Verizon Wireless News

On Monday, Verizon said that more than 10,000 employees (or around 7 percent of its workforce) accepted its buyout offer, first announced in September.

The carrier said previously that it aimed to save $10 billion by 2021 and thin out its workforce as part of its effort to prepare for the launch of its 5G network service.

In addition to cutting costs, the buyout program was intended to give Verizon "an opportunity to find more efficiencies in the size and scope of our V Team and help expedite the building of an innovative operating model for our future," CEO Hans Vestberg said in a memo to employees in September.

Restructuring ahead of 5G rollout

Verizon offered 44,000 employees across all of its business segments three weeks’ pay for every year at the company, up to 60 weeks. Verizon promised earlier this fall that its cost-cutting drive wouldn’t affect sales executives or managers in "crucial company roles.”  

The end dates for the employees who accepted the buyout offer range from the end of 2018 to June 2019.

“For those who were accepted, the coming weeks and months will be a transition. For the entire V Team, there will be opportunities to work differently as we prepare for the great things to come at Verizon,” Vestberg said in a note to employees.

Verizon is currently taking steps to prepare for the rollout of 5G network service.

“These changes are well-planned and anticipated, and they will be seamless to our customers,” Vestberg said in a statement. “This is a moment in time, given our financial and operational strength, to begin to better serve customers with more agility, speed and flexibility.”

Verizon’s voluntary severance package offering, made last month, was extended to roughly 44,000 employees, the company confirmed to The Wall Street Journal. That works out to more than a quarter of the carrier’s total workforce.

The severance packages are part of a four-year plan to save the company $10 billion and give it "an opportunity to find more efficiencies in the size and scope of our V Team and help expedite the building of an innovative operating model for our future," CEO Hans Vestberg wrote in a memo to employees and reviewed by the Journal.

Employees eligible for the severance packages were offered three weeks’ pay for every year at the company, up to 60 weeks.

Verizon -- which has more than 153,000 employees -- said the cost-cutting drive won’t affect sales executives or managers in "crucial company roles.”  

The same day the severance package offer was announced, the carrier notified about 2,500 of its IT employees that they were being transferred to Indian outsourcing giant Infosys as part of a $700 million outsourcing agreement. Employees that received this notification aren’t eligible for severance payments and will not receive their 2018 bonus if they are offered a job at Infosys and do not accept it.

Verizon is currently rolling out the nation's first 5G wireless service in a number of cities. Last month, the carrier began inviting people in the selected cities (Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento) to sign up for the service.

Starting August 16, new and existing Verizon customers can get six months of free access to Apple Music with an unlimited plan. The deal will give customers full, ad-free access to the music streaming service's 45 million songs on any of their devices.

In a statement, Verizon hinted that more perks will grow out of this partnership by noting that this is “just the first step.”

"It gives our customers exactly what they want: Apple's best-in-class music streaming experience, paired with an unlimited plan tailored to them, on the network they deserve," said Angie Klein, Verizon's vice president of marketing, in a statement.

"And now that you can mix and match our unlimited plans, every person in your family can stream worry-free on the unlimited plan they need, without paying for things they don't."

Competing with rivals

In June, Verizon introduced a higher tier plan with added high-speed data. Sprint and AT&T both relaunched their data offerings to include more expensive options. As ConsumerAffairs recently reported, T-Mobile took a different route by announcing a cheaper, stripped down unlimited plan that is set to launch on Friday.

Verizon is joining other carriers that have introduced plans that allow consumers to bundle with music streaming services. Sprint has been giving away free Tidal subscriptions with its Unlimited Plus plan for some time. Prior to its partnership with Tidal, Sprint used to bundle plans with access to Spotify premium.

Verizon will post more about the registration process for the offer on its website August 16.

Earlier this month, it was announced that Yahoo Messenger would be shutting down after 20 years in operation. Now, Oath -- a Verizon subsidiary that owns both Yahoo and AOL -- has unveiled two new versions of Yahoo Mail.

A revamped mobile web version of Yahoo Mail will include the addition of several new features, while a new app targeting Android Go smartphones will be smaller and more lightweight than the standard app.

Yahoo’s new mobile web service is geared toward users who don’t want to download an app that takes up more storage on their device, according to senior director of product management for Yahoo Mail, Joshua Jacobson.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from users that they’re not always ready to make the big leap to downloading an app that takes up any storage space on their phone,” Jacobson said in a statement.

“People with high-capacity phones may want to save that space for photos or videos, while others with entry-level smartphones may just have limited space from the get-go. Further, some folks share devices or borrow a family member’s to access their email. This is all especially true in developing markets.”

New mobile web features

The new mobile site update adds a feature that lets consumers “swipe” through their inbox to delete or mark an email as read. It also adds a pop-out sidebar for folders, as well as a new option to customize your inbox with color themes.

The redesign also adds email address suggestions, infinite scroll on the inbox, and support for Android’s ability to add browser shortcuts to the home screen.

Meanwhile, the Yahoo Mail Go app is optimized for Android Go devices, which have 1GB of RAM or less and are typically sold in markets where people need inexpensive phones that can operate on low bandwidth. It has the same features as the current Android app but keeps the RAM usage below 50 MB and the installation size below 10 MB.

In creating the new versions of Yahoo Mail, the company hopes to get consumers using Yahoo Mail more regularly and boost stagnated user growth. The company currently has 227.8 million active users per month, which is an increase of about two million from one year ago. However Yahoo’s user base is far smaller than Google's user base. In April, Google’s Gmail client had 1.4 billion users.

On Thursday, Verizon released a pricer, third-tier unlimited data plan entitled “aboveunlimited.” The new plan joins “gounlimited” and “beyondlimited,” both of which vary in terms of what they offer customers.

Unlimited data plans have experienced a great deal of evolution over the years. Last year, Verizon broke its unlimited plans into two options for customers, and it ultimately comes down to cost. Now, the company has introduced a third plan into the mix.

“It’s very simple,” said Ronan Dunne, president of Verizon Wireless. “We’re confident people will enjoy the choice.”

What “aboveunlimited” looks like

The “aboveunlimited” plan appears to be designed for users who use a ton of data.

The plan includes unlimited data for high-definition videos for up to 75 GB of data before Verizon intervenes, as well as 20 GB of mobile hotspot data at LTE speeds, five “TravelPasses” that offer one day of international data usage per month, and 500 GB of Verizon Cloud service. Prices range from $60 to $95 per line.

With an additional unlimited plan, Verizon is now allowing customers to mix and match between three different tiers for different phone lines on family plans. Under the current system, all lines must be on the same plan. Customers are free to switch back and forth between the tiers as they see necessary, and existing customers can also make the change.

“When I introduced the Verizon unlimited plan back in February of last year, it was a real reset of the market and a game changer,” Dunne said. “And we said at the time we would continue to evolve and expand that portfolio to broaden out the match with customers.”

According to Dunne, “aboveunlimited” is geared towards “the person who wants it all.”

With the announcement of the new plan, Verizon also reduced its charge per line for all three tiers of unlimited plans as a customer adds more lines. For example, with the “aboveunlimited” plan, customers will pay $90 per month per line for two lines, $70 with three lines, and $60 with four lines.

Market trends

Verizon didn’t enter the unlimited data market until last February, though other carriers had offered customers unlimited data for some time. When first released, Verizon only offered one unlimited plan. It later expanded to a cheaper, though more restrictive, tier in August.

At the time of the first unlimited plan release, Verizon was struggling with losing customers. Before unlimited data, Verizon lost a net of 398,000 regular monthly phone customers -- the most it had ever lost in a quarter. In adding the unlimited plan, though one that was pricier than competitors like Sprint and T-Mobile, the company regained 109,000 monthly customers.

However, the release of this latest unlimited plan comes at a better time for the company. Verizon reported having added 260,000 regular monthly subscribers in the first quarter.

Despite the positive news, Verizon decided to raise prices of this latest unlimited plan at a time when other cell phone providers are looking to keep customers -- for cheaper. Last week, Sprint introduced a plan that would cost just $15 a month -- with a promise to never go up. T-Mobile offers free Netflix and AT&T throws in HBO with an unlimited plan. However, Verizon is steadfast in its belief that customers are paying for a higher quality provider.

“There’s been a very positive, consistent trend in the performance of Verizon Wireless over the last few quarters,” Dunne said. “I think it’s fair to say objectively based on our performance since some of our competitors changed their offerings, we’ve not seen any increase in our churn... and we’ve continued to see high levels of customer engagement and satisfaction.”