It looks like Verizon will be pulling a Sprint and will charge customers an extra $10 to $15 for the privilege of using the carrier’s 4G LTE data service -the charge will be added on top of the existing data plan for compatible devices. We can’t we say we’re surprised, but it’s going to be interesting how customer react to drastically highers fees to access the faster 4G LTE data network.
Verizon is expected to start bringing the mobile broadband data speed of its nascent 4G network to laptops (via USB data cards), and then work their way to LTE-enabled smartphones, which should become available sometime in the first half of 2011, possibly May. Tablets should also get added to the mix, as Verizon and Motorola are rumored to release a FiOS-enabled Android Tablet with an expected launch before year’s end. Since it’s going to be expensive to roll out such a network nationwide, Verizon reasons that the extra fee seems logical to Verizon. And, we have to agree. Infrastructure roll-outs such as this are much more expensive than software upgrades, the likes of which T-Mobile USA are pursuing.
“Customers will pay for quality and premium service and premium speed,” said Verizon CFO, John Killian, at the Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. conference in Boston this week. Well, while it may be quality, users will have to face the same dilemma that Sprint has given many HTC EVO 4G users: paying for a premium service that’s not yet available in your area. Verizon points out that:
“Sprint already charges a $10 a month premium for 4G smartphone uses of the EVO, even if [customers] do not live in a 4G served area or find 4G coverage in any month. So this 4G premium is linked to the extent of 4G coverage, not just the performance.”
Thanks for that, Verizon. Verizon and AT&T are about the same as far as monthly bills are concerned, but with this new and exciting fee from Big Red, they will take the cake as far as most expensive carrier in the US. And while T-Mobile will eventually need to upgrade their HSPA+ network to stay up to speed, they’re doing their customers a solid by upgrading their existing network with newer technology of 3G – again, software upgrades to existing infrastructure are cheaper and easier to pull off. Don’t expect an extra fee for HSPA+.
[Via: LightReading]