Verizon, well established as the U.S. carrier with some of the priciest plans, today came out with its “best Unlimited price ever” with Welcome Unlimited, a plan that costs $30 per line per month with four lines.
Of course, if you’re a single line person, the cost will be $65 per month, so it’s really geared for the budget-conscious folks with four lines. The operator is even offering to cover the costs to switch with a $240 Verizon e-gift card per line when activating the customer’s own 4G LTE or 5G phone, promising to save a family of four up to $960.
All the carriers are trying to get customers to switch over to them but it’s a tactic that T-Mobile especially brags about, saying it’s the beneficiary when there’s a lot of switching going on. T-Mobile honed its image as the budget carrier, but with 5G, its executives are plugging the ability to offer both affordable prices and a great network.
BYOD & entry level price
"Welcome Unlimited opens the door for more people to switch to the network more Americans rely on, at a highly-competitive price," said Verizon Consumer Group CEO Manon Brouillette in a statement. "Today, we are making it easy for customers to leave their wireless provider and join Verizon at an entry-level price point when they bring their own device."
Citing a recent Verizon and Material+ survey, the press release notes that this plan “couldn’t come at a better time” as 86% of Americans are concerned with budgets and expenses increasing over the summer. There’s no mention about recent price increases at Verizon.
Verizon stipulates that the Welcome Unlimited plan can’t be mixed with other Unlimited plans, and in times of congestion, “your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic.” Data speeds are reduced to 2G after 0.5 GB/day, and it doesn’t include mobile hotspot service. Perks like a free subscription to Disney+, Hulu and Apple Music are not part of this offer.
The Verge also noted that customers can only get access to the lowest $65/month per line Welcome Unlimited price if they sign up for paperless billing and autopay. Otherwise, the Welcome Unlimited plan costs $75/month per line for one line, and there’s a $35 activation fee.
In addition, the Welcome Unlimited includes access to 5G Nationwide only, a Verizon spokesperson confirmed, so it doesn’t allow access to Verizon’s faster 5G Ultra Wideband service.
What’s Verizon up to?
“Generally, I think it’s a very walled plan for a specific audience,” said Bill Ho, principal analyst at 556 Ventures. “Basically, everybody’s got to be on this plan. You can’t mix it with the other plans.”
It's standard for a lot of lower cost plans at all the carriers, where the trade-off is reduced access to speedier data for a lower price, he said.
And it’s another “un-Verizon” move, similar to its purchase of TracFone, in that Verizon previously didn’t compete in any measurable way in prepaid. Verizon's always been the premium provider, boasting about its network performance, he said.
“They are going against T-Mobile” from a value provider standpoint. “That target audience doesn’t care about all the bells and whistles. They just care about price,” Ho said. Also, from a timing perspective and the economy possibly going south, it’s a way to possibly hang onto users looking to save some money.
A lot of new price plans straddle quarters, and this one is coming as Verizon prepares to report its second-quarter results on July 22.
Jeff Moore, principal at Wave7 Research, said the Welcome plan is a bare bones unlimited plan and Verizon Welcome customers can’t take advantage of Verizon’s device deals.
“Still, this offer is quite competitive,” Moore said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that T-Mobile, Xfinity Mobile, and Spectrum Mobile have a headline family price point of about $30/month per line, so Verizon seems to be matching the competition. Verizon has been losing share and clearly the carrier decided to act.”
Story updated July 12 with additional commentary.