Verizon closes in on T-Mobile's ultra-affordable 5G service with cheaper Welcome Unlimited plan
"Unlimited" might seem like a simple word with a fairly straightforward definition for pretty much anyone that's ever opened an English dictionary, but believe it or not, Verizon has about half a dozen different definitions for the same marketing term and all of them are constantly changing.
Big Red's cheapest unlimited plan, for instance, is getting a very interesting revision less than six months after its commercial debut, thus improving its competitiveness against all three of T-Mobile's own "unlimited" service takes.
Magenta's Essentials option is obviously the one directly targeted by Verizon's Welcome Unlimited plan, which will start at $60 for one line instead of the previously charged $65 and up from tomorrow, December 23.
As you can imagine, this hot new $5 discount doesn't apply to existing Welcome Unlimited lines, but on the bright side, those looking to switch to the largest mobile network operator in the US starting this Friday can rest assured knowing their preferential monthly rate will be locked for three years.
That price guarantee is pretty clearly Verizon's way of trying to combat T-Mo's (indefinite) Price Lock policy, but with taxes and fees running rampant on both carriers, these promises may not prove particularly effective in boosting subscriber numbers.
What tends to work without fail is an outright discount, and the aforementioned 5 bucks will be slashed off the prices of two, three, and four Verizon Welcome Unlimited lines as well. That means a family of four is looking at paying a total of $100 a month now for all the 5G "basics" and nothing more, compared to $105 over at T-Mobile with the Essentials plan.
That may sound like Big Red is all of a sudden winning the US wireless value war, but it's important to point out that said "basics" include no "premium" mobile hotspot data and no "premium" network access whatsoever.
That's... not very "unlimited" and it doesn't compare extremely favorably with the only slightly costlier T-Mobile Essentials plan, which comes with no less than 50 gigs of "premium" (read super-duper-high-speed) data a month. Still, Verizon is definitely getting more aggressive about its plan rates and promotions, which can only benefit the industry as a whole and regular consumers going forward.
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