Verizon announces Edge, its own early smartphone upgrade program
Joining similar offerings from rivals AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon on Thursday unveiled its new Edge smartphone upgrade program, offering subscribers the ability to upgrade to a new handset after six months.
Verizon Edge is pitched as a "flexible equipment payment plan," allowing customers to spread the retail price of a new phone over a 24-month period. If users pay 50 percent of the retail cost of their smartphone, they can upgrade to a new phone in as soon as six months.
The new program is available for any smartphone that Verizon offers, including Apple's iPhone lineup. Customers choose the phone they want along with a month-to-month service plan.
The full retail price of the handset is then divided over two years. Customers pay the first month of that plan at the time of purchase.
When a customer upgrades to a new phone after six months, the 24-month payment period starts over again. Verizon Edge, which launches for Share Everything customers on August 25, does not include any service contracts, finance charges or upgrade fees.
The announcement comes only a few days after Verizon's main rival, AT&T, announced its own similar plan, dubbed Next. With AT&T Next, customers can upgrade their smartphone or tablet every 12 months with no down payment and no activation or upgrade fees.
Starting July 26, AT&T will allow customers to spread the cost of a new smartphone or tablet over a 20-month period as part of their monthly wireless bill. Subscribers will have the option to trade in their device and upgrade to a new model after one year.
Both AT&T and Verizon followed in the steps of T-Mobile, which unveiled its own program called Jump last week. That service allows customers to upgrade their smartphone as often as two times per year at an added cost of $10 per month.
T-Mobile Jump allows customers to pay the same subsidized price for a new smartphone as a new customer. Subscribers are required to wait at least six months after enrollment, after which they will be able to trade in their phone and upgrade to a new model twice a year.
Verizon's announcement on Thursday leaves out only Sprint as the only carrier among the "big four" wireless providers in the U.S. that does not offer an early upgrade subscription program.
Verizon Edge is pitched as a "flexible equipment payment plan," allowing customers to spread the retail price of a new phone over a 24-month period. If users pay 50 percent of the retail cost of their smartphone, they can upgrade to a new phone in as soon as six months.
The new program is available for any smartphone that Verizon offers, including Apple's iPhone lineup. Customers choose the phone they want along with a month-to-month service plan.
The full retail price of the handset is then divided over two years. Customers pay the first month of that plan at the time of purchase.
When a customer upgrades to a new phone after six months, the 24-month payment period starts over again. Verizon Edge, which launches for Share Everything customers on August 25, does not include any service contracts, finance charges or upgrade fees.
The announcement comes only a few days after Verizon's main rival, AT&T, announced its own similar plan, dubbed Next. With AT&T Next, customers can upgrade their smartphone or tablet every 12 months with no down payment and no activation or upgrade fees.
Starting July 26, AT&T will allow customers to spread the cost of a new smartphone or tablet over a 20-month period as part of their monthly wireless bill. Subscribers will have the option to trade in their device and upgrade to a new model after one year.
Both AT&T and Verizon followed in the steps of T-Mobile, which unveiled its own program called Jump last week. That service allows customers to upgrade their smartphone as often as two times per year at an added cost of $10 per month.
T-Mobile Jump allows customers to pay the same subsidized price for a new smartphone as a new customer. Subscribers are required to wait at least six months after enrollment, after which they will be able to trade in their phone and upgrade to a new model twice a year.
Verizon's announcement on Thursday leaves out only Sprint as the only carrier among the "big four" wireless providers in the U.S. that does not offer an early upgrade subscription program.
Comments
As if Verizon and AT&T needed to make their plans even more expensive. At least with T-Mobile, you're still paying around $50 bucks less with their early upgrade fee thrown in over these other clowns.
It is also nice that T-Mobile does not charge for overage, they just throttle your speed after the initial allotment.
AT&T and Verizon price their plans to cover subsidized phones. Now that people pay (or rent) their phones, they need to lower their service rates or they are just blatantly ripping people off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fafafoooey
It is also nice that T-Mobile does not charge for overage, they just throttle your speed after the initial allotment.
Yeah, or just pay the $10 more over the 2GB plan for unlimited which no longer does throttle or has invisible quotas.
So when does Verizon and AT&T DROP their plan prices?!?
No way in H*ll I am going to pay FULL PRICE for ANY phone and then on top of it pay a RIDICULOUS $30/line PLUS DATA.
Drop dead AT&T and Verizon!
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/16/4528404/att-next-phone-upgrade-plans-a-huge-ripoff
Verizon and AT&T plans are rip offs. T-Mobile's plans are on average $50 a month cheaper including the price for the phone. Moreover, a national test of data speeds puts AT&T and T-Mobile neck in neck in terms of data speeds (with AT&T slightly better).
When will there be unlimited everything, free 10 month upgrades, and 1 set price for it, expensive would be rather worth it in this scenerio.
Is that for ADD suckers who can't fit $600 into their budget when they want a new phone?
It's sooo much cheaper to go prepaid and simply purchase the phone unsubsidized. Even twice a year, if one is that antsy to stay current.
we need verizon for coverage... being off contract doesn't cost cheaper than being on... so this "edge" is not an edge at all... it's just double charge since you pay full price for the phone and the part of your monthly service charge that would normally be used to subsidize a phone is still there as a gift to Verizon for being so darn clever :P
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
Verizon and AT&T plans are rip offs. T-Mobile's plans are on average $50 a month cheaper including the price for the phone. Moreover, a national test of data speeds puts AT&T and T-Mobile neck in neck in terms of data speeds (with AT&T slightly better).
Yea, and I'm happy for you if you're in a place with good T-mobile coverage... we are not, and if we decide to get out of town for the weekend then the only real choice is Verizon. That said, I don't mind paying a bit more for their service but this BS with essentially double charging (remove the phone subsidy but not lower the service fee) is ridiculous ... seems like if you wanted to upgrade after a year you could just sell your current iPhone and buy a the new one for full price and still come out ahead. Unless they announce that the service fees are also going down, then this is a plan for the mathematically challenged
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeJones
As if Verizon and AT&T needed to make their plans even more expensive. At least with T-Mobile, you're still paying around $50 bucks less with their early upgrade fee thrown in over these other clowns.
nope
on t-mo once you add the phone fees and the fees for more 4G data and hotspot you are at the same price as ATT and VZW
nice thing about T-mo is that you don't have to pay for all the fast 4g data
Quote:
Originally Posted by starbird73
So are they doing away with subsidies? Or is this just phase 1 and subsidies go away in phase 2?
this is just to get the people who want to upgrade every year. they are the most profitable customers now
most people will still stay with subsidies
I think this is for month-to-month plans, are those cheaper than contracts? Is it the same as prepaid plans?
Would be nice to have a write-up done to compare all of them and see which really is the best. Since I would not want to deal with the hassle of selling an old phone to purchase a new one.
These plans are a rip off. There are much cheaper and better alternatives.
Why aren't there people with torches and guns breaking into the headquarters of the Big Four and dragging executives into the street? Heck, why aren't they marching on Washington to demand the people letting this happen resign?