Verizon to Raise Prices on Legacy Plans
Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the US, is planning to raise prices on legacy plans, according to YouTube channel Tech Life Channel and CNET. The company will soon inform customers on older unlimited plans that their monthly bills will rise by $2. This is a “rate plan adjustment” fee, which Verizon says is necessary to account for the added cost of maintaining older plans.
Who Will Be Affected?
The fee will only apply to customers on older plans like Beyond Unlimited, Go Unlimited, and the older Unlimited plan. Verizon will notify customers about the change through email, mail, and notices on their March bill. The charge will begin to be levied from April.
Verizon’s Motives
It looks like Verizon has made this move to encourage people to move to its newer phone plans. The company explicitly said this when it increased the rate for customers on older shared plans in June last year.
Potential Backfire
YouTube channel Tech Life Channel’s Tyrone believes that this could backfire. He thinks that those who were happy with legacy plans may shift to AT&T or T-Mobile instead of opting for one of Verizon’s latest plans.
Verizon’s Customer Base
A large proportion of Verizon’s customers belong to older age groups and have high incomes. They are said to be slow in adopting new technology so a push from Verizon may make them switch to a more recent plan. Verizon already increased prices a couple of times last year, so this new charge might prove to be the final straw.
Competition
While T-Mobile has promised to never raise bills, AT&T and Verizon have raised prices in recent times to counter inflation. But T-Mobile has its own ways to cut costs, many of which haven’t gone down well with consumers.
