Verizon raised its top plan by $5, and many of you saw right through it

Verizon bumped the price of its top-tier Unlimited Ultimate plan by $5 a month a little over a week ago, and we asked you what that move actually signals. The results paint a picture that should make Verizon's leadership nervous.

What you told us about Verizon's price hike

Out of 354 of you who weighed in on our coverage of the $5 hike on the rebranded Unlimited Ultimate 1.0, 47.18% said this move signals another rough quarter loading for Big Red. Another 31.36% read it as a sign the rest of the carriers are about to follow suit with hikes of their own.

Only 11.3% of you said you don't really care so long as your locked-in rate stays stable. And just 10.17% are ready to actually walk away to a cable carrier over it.

The takeaway nobody at Verizon wants to hear

Nearly half of you essentially predicted Verizon's next earnings call will be a bumpy one, and that read tracks with reality. Verizon already added fewer subscribers than its peers in Q1, and now it's quietly raising the entry price on its priciest plan while existing customers keep their old rate.

That's a tactic, not a strategy. It looks like a company trying to squeeze more out of new sign-ups because growth has stalled, and you saw right through it.

The trust problem is bigger than the $5

The 31% of you expecting every other carrier to follow tells me something even uglier than the hike itself. Nobody believes a single US carrier will hold the line on prices anymore.

The receipts back you up. T-Mobile has spent the last year jacking up its Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee, hiking restocking fees, and finding every creative back door to charge more without touching the headline rate.

Why the switch-to-cable number surprised me

Only 10% of you said you'd jump to cable, which is lower than I expected. Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile together essentially make up the fourth US carrier at this point, running on Verizon's own towers for a fraction of the price.

My guess is inertia. Switching carriers is a pain, and most people put it off until they're truly fed up.

Where I land on this one

Verizon got caught running the oldest postpaid trick in the book, raising the entry price quietly while pointing at "added value" like Family Plus and Identity Secure. You didn't buy it, and neither do I.

If carriers actually wanted to grow, they would compete on price the way Mint and Visible already do. Instead, the Big Three keep nudging the floor higher and hoping nobody notices. You're noticing, and that's the whole story.

Want more carrier rants in real time? Come hang out on X at @jojothetechie and on Threads at @jojothetechie, where I'm always sounding off about the latest tech news.