Verizon and AT&T quietly make wireless plan changes

While T-Mobile held a big CES 2017 press event to announce big new changes to its wireless plans this week, two of its competitors, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, were quietly making some changes of their own.

Verizon Wireless has confirmed that it will be raising its upgrade fees from $20 to $30 for any customers on their device payment plans or if they pay in full for their new phones. Additionally, the carrier is no longer offering 2-year contracts for its existsting customers (it ditched contracts for new customers some time ago). That means when those folks come to the end of their current contracts, they will either have to get their next Verizon phone with a device payment plan or pay for it in full up front.

AT&T has a smaller change in store that just affects any of their customers that have been grandfathered into their old unlimited plans. Beginning with their March 2017 bills, they will have to pay an additional $5 a month. Those same customers had their plan prices raised by $5 about a year ago. This latest rate increase will not change their download speeds, unless they exceed 22GB of data in a month and if they “are in a congested area”.