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Verizon Launches New 'Customizable' Smartphone Plans That Charge $10 Per Perk

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Verizon today announced new "myPlan" customizable smartphone plans that essentially unbundle unlimited cellular service from the "perks" that Verizon has offered to subscribers in the past. Right now, for example, signing up for a Verizon "Get More" plan offers unlimited 5G service along with perks like access to Apple Arcade, Apple Music, Disney+, and more.

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With the new "myPlan" options, Verizon is charging a base price for 5G access, and then an additional $10 for each "perk" that a subscriber wants to add.

There are now two plans, including Unlimited Plus and Unlimited Welcome. Unlimited Plus is the only plan with the faster 5G Ultrawide band connectivity, while Welcome Unlimited offers slower 6GHz 5G speeds. Unlimited Plus is priced at $80 for one line, while Unlimited Welcome is priced at $65 for a single line, with discounts for additional lines. Prices include a $10/line Auto Pay discount.

There are $10/month add-ons for the Disney/Hulu/ESPN+ bundle, 100 GB of additional hotspot data (Unlimited Plus comes with 30GB), Apple One (which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB iCloud storage), Walmart+, and Apple Music Family. Verizon also offers add-ons for +play (its answer to Apple TV Channels), 2TB cloud storage, and three TravelPass days.

Verizon says that subscribers can decide "exactly what goes in and what stays out" of a plan, to ensure that customers are not paying for what they do not want.

For comparison's sake, a single line $90/month "5G Get More" plan (with Auto Pay) at the current time includes 50% off an Apple Watch, free TravelPass access (1 per month), the Disney Bundle, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, 50GB of hotspot data, and 600GB of Verizon's cloud service.

Adopting the new plan would cost $80 per month with Auto Pay enabled, $10 for Apple One (with the same benefits), $10 for the Disney bundle, and $10 for three TravelPass days per month. It would also be limited to 30GB hotspot data and would include less Verizon cloud storage, so on the whole, the plan change is not ideal for existing Verizon customers who prefer to have access to the current add-ons.


The new plan would benefit those who do not care for or use the add-ons as it would cut the price by $10 per month, but it will drop hotspot data by 30GB.

Verizon says that each family member gets to "customize their own plan," so savings will be more notable for those who share a plan with family, but for most people, these changes are likely to result in price increases and loss of perks rather than more choice.

Verizon's new myPlan options will be available starting on May 18. Existing customers will not need to change their plans, and can add additional perks to their current plans if desired.

Article Link: Verizon Launches New 'Customizable' Smartphone Plans That Charge $10 Per Perk
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/05/16/verizon-customizable-smartphone-plans/
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Reactions: progx
Of course... Just like any unbundling of services, at first each perk appears cheaper, therefore you subscribe... but then they eventually increase the price of each and you're now spending more than you ever have.

Biggest cons of all. They learned this from the networks unbundling and transforming into streaming services that when all added up are more than ever before.
 
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So, I am in Verizon's highest-tier cellular plan. Think it's GET MORE PLUS.

It's $90 per month and includes Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Disney+/Hulu/Discovery

Am I going to be forced to leave this plan for the new one? Cause that will be a lot more expensive if I do.
 
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Will have to check this out, 4 lines on a legacy LTE plan, unlimited, cost me around 190 today, and I don’t care about these perks…
 
NJRonbo said:
So, I am in Verizon's highest-tier cellular plan. Think it's GET MORE PLUS.

It's $90 per month and includes Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Disney+/Hulu/Discovery

Am I going to be forced to leave this plan for the new one? Cause that will be a lot more expensive if I do.
Click to expand...
No, you won’t have to move to a new plan. They may increase the charges for older plans down the road but you’re fine for now.
 
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robd003 said:
Why does a single line cost $80 / $65?

Why can't all lines just cost $45?
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The more you buy, the more you save. The discount is an incentive to bring more subscribers to Verizon and your family/group plan instead of letting them go to another carrier. This subscriber number looks good to investors.

Once you have multiple people on your discounted family/group plan the less likely you'll want to have/let someone leave because if someone leaves, the family/group plan loses a discount. So subscribers who get nice discounts tend to stay. This keeps churn numbers down and is another metric investors like to see.
 
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I have been toying with the idea of switching my wife and I from T-Mobile to possibly Verizon. But even with the introduction of this new plan, Verizon still isn’t close to what I pay for the two of us (also have 20% discount applied to my account for as long as I’m with TMO). So MNVO would be the only other option really if I wanted to save money on a monthly basis (and with no perks).
 
I pay $25 for 6GB per month via VZW pay-as-you-go. It's plenty. I'm not delusional enough to think I'm so "busy" and "important" and "irreplaceable" that I need unlimited data to solve the world's most critical problems with my phone aka making bets via Draft Kings app. :rolleyes:
 
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This is probably a stupid question, but can someone explain to me about the hotspot data? Am I correct in my understanding that without the mobile hotspot "perk", I can't use my iPhone as a personal hotspot to connect my iPad or MacBook Air to my cellular data?

I am currently on a SUPER old Verizon plan (4GB of data a month, shared between 4 people). I hesitate to let go of it because I know I can use my phone to connect other devices if I need to without being charged an extra fee. I rarely need to...but it is comforting to know I can.
 
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Verizon was quoted as saying "If you think you figured out how these plans work, think again! We have designed them to be impossible to figure out, just like our older plans. But we're giving you a new way to get screwed just in case you were unhappy with the old way." :)
 
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bigboy29 said:
If you don't need / want the perks, IMO Visible is a no brainer.
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vertsix said:
Just use Visible by Verizon instead.
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Tried Visible 3 times over the past 4 years.... most recently was last summer. I still can't get any usable service where I'm at and when I could, ping was high (usually 130ms+) and speeds were slow (no more than 3 Mbps). Visible users are low priority unlike actual Verizon customers.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Tried Visible 3 times over the past 4 years.... most recently was last summer. I still can't get any usable service where I'm at and when I could, ping was high (usually 130ms+) and speeds were slow (no more than 3 Mbps). Visible users are low priority unlike actual Verizon customers.
Click to expand...
I had the same experience w Visible. Ping times made it unusable, unfortunately.
 
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