How the wireless industry’s high and mighty have fallen.
Or at least their prices will.
Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest carrier, just jumped headfirst into the raging wireless price war on Thursday — cutting prices for a 1GB service plan by 20 percent, or $10 a month.
Just recently, Verizon had vowed to stay out of the costly price war, which was kicked off by T-Mobile last year with free international texting and plans without costly contracts.
The marketing plan worked, and T-Mobile saw upticks in subscriber growth.
But then AT&T got aggressive last month and promised credits of up for T-Mobile customers who jumped ship. T-Mobile then countered a few days later with a deal offering payments of up to $350 to customers who break their contracts with either Verizon or AT&T.
Now Verizon is making its move.
Verizon’s new offering looks similar to what the competition has been offering, including unlimited international messaging for customers who already have unlimited domestic text and picture and video messaging.
Verizon’s changes, which it’s calling the “More Everything” plan, benefits future and existing customers by boosting data allowance at no extra cost.
For example, Verizon’s $40 plan will now come with 1GB of data, up from 500MB. It’s $50 plan will also see data double to 2GB, while its $60 plan will now come with 3GB of data, up from 2GB previously.
Customers who upgrade their smartphones will also be eligible for discounts of between $10 and $20 on their data plans.
Verizon’s move to join the mudslinging is sure to draw a chuckle from John Legere, T-Mobile’s CEO and the unofficial leader of the price wars.
Legere kicked off the battle last year with his campaign to make T-Mobile the “uncarrier” network, buttressed by plans that let people upgrade at any time or jump ship without costly penalties.
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams has long maintained that Verizon would never “lead on price” because its service was enough to keep customers happy.
Wall Street suspected Verizon Wireless, which will soon be fully owned by Verizon Communications, was starting to sweat last month, and sent the stock lower, after the carrier reported that it had added 1.6 million new wireless customers, down from 2.1 million added a year ago.
“The complete landscape [for wireless carriers] is going to get much worse this year,” S&P IQ stock analyst James Moorman told The Post at the time. “And it could get ugly.”
Verizon also announced plans to close five customer call centers — a move that could impact as many as 3,000 of Verizon’s 73,000 person work force.
Verizon Communications shares closed Thursday down less than 1 percent to $47.27.