- Verizon veteran Nancy Clark was brought in earlier this year to lead Verizon’s prepaid Value segment
- The new leadership team spent a lot of time talking to customers about what they want in the prepaid market
- Today the Total Wireless brand is launching a package of deals they think will appeal to these customers
It’s no secret that Verizon’s prepaid business spiraled downward ever since the company made a serious attempt to compete in the prepaid sector with the acquisition of TracFone in 2021.
Now, Verizon Value President Nancy Clark, a company veteran who took over the prepaid division in January, says they’ve come up with a game plan that involves a new look for one of the prepaid brands and “bold” new offers to go up against rivals Metro by T-Mobile and Cricket Wireless, all powered by the “iconic” Verizon network.
The backdrop
Clark said that since she took the Verizon Value job early this year, they’ve been focused on a few things.
Organizationally, the No. 1 priority was to make sure they had very clear priorities for the team, she said. That new prepaid team is comprised of both seasoned veterans within Verizon as well as some folks from outside the company, including David Kim, who previously was at T-Mobile and Dish Network. Angie Klein, the previous president of Verizon Value, remains with Verizon’s Consumer Group in the postpaid side of the business.
TracFone was comprised of myriad prepaid brands when Verizon acquired it, and it continues to serve some brands that it doesn’t actively market, she said.
Here are the eight primary brands that are currently under the Verizon Value umbrella: Total Wireless (formerly known as Total by Verizon), Straight Talk, TracFone, Walmart Family Mobile, Verizon Prepaid, Simple Mobile, Visible and SafeLink.
“The most important thing that we’ve been doing is to assess all of the brands within the Verizon Value portfolio to really make sure we understand the consumer that each of the brands is serving and that there is a clear and distinct purpose for each of the brands in serving those consumers,” Clark said. “That’s been a lot of our work.”
Clark acknowledged that since the TracFone acquisition, “we’ve been going through a tremendous amount of transformation.” Again, a lot of that had to do with making sure they had the right brands in place to serve the right segments.
“Now I think we’re in a good position. We’re sharpening our focus on each of the brands, and I think we’re in a good position to begin a good growth trajectory for the business,” she said. “It’s a new value proposition that we’re bringing to market.”
Spotlight on Total Wireless
The new offers announced today for the Total Wireless brand reflect what they heard from customers, she said. For example, customers said they didn’t always see “price clarity.” Verizon is addressing that with a five-year price guarantee for new Total Wireless customers on unlimited data plans for less than $30/month.
Is that to counter what T-Mobile is doing with its “price lock” claim?
“What I would say is ours is a price guarantee for five years,” she said, declining to make any direct comparisons to rivals like T-Mobile.
So there’s no catch in Verizon’s fine print? “Five years is the price guarantee,” she reiterated.
Other Total features
Other new deals include free 5G phones upon activation of a Total 5G plan, a fourth line at no additional cost and “10x faster data.” Clark said the faster data offer is a result of customers saying they didn’t feel they were getting the same network access as postpaid customers.
The new Total Wireless prepaid customers will get access to C-band spectrum, as will Visible customers, she said. Customers need to move to the new published plans that Verizon is offering, so it’s not an automatic thing. But for those who do, they will experience much faster speeds, she said.
Verizon’s commitment to the Total Wireless brand is evident in the number of dealer stores that it supports, going from zero to almost 1,000 stores in a little over a year.
Stepping back, when will the prepaid market for Verizon be positive on a steady basis?
It’s a question she gets quite a bit. “I would say we’re on a healthy trajectory,” she said. “We think changes like this are going to accelerate our path” to both gaining customers and keeping them.