New Verizon Freedom packages available in Northeast
Verizon announced Tuesday that its new unlimited calling plans, Verizon Freedom Essentials and Verizon Freedom Value, are now available in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C., offering unlimited local and long distance calling from $29.95 per month.
Verizon Freedom Essentials offers unlimited local, regional and domestic long-distance calling with Home Voice Mail, Call Waiting and Caller ID starting from $34.95 a month. Verizon Freedom Value, offering any-distance domestic calling but no calling features, starts at $29.95 in some markets and is the company’s lowest-priced any-distance calling plan.
Verizon began offering the new packages a month ago in Texas, Florida and California.
“These are brand-new calling plans, not temporary offers,” said Judy Verses, senior vice president of regional marketing for Verizon. “We’re giving our customers great new prices on calling plans and offering a foundation for very competitively priced bundles of services.
“This is the kind of competitive marketing that will grow our customer base and reinforce the loyalty between Verizon and its residential customers,” she said.
Verizon Freedom Value, which provides unlimited domestic calling with no calling features, is $29.95 per month in lower New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and $34.95 per month in upstate New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.
Verizon Freedom Essentials, which provides unlimited domestic calling with Home Voice Mail, Call Waiting and Caller ID, is $34.95 per month in lower New York and Connecticut, and $39.95 per month in upstate New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.
Pricing was not immediately available for Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Verizon faces stiff competition from cable companies who have been offering discounted bundles of telephone, Internet and television service. Verizon said that bundles based on the new Verizon Freedom packages beat cable companies’ promotional pricing.
“For example, with Freedom Value at as little as $29.95, 768 Mbps DSL at $14.95 and DIRECTV with three movie services at a three-month introductory price of $39.99, the combined price of $84.89 soundly beats one cable company’s one-year promotional price of $90 for calling, Internet and entertainment. Verizon’s new calling plan prices and broadband charges are not dependent on purchasing other services, as can happen with cable plans,” said Verizon in a press release.
“New competition in the industry is driving creative, cost-cutting innovation,” said telecommunications and wireless industry analyst Jeff Kagan. “As Verizon competes with cable television companies, this is the kind of offer that customers will love,” he said. “It should allow Verizon to attract and retain customers.”
