Verizon Hit By Prepaid Subscriber Exodus After Internet Subsidy Ends (yahoo.com) 45
Verizon reported a significant loss of wireless subscribers in the second quarter, with its consumer business shedding 624,000 prepaid customers, largely due to the expiration of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program in May.
The telecom giant attributed over half of these losses to the end of the COVID-era internet subsidy that had previously supported 23 million low-income households across the United States. Despite the subscriber exodus, Verizon managed to add 148,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers during the period.
The telecom giant attributed over half of these losses to the end of the COVID-era internet subsidy that had previously supported 23 million low-income households across the United States. Despite the subscriber exodus, Verizon managed to add 148,000 net monthly bill-paying wireless phone subscribers during the period.
Where Will They Go? (Score:3)
AT&T? After the recent major security issue that compromised so much customer 'data', as in call & message logs?
T-Mobile? After their multiple security issues over multiple years that have compromised customer 'data'?
Some 3rd party prepaid service? Without the subsidy program they are left with 'el cheapo' providers that may or may not work as well.
Maybe Consumer Cellular, perhaps the last free-standing prepaid cellular provider (actually a MVNO), will see an up-tick in their wireless subscriber count?
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AT&T? After the recent major security issue that compromised so much customer 'data', as in call & message logs?
T-Mobile? After their multiple security issues over multiple years that have compromised customer 'data'?
Some 3rd party prepaid service? Without the subsidy program they are left with 'el cheapo' providers that may or may not work as well.
Maybe Consumer Cellular, perhaps the last free-standing prepaid cellular provider (actually a MVNO), will see an up-tick in their wireless subscriber count?
More likely, what'll happen is most of them simply won't have service for big stretches of time, while the telecoms whine to congress about funding and most likely get a direct subsidy handed to them to make up for the fact that they lost so many customers. Because if we went back to handing poor people something that may help them *AND* support business, something, something, throw the word lazy in to imply only laziness leads to economic hardship and Bob's gonna be an uncle again. YAY! 'MERICA!
This (Score:2)
More likely, what'll happen is most of them simply won't have service for big stretches of time
That's absolutely what will happen. It's been a long time but I had a buddy years ago who just ran their phone off of whatever free wifi they could get for about a year due to money problems. It's kind of doable but it's pretty limiting in terms of modern expectations for communication which can make things that are dependent on communication (like improving ones economic situation) noticeably harder.
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Here's a list of primary mobile vendors in the US:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
And virtual vendors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
There are a lot.
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According to those links the US has 3 primary mobile vendors. That first link includes virtual vendors as well.
Re:Where Will They Go? (Score:4, Insightful)
Probably back to biking up to the local McDonald's and Starbucks for the free WiFi when they need to go online. People who are barely scraping by aren't thinking about data breaches, they're thinking about it they're going to be able to keep food on the table.
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They won't. (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a laundry list of bad things this will end with. Just like how we refuse to feed kids in school because we enjoy lording it over them or something. It's very "leopards eating faces" behavior because long term it bites us in our asses.
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it just means they don't have Internet, and more importantly neither do their kids.
Kids having unrestricted internet access is precisely what gives politicians that whole "think of the children!" justification for cracking down on porn. Perhaps less kids on the internet is actually a good thing. I'd place the blame on schools that are creating any sort of curriculum which assumes kids have internet at home in order to complete their assignments. That's what's truly putting the poorer students at a disadvantage.
I'm assuming by the age demographic of Slashdot that most of us do remember
It's just regular internet (Score:2)
It never ceases to amaze me the knots right wingers will twist to themselves in to deprive children. Seriously take a moment and look at the excuses and reasons given for why we don't feed hungry children in schools in
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Their access is restricted by their parents just like any other child.
You're assuming that a family that isn't responsible enough to manage their budget to the point of being able to afford a cell phone bill is going to be tech savvy enough to set up parental controls? Plus, we're probably talking bargain basement garbage Android phones where even if you know what you're doing, setting up restrictions is going to be a major pain in the ass.
It never ceases to amaze me the knots right wingers will twist to themselves in to deprive children.
Yeah, I know to you anyone to the right of Bernie may as well be wearing a MAGA hat. You're the one equating the suggestion that curricu
Do you just full of hate and betterness (Score:2)
It never ceases to amaze me how much the right wing indulge in looking down on people and hating them. Never mind that most of you claimed to be Christians and you were explicitly instructed by Christ not to do that. You know you're going to burn in hell for all eternity right?
But honestly I don't think any of you or anything but atheists. Nobody could live a life l
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It's weird and it's gross and you should get off the internet.
By using your own logic, that'd be like depriving me of food! Sorry, couldn't resist.
Also, dude, I'm a gay man who is a registered Democrat. I'm all for supporting those less fortunate when it's something they actually need. People live just fine without broadband access, including my relatively well-off retired parents right up until Starlink became available.
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They cancelled the cell service -- that shows responsibility by prioritizing food and shelter. I grew up on the edge of poor, though I'm a long way from it now. A family can be absolutely stuck in that economic hellhole, despite having two adults both with jobs, never quite able to get ahead because something always breaks/fails/gets sick because you can't do any insurance or advance planning. They're often extremely responsible, trying to decide which bill to pay this month -- electricity or water, for exa
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It really depends. I live in a low income area and I've seen plenty of parents in my neighborhood who truly DGAF about properly raising their kids. Hell, not too long ago one of my neighbors called the police on their teenager because he had been threatening to assault his father.
Also, one of my partner's friends used to be a teacher and she could go on at length over stories about the things kids had on their phones. So while I'm sure it's entirely possible that some parents are responsible enough to ke
Re: It's just regular internet (Score:2)
I do grant that policing the kidsâ(TM) tech is getting increasingly difficult.
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There's a laundry list of bad things this will end with. Just like how we refuse to feed kids in school because we enjoy lording it over them or something. It's very "leopards eating faces" behavior because long term it bites us in our asses.
So what? All societies are structured such that there is a central core of personnel that actually fully live in society. The vast majority of personnel are there merely to support that inner core. We don't call them "slaves" nowadays as that gets them all riled up, but they are slaves.
It would seem that you have found yourself in the "slave" category. I am unsure why you are whining: You have access to electricity and food 24/7 as long as you are willing to work for it. You live better than the kings of ol
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Nowhere.
Many families used the program to pay for their kid's phone.
WhatsApp might be the biggest beneficiary of the change.
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Verizon isn't immune from security breaches. https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com]
Any of these alternative prepaid mobile plans is as good as the others.
Re: Where Will They Go? (Score:1)
Yes, any cheaper option will do. The problem with the federal subsidy is that it only paid out to the big 3 (as are most federal subsidies) despite cheaper options existing. The federal subsidy made it a few dollars cheaper, Iâ(TM)ve seen ads for Comcast/Spectrum locally that say âoethe federal subsidy is ending, but we will continue your subscription at the same priceâ basically, they were asking the maximum allowed + the total of the subsidy, pretending people were getting a discount and st
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"Get that program re-funded NOW!"
You clearly don't understand modern politics in America. This is the opportunity to eliminate the need for the middle-man of the poor people getting assistance. Now we can use those funds that would go to helping a certain, not-so-well off segment of our society join the rest of us in the internet age, and pass them directly to the corporations. I guarantee you if this potential profit loss looks squicky to Wall Street we will see a demand for direct fund transfer from government coffers to telecoms. And th
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*whoosh*
Politics? I don't care about voters unless they're named "Benjamin". Trust me, I totally get US American-style politics as usual. Nobody gives a $#!+ about the poor, unless they become a problem for the constituency. Now, tell me somebody's losing money over this and you'll have my undivided attention.
Yeah. Verizon. Which I'm certain will be made up by taxpayer dollars one way or another. Hopefully without that pesky swing through the poor people's pockets. We wouldn't want somebody on the bottom of the economic ladder getting something they don't deserve now, would we?
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Re: What?!? The main beneficiary wasn't the poor? (Score:1)
Why? It was a major handout to ISPs. I pay $25/month for Internet around here, the Federal subsidy option was $30 to the end user and $50 to the tax payer, sure it was monthly instead of a longer term contract, but they are now continuing this âgreatâ(TM) option at $30/month for those that were eligible for it before.
Cheap Service (Score:2)
I'm mostly happy with my prepaid service. It says $6/month for 100 minutes, 1GB data, and unlimited texts, but with taxes, the actual charge is $7.60. I almost never run out, and I can just renew early if I need to. This is with Tello, and like most prepaid resellers, it's through T-Mobile, and it doesn't roam. That means no service in Canada. I also just found out that it also means no service in Alaska which is apparently only AT&T. Of course, with WiFi calling enabled, it works wherever there's
Re: Cheap Service (Score:2)
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When you're ready for functional prepaid, I'm on AT&T for $25/month for 16GB data with rollover, unlimited text etc etc etc all the normal goodies and supports hotspotting with no bullshit.
But if you're ok with the hassles involved to get the absolute cheapest service then more power to you. To each his own.
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> if you're ok with the hassles involved
Say more about the hassles of getting the $7 Tello plan vs. getting AT&T.
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if you're ok with the hassles involved
I switched from nTelos (originally PrimeCo) to Ting Mobile [tingmobile.com] in 2015 and it was and has been super easy.
Bought a Kyocera HydroVIBE from them online, they shipped it ready-to-go. When that phone hit a hard EOL, bought a Pixel 5a from Google in 2021, bought a SIM (newer version) from Ting online ($1 w/free Fedex shipping) and was ready to go. They auto-bill my CC every month for $17.32/month (Flex plan: Unlimited Voice+Text $10 + $5/GB 5G data, which I never use). Anytime I've had an issue/question have e
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Modded troll by retarded monkey.
Replying to unhide post for the adults who care about mobile providers.
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Mine is Ting Mobile [tingmobile.com] Flex plan: Unlimited Voice+Text $10 + $5/GB 5G data (which can be disabled) = $17.32/month w/taxes. Host network for me is T-Mobile, but Ting also supports Verizon. They have other plans (all w/unlimited talk/text) with different prepaid 5G data, that reduces to lower rate when exceeded, but I use mostly WiFi for my data and have never come close to using 1G of cell data.
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T-Mobile has a $10 prepaid plan that I am actually considering after my free 3-month trial expires. It is essentially unlimited (for my needs, not as a home internet substitute). I've used Verizon for over a decade, and AT&T before them. They are all the same, so go for the best value for your needs.
Cellular service in the US is grossly overpriced. Address the root issue and everyone prospers... except shareholders.
They just acquired straighttalk (Score:2)
Percentages? (Score:1)
Quick Google search says that Verizon has 114.8 million subscribers. So 624k is around 0.5%.
Too pricey compared to competitors (Score:2)
Other prepaid cell plans cost as low as $20 per month. Verizon's start at $35. Why would people stick with them, if they were already being subsidized? These people are very cost-conscious.