Verizon has no plans to offer unlimited plan it already offers

Did you know that prepaid subscribers accounted for 80 percent of the adds in the U.S. wireless industry? It sounds like a lot, but when you look back on the earnings reports it makes sense. With Boost Mobile, MetroPCS, and Cricket wireless all turning in stellar quarters, with T-Mobile continually adding more prepaid subscribers than postpaid, and with Sprint continuing their subscriber hemorrhage, it starts to make sense. This has caused an industry-wide focus on prepaid. Well, except for Verizon. Their CFO, John Killian, spoke about the company’s postpaid strategy and why they won’t be expanding their prepaid offer. It’s quite funny, actually.

Here’s the quote from Killian: “We do not feel compelled or feel it’s the right strategy for us to go out with any kind of unlimited prepaid offering.” Any kind of prepaid offering, Mr. Killian? You mean the kind where you pay $3.99 per day for unlimited minutes? Because that’s what Verizon currently offers. It sounds like an unlimited plan of some kind, at the very least. Yet Mr. Killian thinks his company will not offer this.

While he’s probably speaking of a $50 flat-rate unlimited plan like his competitors, his wording could have been a bit more accurate to reflect Verizon’s current plans. No unlimited flat-rate offering? Fine. No unlimited prepaid offering of any kind? The company already beat you to it, John.

Lampooning aside, the most interesting part of the article was the 80 percent figure. I wonder what the prepaid-postpaid divide will look in the second quarter. It will go a long way in determining whether prepaid growth is an illusion or not.

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