Verizon Updates Prepaid Smartphone Plans With More Mobile Hotspot

Verizon updated its prepaid smartphone plan lineup with more features of interest to nomads, such as priority and mobile hotspot data.  They also completely dropped their lowest tier 5GB plan and lowered all plans' base prices by $5/month.

The changes also bring Verizon's prepaid options closer in terms of features to the postpaid plans and also the prepaid options from competitors.

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The New Prepaid Smartphone Plan Lineup

Verizon now offers three tiers of plans as they dropped the 5G plan from the lineup completely.

All three plans include the following features:

• Unlimited talk and text
• LTE & 5G Nationwide (NW) access 
• 0.5GB of data per day in Mexico and Canada (then unlimited 2G speeds)

Here's the new plan lineup with prices with Autopay discount ($10/month)

Unlimited Plus Plan ($70/month):

• Unlimited 5G Ultra Wideband (UW) access
• 50GB of premium data - data is then deprioritized for the rest of the month
• 25GB of premium mobile hotspot data, followed by unlimited hotspot at 600 Kbps on 5G NW/LTE, or 3 Mbps on 5G UW
• Global Choice (Includes one Global Choice country per month at no additional cost.) This is a voice-only option that includes no data.
• 6 months of free Disney+

Previously, the Unlimited Plus plan only included 10GB of mobile hotspot data and no premium data, so the changes to this plan are significant upgrades.

Unlimited Plan ($60/month): 

• 5G Nationwide only (No 5G UW access)
• No premium data - all data is deprioritized
• 5GB of mobile hotspot data followed by unlimited hotspot at 600Kbps
• 6 months of free Disney+

The previous unlimited plan included no mobile hotspot, but 10GB could be purchased for $5/month.  The new plan comes with 5GB of hotspot data.

15GB Plan ($45/month): 

• 5G Nationwide only (No 5G UW access)
• 15GB of data - Once this high-speed data is used (including with Mobile Hotspot), you will have 2G speeds for the rest of the month.
• Mobile hotspot is included in the plan allowance.
• Once high-speed data is used (including Mobile Hotspot), you will have 2G speeds the remainder of the month.

Verizon also offers a basic talk and text-only plan for $35/month.

Autopay and Loyalty Discount Changes

Plans are eligible for a loyalty or autopay discount but not both.

For autopay, there is $10/month discount after the 1st month, and requires a credit or debit card.

Alternatively, customers can use the loyalty discount, which begins at $5/month after three months of service, and then an additional $5/mo applies after nine months of service, for a total of $10/month.

Comparison To Alternatives

Verizon's updated plans are now much more competitive with the prepaid options from AT&T and T-Mobile, particularly the Unlimited Plus Plan.

• AT&T doesn't have an option that compares with Verizon's Unlimited Plus plan.  AT&T's top-level Unlimited Prepaid plan is more comparable to the Verizon Unlimited prepaid plan.  The AT&T plan is $65/month ($50 w/Autopay) and includes no mobile hotspot data, but 5GB is available for another $10/month - more expensive for the similar features.
• T-Mobile's best prepaid smartphone plan, Simply Prepaid Unlimited Plus, is $60/month and includes just 10GB of hotspot data and no priority data.

Overall it's nice to see Verizon upping the prepaid game and including features that have typically only been seen in postpaid plans - like premium and higher amounts of hotspot data.

Prepaid smartphone plans are generally not good choices for nomads looking for a home internet replacement, but they might be a good option as a secondary or tertiary source of mobile data, or as a primary smartphone plan for those who have dedicated data plans that serve as a mobile home internet replacement. 

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