Verizon, the nation's largest wireless provider, will stop offering phones at discounted prices when customers sign two-year service contracts.
All wireless carriers have been trying to wean customers off subsidies, in which a $649 iPhone 6 goes for $200 with a two-year contract. Instead, carriers have been encouraging people to buy phones outright by paying monthly installments. A few carriers, namely Sprint, also offer leasing options for a lower monthly fee, but the customer doesn't get to keep and resell the phone without additional payments.
Verizon is the second national carrier, after T-Mobile, to end phone subsidies entirely for new customers.
Under the new no-contract plans, which take effect Aug. 13, prices for voice, text and data services will drop by roughly $20 per month compared with subsidized plans. But customers will no longer get the subsidies on the phone, valued at about $19 for an iPhone 6.
Verizon has streamlined its data choices to four main options: from "small" at 1 gigabyte to "x-large" at 12 gigabytes, all sharable under family plans. Verizon currently had 15 options ranging from 0.5 gigabyte to 100 gigabytes.
CNN Money says the best way to save on Verizon's new no-contract plans is to keep your existing phone and buy a big data package. Savings decrease with lower-level data plans, but should be up to $20 even in the small plan.
