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Like every other big carrier in America seems to be doing lately, Verizon has announced an early upgrade program that its consumers can use to get new smartphones faster than they would normally be able to. Those who want to take advantage will need to sign-up for month-to-month service from the get-go, where they can then choose a smartphone to pay off over the course of 24 months. The plan features:
- No down payment except the first month’s installment
- No finance charge
- No upgrade fees
- The ability to upgrade to a smartphone after 6 months if you’ve paid off at least 50% of the full MSRP cost of the device (if you haven’t reached it by that time you can pay up to the amount you need).
Verizon’s language was a bit iffy on other requirements, with the last line of its announcement stating the plan would be “available to customers on Share Everything plans starting August 25th.” That makes it sound as if those with grandfathered plans will be blocked out of the deal. We also don’t know if a trade-in is required. The press release didn’t mention anything about it, but we’ve reached out to Verizon to get some clarification.
Unfortunately, no real “fine print” exists just yet, so if there’s anything else to this new program we don’t know what it is just yet. It sounds pretty decent early on if you don’t mind the requirement of going with month-t0-month service and possibly being forced into a Share Everything plan, though we won’t pop champagne and drop streamers until we’ve been able to gather more info about it. How do you feel it stacks up to AT&T Next and T-Mobile JUMP! from what you’ve heard so far?
This seems like a horribly expensive idea for the consumer. As much as i want the latest and greatest, I can only imagine how much extra this would actually run me each month. Any way we could get a breakdown of the expected monthly cost at some point?
$600 retail phone over 24 months = $25 per month extra.
Verizon is a for profit company. They aren’t going to come up with a plan that doesn’t benefit them; nor should they. That said, this does allow you to have control over when you upgrade.
If I would pay the normal $249 ($699 retail) for a high end (32GB) smartphone, I would be stuck with it for 2 years. If I go this route, I can pay $25/month for 14 months and have a new phone quicker. Sure, I have to turn in the current phone and don’t get any money for it. The plus side is that I don’t have to front $250 and I can upgrade quicker.
Yeah, I know you could just sell your current phone for $250 (BTW…there are tons of these not selling so there is no guarantee) and then use that to get a new phone off contract for $700. That would mean a wash on the initial purchase vs the salvage value and then I now front $700 out of my pocket.
You can look at it any way you want, but certainly paying no money up front, not having to hassle with trying to sell your phone on ebay, and being able to upgrade after 50% paid off all for $25/month is going to be very appealing to some people. Maybe not everyone, but I certainly would consider it just based on not fronting the cash to get the phone and being able to upgrade every 6 months for a finance free $350. $25/month really isn’t much in my opinion. Does it benefit Verizon……of course it does. However, it also benefits the consumer who wants to upgrade more often and not have to front so much money.
Caveat…..this assumes you want to stick with Verizon for their coverage over TMo or Sprint. Please don’t compare this to other carriers as Verizon is hands down the best coverage out West and in the mountains. ATT is getting better, but the other two aren’t anywhere close.
THANK YOU. Finally somebody accepts that businesses make money. Making money is good. Money allows for a better network, better negotiations with manufacturers, and better pay for its employees (both executives and grunts.). This is a system that remains profitable for VZW and affords customers an option to upgrade outside 2 year contracts.
Yeah but most kids on here want everything given to them for free. No one wants to pay for anything, yet they still want the service. They will whine that Verizon is making a profit while somehow think they know the amount of revenue that is needed to keep such a large network going. They will also be the firs to complain about poor customer service or network coverage dead zones, yet fail to tie either of those issues to revenue.
i could be wrong but people arent complaining that verizon is making a profit… people are complaining that verizon is constantly breaking records in profits while constantly decreasing the services they are giving the customers… there is a big difference. The problem is, compare verizon now to verizon 3 years ago and your internet is slower, you no longer have unlimited data, and you are paying more… that’s the problem.
They are supposed to break records in profits. It’s called satisfying their investors. They walk the fine line of satisfying investors as much as possible so they get more capital investment and ensuring they don’t alienate their customers.
1. Their internet is much faster than 3-years ago for the majority of the US. LTE may have slowed down a bit from launch, but it’s is so many more places (did they have LTE 3 years ago? I have no idea).
2. The reason the have the money to deploy LTE so widely is in part to the investors that they satisfy by producing large profits
3. Unlimited data is useless to the vast majority of their customers (I’d guess 98% of them)
4. I actually pay less with a shared data plan (6GB) with my wife. We have 2 smartphones and a tablet and we pay close to $75 less than we did with unlimited data.
They are obviously doing something right with their business model as they just showed record profits again and added a million new subscribers. This will give them even more capital to increase their network coverage. If they were truly decreasing services to the majority of their customers, they wouldn’t keep making record profits. Think about it.
All of us smartphone nerds here that follow a phone blog are the extreme minority when it comes to a carriers customers. We may be the vocal majority, but certainly are not anywhere close to the paying majority. In fact, those that keep unlimited data tend to be extreme data hogs and therefore VZW probably doesn’t care if you leave to be honest.
Keeping customers happy can go a long way in the long term profitability of a company. Some of the best companies out there are known for their service.
I get what you are saying, but you are missing my point. Again, there’s a difference between a profitable business structure, and people feeling like they are getting shafted…
There’s a difference between “you get what you pay for” and pay for a premium ontop of a premium. Like ok if you want to buy premium gas for $4 a gallon because its better for your car then thats fine, but if regular unleaded gas prices, started to raise $5 a gallon are you going to be like “well, at least exxon is making money.” No you’d be pissed.
I’m sure the shared plan works fine for a ton of people, but it doesn’t work for everyone. And they could have both options, but they don’t. And that’s why these people feel shafted because everything they used to brag about is now being taken away from them, so for THEM their prices are going up and their experience has been deteriorating.
3 years was an exaggeration but yeah i think LTE deployed 3 years ago. And in NY its not just “slowed a little” its slower than tmobile’s hspa+… my inner circle of friends average between 4-7 on LTE most of the time.
And yes their profits help builds their network and coverage, but they also don’t have the best speeds in the world, they no longer get all the best phones when everone else gets them. They don’t have a bad selection, but other carriers seem to be outdoing them as of late. but yet they charge the most in the world…
So that’s great and all that it works for you, but don’t complain when other people complain because just like your needs are being met… theirs arent.
yeah but it’s (hypothetically, still need pricing) $25 more on top of the arm and a leg you already pay. My bill currently runs about $120/month, for my grandfathered unlimited data, the “smartphone data plan”, lowest amount of minutes you can get (700 i think?), and unlimited text. I have no problem with Verizon making money, but I do have a problem with them nickel and diming me for every Fing thing that i try to do. That being said, i’ll reserve judgement until i see full pricing details.
You’re ignoring the fact that you’re still paying for the same price for service as someone who gets a subsidized phone, but you’re not getting a subsidy.
That month-to-month contract is a double-edged sword. As they continue to adjust pricing of their plans for both data and voice, you’ll be subject to those new charges, which I’m betting isn’t going to get less expensive given the history of the industry. New phone sooner, but possibly higher priced plans.
sounds like they are using the fact that smartphone users like to upgrade to the latest and greatest, to force more people into their shared data plans. they are just making me more anxious to leave when my contract is up. with nexus phones offering very descent specs at half the retail price of smartphones, im ready to start saving my hard earned $.
Thats what irritates me. I am grandfathered on unlimited. I would drop for a nexus 4 in a heartbeat if it could take advantage of it. CDMA is such crap you are held for ransom everytime you buy a phone.
Not worth it if they still force you out of the unlimited plan…
VZ keeps dissing it’s elder subscribers every time they try to “innovate”.
not as good as the EBAY upgrade plan.
T-Mobile’s jump plan comes amazingly close to the EBAY plan.
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I think this really work out
great for the consumers who always want the new, latest phones. I
honestly think that the discounted price is the best way to go. People
who are cheapskates who pay nothing for their low end phones are the
ones who want to upgrade the most (you get what you pay for). Myself….
I pay more to get the best and can last for 2 years. It’s all about
options, wait 2 years or pau monthly payments to get a new phone.
So you pay the same price, as people who get subsidized phones, but you have to pay full price for your phone in installments. So basically you are double paying for your phone. Then they take away the only possible advantage of the program, and that would be as a means to keep unlimited data. Nice try Verizon.
Seems like AT&T and Verizon are sweating over what T-Mobile’s been doing this year. Got em on da run…
If they take out the recoup for the subsidy they already charge you, and just charge the new fee, then it wouldn’t be so bad. But I have a feeling that they are going to keep the price the same whether you are on this plan or not, then charge you AGAIN for the price of your phone. A lot depends on the details that haven’t been announced yet.
Of course they won’t lower the cost. They have never actually told us what the subsidy amount is, have they? They are trying to make a profit and look at any way they can to increase that profit. It’s part of being a publicly traded company.
I would presume they would make a profit on the $600 price. They haven’t told us how much the subsidy amount is, but I think we can assume they wouldn’t lose money on it. So $600 phone – $200 paid up front – $35 activation fee = $365, or ~$15 a month. So $15 a month is going to pay for the discounted price for a new device. So people will be paying for their device almost twice. I just think if people are giving you more money by paying full price for their phone, some of that savings should be passed on to them.
Oh I won’t argue that they should decrease the plan amount, but I doubt they will. Your math also uses simple logic that assumes VZW only recoups the cost in their plans. From a business standpoint, I’d argue they accept a loss on the subsidy to get you as a customer paying monthly (where they make it all back a few times over).
It would be nice if they did it, but we all know they won’t even consider that one.
all of these people throwing out the word subsidy…. its never been a subsidy it has been discounts that are given by the carriers…. unless of course if magically overnight and retroactively the carriers all became government entities. please know the meaning of a word before you use it.
Someone is paying for the phones…and it *ain’t* Verizon.
Yes, it’s a subsidy…even if they don’t call it such. (fyi: subsidies can be handed out by more than just government entities: I can easily subsidize my wife’s income with my own.)
Call it a discount if you want..they still recoup their costs somehow. It’s a discount with strings attached, and one they definitely aren’t losing money on. Also “Please know the meaning of a word before you use it” makes you sound like a jerk. Subsidy is commonly used for these kinds of situations. You can fight it if you want, but you’re going to lose. Too many people already use it that way.
tmobile still top dawg!!!! like they say…the early bird catches the worm!
If you live in a major city or along a highway. Otherwise, it’s not an option.
Or if you live in any of the remote rural areas that seem to be decently covered….like New Prague, MN as just one personal example…
(getting tired of the knee-jerk “coverage sucks everywhere but major cities” gag-reflex we get to watch on every post having anything to do with T-Mobile…)
You have LTE on TMo out there?
I have HSPA+ in New Prague. I have LTE where I work (Lakeville) and just about anywhere between the southern border of Lakeville through Plymouth, with no dead-zones.
(VZW has a rather large dead-=zone between NP and LKV that I’d hit every day to and from work. That dead-zone is HSPA+ and crystal clear calls on T-Mo)
NP is a farm town. There is another just slightly north (Elko/New Market) that has LTE….no idea why…one tower out in the middle of nowhere (probably testing).
Point being: it may be just one bit of anecdotal evidence, but just that one disproves it “not being an option”…
Nope, I can’t do anything unless I stand next to my window. I live 500 feet outside the city limit — pretty populated city too.
i live in new york city and i get hspa+ coverage an hour into Connecticut, 30 minutes into long island, and 30 minutes into jersey… i’m not saying that’s where it stops, but that’s only how far i’ve personally gone.
“Nope”
Yep.
I live in a farm town 45 miles from the nearest major city. HSPA+, even in the basement. 15-20 miles north? Glorious LTE.
Sorry you’re area sucks. Thankfully, it doesn’t apply to everyone. :)
Fair enough.
Glad it works for you. I travel quite a bit around CO and it really isn’t an option for me. Even within Denver TMo doesn’t have very good coverage.
*Verizon employee* alarm!
Hahahaha…..not a chance. I have done my own math though and not just jumped on the band wagon on complaining about this. I live in CO and Verizon is my best option. ATT is good too, but Verizon is a little better in the mountains at this point. The other carriers aren’t an option out here.
I doubt I will do this as I am good with upgrades every 2 years. For someone wanting to upgrade more often, it’s not that bad of a deal in my opinion. Yeah, its feeding Verizon more money, but you get your upgrade fix.
“No down payment except the first month’s installment”
LMAO, it IS the freaking down payment!!!!!
No, it’s your monthly fee of $25…..
I’m not really the biggest fan of this, but it is what it is. It’s not a down payment, it’s your first $25 month subsidy.
*Verizon employee alarm*
So I’m a VZW employee because you don’t understand the difference between a down payment and a monthly charge? It’s just like their current plans. You pay for your monthly service in advance of the month you use it. It’s not a down payment at all.
*T-Mobile Employee Alarm*
When is this crap going to stop? Google needs to hurry up and buy a carrier and crush these monopolies of garbage.
This is such a major failure and I still can’t believe people stay with Verizon. You pay subsidized down payment plus installment with the unchanged rate plan monthly fee?? Wtf, are ppl really that stupid or Verizon is way too greedy?
To upgrade every two years will cost you $350 ($250 initial, $150 in your pocket selling phone, and $250 again to upgrade). This will cost you $300 spread over 14 months and you can upgrade every 14 months. Remind me what is stupid about it?
I missed the part about the second phone being free with Edge… You’re giving an example of 2 phones for traditional upgrade paths, but pretending there is no cost for the next phone on Edge… Let’s try some other math: I’ll accept your $350 for 2 phones on traditional, but your $300 per phone in that same period of time for your two phones is just shy of $600 in the same 24 months. And there is no recouping what you’ve paid since you traded in your first phone to get your new one after 14 months.
Staying with Verizon is a matter of choosing to pay what they ask for the best possible service. Plain and simple. Like having a nicer car than everyone else.
“Staying with Verizon is a matter of choosing to pay what they ask for the best possible service. Plain and simple.”
…unless “the best possible service” in your area…ain’t Verizon. :)
Which is my predicament now that AT&T has a tower in my area and Verizon doesn’t. =(
And the worst part of all of this is that there are actually people out there who will fall for this. Shame on Verizon. Shame on AT&T.
TMobile JUMP! Is the best of the bunch. You’re actually getting value and not paying out of your a$$ for it.
I’m not giving up my unlimited data plan until they pry it from my cold dead hands.
Or another carrier has a better offering (and network).
Um, i’m home or at work 95% of the time. Both of which have wifi. I have a shared plan of 2gb and i’ve never even come close to using it because i’m ALWAYS ON WIFI. People who need unlimited are just retarded..
I think this really work out great for the consumers who always want the new, latest phones. I honestly think that the discounted price is the best way to go. People who are cheapskates who pay nothing for their low end phones are the ones who want to upgrade the most (you get what you pay for). Myself…. I pay more to get the best and can last for 2 years. It’s all about options, wait 2 years or pau monthly payments to get a new phone.
This is a free country so consumers vote with their dollar and Verizon just added 1 million subscribers in their recently announced q2 earnings call. People choose what works best for then and I don’t mind paying more for att service. In 2011 I had T-Mobile for my small business accounts and they are horrible for small businesses. You can’t order handsets online you have to call in or go to a store where you can get the same promotions. I immediately went back to att and havnt been happier. In los Angeles I get lte deep in garages and my gym and elevators. Try that with tmobiles high 1.7/2.1 aws signal. Or try driving to Vegas when you leave los Angeles your are in edge on tmobile the whole way. Just went back to Vegas 2 weeks ago and had lte/ hspa plus signal on att the whole way. You get what you pay for
Thankyou glad people realize companies need to make money. Competition is a good thing but you get what you pay for. It’s gonna cost att 1.2 billion just to deploy the Qualcomm media flo nationwide 700 mhz d and e block spectrum they bought back in late 2011. 1 billion on that no including continious lte deployment cost Ect. They are also starting to refarm thier edge spectrum in the 850 and 1900 bands for lte and deploying the nationwide 2.3 spectrum for lte in 2015. It cost money to run a big network and having good fast service is worth the extra 30/40 a month to me.
But I want the best service and fastest speeds for the same price as TMo!!!!!!!
I use 18-20GB per month on unlimited…no way I’m giving that up. I will continue buying phones through grey market avenues. VZW needs to bring back unlimited data. End of story.
My first month on T-Mobile, I used 15 GB of data on my 4G network and therefore had to have used at LEAST the same on home wi-fi…how anyone can survive AT&T and Verizon’s data plans never fails to awe me. I suppose plenty of people don’t do more than check e-mail but if I have a mini-computer in my pocket I want to use it as such.
Um, i’m home or at work 95% of the time. Both of which have wifi. I have a shared plan of 2gb and i’ve never even come close to using it because i’m ALWAYS ON WIFI. People who need unlimited are just retarded
Uh, congrats for you? The wi-fi at my work is only for the bosses, and there’s plenty of times I’m not home in which I need to stream video or music…so I’m retarded for enjoying my Android phone to the fullest? Even if I was always around wi-fi I would still NEVER pay a ridiculous price for 2GB of data, because THAT’S retarded.
I love how everybody all of a sudden becomes a math major…LOL. Look, all of you doing math need to just relax. They haven’t even come out with all the details yet. We don’t know how much this will cost. And even if it does cost more, it might be worth it to some people that want to upgrade faster. For me personally, I say f**k that…LOL. I want to pay as little as possible. So I’ll gladly wait 2 years for my upgrade and then pay $49.99 for a cheaper/older phone. I’m done paying ass loads for a brand new bad ass phone and then it sucks 6 months later.
I think the Verizon Edge plan stinks! It screws us grandfathered people out of early upgrades, just another way to try & trick you into giving up your UNLIMITED (NEVAAAAA)
wonder if it’ll be allowed on an existing tiered data plan. probably not.
Sprint, your move.