Verizon has been in the news lately as their new plans went into effect on July 7th, 2016. Which led to many critics, including T-Mobile, voicing their opinion on whether they thought this was a good move or not. There were even a few disgruntled customers talking about leaving Verizon and jumping to AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint. As it turns out, according to Verizon nearly 95-percent more customers signed up for the new plans than they did when they introduced Share Everything in 2012. Lou Ambio, Verizon’s executive director of consumer pricing, stated that “They love the value of the plans. I think the value prop has resonated better than ever before.”
Verizon could not give accurate numbers, but the numbers they provide indicate that these are Verizon’s most popular plans – better than the Share Everything plan in 2012 and the Verizon Plan released in 2015. Equipment matters too – back in 2012, when the Share Everything Plan was introduced, Verizon had about 47-percent of its 88.8 million postpaid customers owning a smartphone. In 2015, Verizon was up to 103.7 million postpaid customers, and 70.6-percent owned a smartphone. More smartphones equate to more data consumption, which is exactly what Verizon is banking on to increase profits and why they added some data to each plan – along with a price increase.
Verizon said that the new plans offer 30-percent more data on average, but also admits the plans are slightly more per month. With Verizon’s current 107 million retailed postpaid customers, 85-percent of those customers are sporting smartphones. These type of numbers make customers think about upping their data bucket – now knowing they can rollover data for up to one month. Ambio says that the lower cost per gigabyte appeals to data users and so far Verizon is extremely happy with the mix of customers on the plans – he stated that they are “meeting expectations.” Verizon does not force existing customers off their current plan so if you are happy with what you have and what you are paying, then you can keep your plan until you decide to switch. Ambio said, “We have not done forced migration. We have customers on plans that are years and years old.” This is a good thing if you found something you like, but Verizon is betting that once you get that smartphone and start to realize how significant data is, you will eventually want to switch to a new plan.