “works for us and consumers.”
Are you a current Verizon Wireless customer? What are your thoughts on this information? Are you upset with Verizon’s approach to wireless plans and their respective pricing options?