By Drew FitzGerald

Verizon will freeze rates for a broad swath of its customers in a bid to hold onto cellphone users irked by years of price hikes.

The telecom company said Thursday that subscribers on its myPlan and myHome bundles will automatically gain a price-lock guarantee for three years. Verizon has spent the past few years boosting its revenue by raising monthly rates and fees.

"This is time for us to start taking share," Verizon consumer chief Sowmyanarayan Sampath said. "The pool of customers who are available for grabs will decline over the next few years as the market matures and saturates, so to grow your base you have to hold onto your base."

The Details

The price locks are automatic for all subscribers on Verizon's myPlan or myHome services -- both newer plans that offer extras like discounted streaming-media subscriptions -- and will auto-renew after three years. The rate promises don't cover changes in fees, taxes or "perks" offered by third party services like Netflix and Max.

Sampath said freezing base prices will give customers more peace of mind. About half of Verizon's customer base is on myPlan. The company will also offer free satellite-based text messaging to any myPlan subscriber with a capable device.

The Context

Some price locks aren't as ironclad as they used to be. T-Mobile recently phased out a rate guarantee it launched in 2022 and introduced new offers, including "5G Internet Price Lock" and "Last Month Price Lock" with more loopholes. T-Mobile also said some older plans would see their monthly rates increase this week.

The cost of wireless and home internet service has gradually climbed in recent years, a trend some companies attribute to their own rising expenses. Corporate consolidation, including the 2020 merger of T-Mobile and Sprint, has also left consumers with fewer places to take their business if they don't like their wireless service.

Write to Drew FitzGerald at andrew.fitzgerald@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2025 11:45 ET (15:45 GMT)

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