Verizon will soon raise the prices of some unlimited plans -- yes, again

If you haven't changed your Verizon data plan in a few years, take note: Starting August 29, the company is raising the cost of its "mix and match" unlimited plans that debuted in 2018. They had really confusing names like Go Unlimited. , beyond infinity, and above infinity. At the time, I had some feelings about Verizon's baffling branding.

If you've retained one of those legacy plans in past years, you can expect a rate increase of $3. Mobile Report first reported the news, which was confirmed by Verizon on its website. During a conference interview this morning, Tony Skidas, the company's chief financial officer, also mentioned the pending hike.

"Changes were made to both single line and multi line to mix and match the legacy," Skidas said. "I believe they were $3 and $5. I think these will be effective early September, if I remember correctly, that's coming soon. And they're already on the market."

The carrier has progressed through several data plan lineups since the first mix-and-match offering. Most recently, Verizon attempted to simplify and streamline its data plans by announcing new "MyPlan" tiers, which remove entertainment services like the Disney bundle and Apple Music from core plans and instead offer them at a discounted monthly fee. presents. provided optionally. The whole purpose of these gradual hikes is to pressurize old customers to switch to one of the company's latest data plans. For some, this may mean giving up unique plan features like unlimited 5G hotspot data usage.

As always, whether or not the new plans will save you money depends on a number of factors and can vary from account to account. As it revamps plans, Verizon is trying to struggle with network saturation and is hoping that its ongoing C-band spectrum buildout will strengthen its future position against T-Mobile and AT&T. Will do will strengthen

I've been a Verizon customer for over a decade at this point, and still, I remain there because I love adding those streaming services to my already expensive service. But these plan increases—and the even more egregious random charges that carriers keep tacking on consumer bills—certainly leave a bad taste. T-Mobile recently charged people extra to pay bills at one of the company's stores. These are wild times we live in.

Perhaps there will come a day when my monthly bill reaches a certain threshold that I'll give up and switch to Visible or another cheap mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO. If you've been on one of those early mix-and-match schemes, that moment may have just arrived.

Verizon's FAQ page doesn't include a reason for this other than the standard line that "We are committed to bringing you the best experience with your Verizon mobile phone service." During the interview, Skidas frequently mentioned "reliability" and "coverage", two hallmarks on which Verizon has always built its network reputation. But he also made it clear that hiking legacy plans will benefit the company's income and shareholders. "It will prove to be a favorable environment in the second half of the year and will set us up well for next year as well," he added.