Verizon today announced a new pricing initiative that could provide subscribers with significant savings.
The new pricing scheme will bring lower “MORE Everything” pricing to its month-to-month customers. Starting on April 17 Verizon customers on a month-to-month contract will be able to join a MORE Everything plan and see an immediate discount for their device fee.
Customers who take Verizon up on this offer can sigh up for a MORE Everything plan with a data cap of 8GB or below and pay only $30 per month to add a smartphone to the plan. This is $10 less than the $40 Verizon charges month-to-month customers to use a smartphone on their plan. Verizon customers who sign up for a Verizon Edge plan and purchase a new smartphone from Verizon will also receive the lower monthly access price.
The deal should provide a slight discount for Verizon subscribers who have already paid off their smartphone device. The device will, of course, have to be compatible with Verizon’s network.
Verizon’s announcement is yet another significant change that has come to the U.S. mobile market over the past year. Since last year T-Mobile, the fourth-largest mobile provider in the U.S., has been announcing a series of initiatives meant to increase subscriber numbers. T-Mobile’s offers have created significant competition in the mobile space, forcing larger carriers such as Verizon to announce plans such as the MORE Everything.
In the midst of this change, U.S. mobile providers are gearing up for more intense competition in the coming years. Market watchers are now seeing the U.S. smartphone segment begin to saturate as consumers upgrade to smartphones. This has led to an ever-shrinking pool of potential new customers – the engine that mobile providers have been running on for years. With so few new customers to gain, mobile providers are now battling for customer retention while developing new monetization schemes (some of them very shady).
