Anyone who chooses to go with Verizon for the Samsung Galaxy S5 this year will have to stick with the phone until Samsung launch the Samsung Galaxy S7 in two years’ time. This is thanks to the fact that they will be stuck in contract for two years. It was just last year when Verizon came up with a plan called Edge. This was their answer to the Jump plan from T-Mobile and Next plan from AT&T. Edge meant that people could pay out for the handset with monthly instalments so they were not tied in to a two year contract. This meant they could upgrade faster. However with Edge Verizon want to sell you the device but they also want you to sign a contract of two years.
The chief financial officer Fran Shammo was talking about Edge and the More Everything plans and said that they were offered due to demand. However they do prefer the traditional subsidy model.
Shammo said “We believe that the subsidy model is an extremely good model,” “It has done wonders for us in this industry. So I think to abandon that is a mistake.” Even so, Verizon won’t force you into a two-year contract if you don’t want to – that’s what the Edge and More Everything plans are there for. “We aren’t going to force our customers into anything.”
It was said that Verizon wanted to take a conservative approach when it came to device financing plans. Edge was a way for Verizon to test things out as they wanted to find out how many people liked to upgrade their devices after just 6 to 12 months.
Shammo also said that anyone on Edge who wanted to move to a different carrier and who had not paid off their phone were left with a high bill. “It’s going to be a very dissatisfying thing for the customer at the end of the day if they feel like they want to leave and they end up with a very large bill,” said Shammo.
Verizon will continue offering the Edge and More Everything plans but at the same time they are going to offer the subsidized plans. These plans mean that customers stay with them for two years but at the same time there are hidden phone costs in the bill. So it doesn’t look as though the two year contract has had its day just yet.
