Verizon Wireless Going Contract-Free?
According to an inside source, it looks like Verizon Wireless will be offering contract-free services as of September 21. Much like T-Mobile’s FlexPay, the option will be available to those who pay full, unsubsidized prices for phones or for folks who want to bring in their own devices. This will give the option of upgrading and switching devices without having to make contract modifications or extensions.
Here is a list of details about the upcoming offer:
- Available to Consumer, Corporate Liable, and Employee Liable customers (excludes Federal Government customers)
- Any current voice &/or data calling plan and equipment available
- Customer credit checks apply.
- Device Initiation Fee and/or Activation Fee must be charged (no exceptions)
- MTM customers are eligible to accept any applicable promotional offering but must agree with the contract term associated with the offer (i.e. they will no longer be a MTM customer)
- Customers are not eligible for equipment discounts if they do not agree to a one or two-year minimum term
- Corporate and employee liable customers are eligible to receive accessory discounts on month to month agreements
- MTM customers can terminate their service at any time (effective on their next bill cycle date) without incurring an early termination fee
- New Customers: Use Month to Month as the contract term
- Existing Customers: Use Upgrade Reason Code UN only
Anyone here gonna jump on this contract-free deal? Feel free to chime in!
Thanks, NotHTCKid
So.. will these plans be cheaper monthly since you Verizon is not subsidizing the price of a device?
Wow Ry, you nailed that one. Not lowering the monthly calling plan fee for the people on the MTM when Verizon is not subsidizing the cost of phone is where the numbers don’t compute. In U.S., mobile phone companies recover their phone subsidies by locking us in a contract with artificially inflated monthly fee to recover the cost of free phone or phone discounts. So let’s say the average subsidy is $200 per phone, and the phone company recovers that in a 24 month contract. Shouldn’t phone company lower the monthly MTM calling plan fee $8.33 ($200 / 24) per month for people who brought their own phone?
Wow you really dont know how the cell phone business works…..carriers make very little off the phones….only the service….. of course they are going to charge fees its how they make money to make your phones network work.
@ J:
It’s not a scam just because another carrier has had a similar rate plan available for some time. Enough will all the small town conspiracist theories.
VZW is just offering it as an option. Of course they’ll advertise it like it’s something new. AT&T advertised that they had the fewest dropped calls all over the place even though we all know that was a lie. And who the heck advertises a bad thing such as dropped calls as if even a couple are a good thing?
Usually, the only bad comments you read here about AT&T above and beyond what is normal are due to its network performance and reliability/consistency issues. Other than that, they suck just as bad as the rest of them.
Honestly, I don’t understand the beef with contracts. People need to get it through their heads that that’s how you get phones at so cheap a price! People forget that these are expensive little gadgets, and yet they still want to be contract-free.
Since when do most people switch carriers that often anyway? In the grand scheme of things, people stick to their carriers because they’re too lazy to switch, so while we might whine and moan about contracts, the general ignorant public could care less.
Tmobile for life!!! Lol. 4yrs str8t goin on 5 lames!!!
Does this mean that I can cancel my plan even though I have a two year contract?
its a sham that you work for att and have no clue about GSM and CDMA… GSM is not better than CDMA or the other way around. both technologies offer some advantages and disadvantages. Verizon is not number one because of the CDMA technology they have, but because they spend big chunk of their budget keeping up with their network. CDMA can hold more calls per tower but the signal can not travel as far and therefore, requires more towers VS GSM towers hold less calls but can travel a longer distance than CDMA. for both to meet more load on their network they both need more towers. if you put enough towers on GSM then your expanding your call capacity and if you put more towers on CDMA then you expand your coverage. look at Europe they are saturated way more than the US but their GSM network doesn’t suffer from any call quality issues because they use more towers in one area than we do. I hope you are not just referring to JD power findings in the last survey they are pure idiots and their conclusion is pure SH*t….
The only thing a no-contract line does for you is allows you to switch to another carrier without paying early termination fees.
You’re not going to get a discount if you don’t take a contract. A contract says that over 2 years, we’ll get enough money out of you to pay for the phone.
Now, what SHOULD be done is discounted plans because you’re not paying for a phone if you paid outright for it.
yeah – unless there is a upside reason for me to buy my own phone and opt into the no contract plan i would have no interest in this – there has to be some upside for me to want to do that
Ok. I read all these. I am old and decrepit and my Verizon 2yr is up soon. Thinking about that flex stuff..pay ahead. Looking at ATT and Verizon. (Never a dropped call. 4 years) I may use 50 minutes a month…no other services…camera. I can get my messages if my 12 yr old grandson is here. If I were your Mom or GM, what would you tell me?
@Judy
The most economical solution for you if you only burn through 50 minutes a month is to have your kid put you on their family plan for $10 a month. I did that for my Mom. If that is not a viable option, I would go with Verizon (contract, no contract, prepay, postpay…doesnt really matter when you only make 50 minutes a month; the money difference is less then $10 a month). We use Verizon in Southern California and I have never heard my Mom, who doesn’t care to know anything about mobile phone but making calls with it, complain about their service or call quality.
I would like to point out, Verizon had this same plan in the year 2002-2004. They dropped it because of lack of participation…then AT&T came out with their Pick Your Plan service, which is similar.
AT&T actually played catch up. But nowadays, customers really are looking for ways without contracts.
Ed, thanks. Good thoughts. I am glad I happened on this discussion!
Likeabite – Verizon is not moving to GSM! They have announced that the 4G network will be LTE. The interesting part is that AT&T and T-Mobile are using HSUPA which is also known as WCDMA. Although they would never market their data networks as that now would they?!
@ Bryan
LTE is the evolution path for GSM, not the EV-DO that VZW is currently using. So, in a sense, they ARE moving toward the GSM side of things. LTE will be a more direct upgrade path for AT&T as they are already GSM.
FWIW, only in North America is CDMA in the majority. Something like 60% CDMA to 40% GSM. In the world-wide perspective, 90% of mobile phones are of the GSM variety and CDMA is 10% minority. This speaks to the higher saturation of mobile technology in other countries where AT&T isn’t even the incumbent carrier.
@ Duh
Or maybe they don’t care because all you need to do to change phones on AT&T and T-Mobile is swap your SIM to whatever new device you have purchased.
Try to stick with the facts and not make it personal.
C’mon people.
This is huge.
What this REALLY means is the beginning of carriers in the U.S. transitioning to service-only companies i.e. they don’t sell you phones, you buy them from boutique stores and bring them in to be activated (or with a SIM card). With LTE in the near future, companies world-wide will be changing their focus from wireless voice-based technologies to incorporate a broad range of products from recently acquired 10mbps wireless 700mhz spectrum cell towers. So now you can ditch Comcast or TimeWarner and buy your TV/Cell/Internet exclusively from ATT/Verizon/Vodafone/China Mobile etc. As these communications firms gain market share, they will undoubtedly become major conglomorates with vast influx of marketing dollars (hence Google’s interest all of a sudden in wireless communications).
Soooo…no contracts a joke? Please, read into it people. Get ready for the future.
I think that going month to month is a wonderful addition ther are plenty of times customers want to add a line to a share plan and get stuck with the contract for there child that either turns 18 and goes there own route during the contract sticking the parents with the line, or is younger and loses/breaks the equipment and leaves the parents with out equipment to use on a line they either have to pay for monthly or pay the etf. Now parents who want to provide there children with a phone have the option to do so with far less risk to them, and being as if your on a share plan the fact that another company offered month to month previously dosen’t particularly help them so all in all I feel this is wonderful news. In addition I don’t understand the issue of the full retail price concern, most people take advantage of there upgrades and have an old piece of equipment that still functions perfectly well lying around or no somebody that does. That being said the bottom line is that most of the people who dislike month to month aren’t who it was designed for and the ones that love have a legitimate need for this type of servcie (phones for children, elderly parents etc…)
When you sign up with Verizon, be sure to keep a copy of any and all signatures you give them.
When I worked in a Verizon store, I was asked to sign customers’ names to things they never got copies of or even saw. It is especially heinous when the bogus signature goes on new or upgrade contracts. Lots of people have no idea that the employee they trusted just legally locked them in for contract terms they otherwise could contest.
I urge everyone to check out their signature history with Verizon. I’ll be you’ll find at least one signature you don’t recognize, and it usually looks like a seismographic ripple.
One guy a couple of months ago yelled and screamed he did not sign a contract with Verizon and the employees showed him where his upgrade was signed 2 months prior. He insisted it was not his signature, they told him he was obligated to fulfill the contract, pay the contract-cessation fees or have his credit ruined. He left very angry and I did nothing to defend him because I needed the job. I’m ashamed of it now but perhaps this testimonial will help others.