Chief financial officer of Verizon Communications, Fran Shammo, confirmed that Verizon Wireless would soon offer shared data plans for families and that the carrier’s offerings would be available some time around the middle of the year.
“This is going to be a long-term migration into where we want to get data plan sharing, but this will be more of a 4G play for us and I think it will be critical for us. And you’ll see something launched–even Lowell alluded to it–you’ll see something launched mid-year this year from us,” he said.
It’s interesting that Shammo chose to openly state that Verizon considers this a “4G play” perhaps meaning that families can only get access to a shared data pool if they are 4G LTE customers. The carrier has been trying to get subscribers to buy phones equipped with the faster technology so it can start investing more money into 4G and slowly end support for 3G. A number of promotions have been initiated to contribute to the effort, but so far the adoption rate is fairly slow.
CEO Lowell McAdam previously hinted in December that these shared data plans would eventually arrive, which have been a top priority for many customers as more people move from feature phones to smartphones. AT&T and Sprint also gave the media a few signals, but so far did not officially announce anything. Walmart and T-Mobile teamed up in January to offer one of the first shared data plans, but you’ll have to buy into a talk and text bundle, too.