Verizon to Charge Customers $350 for Smartphone Contract Termination

By Dena Cassella November 4, 2009

Halloween may be over, but this news is downright scary. For those considering to jump ship from Verizon and grab an AT&T iPhone (assuming Verizon doesn’t get it), you may soon be paying more — much more.

Verizon may be keeping customers happy with its Buy-One-Get-One sale on Blackberries, including the new Blackberry Storm 2, but some new terms are likely to make customers not so happy.

Recommended Videos

Verizon had been noticing that some customers had been using the promotion to snag some extra cash, getting an extra line with a Blackberry Tour or Storm 2, then selling it on eBay after paying the $175 termination fee, in the end pocketing about $100 or more in cash. An unhappy Verizon has decided to punish all its customers and will be rolling out increased early termination fees, in a move reportedly confirmed by Boy Genius Report.

The wireless carrier will bump ETFs to $350 for new smart phone 1 year and 2 year contracts. To soften the blow, Verizon plans to drop this amount by $10 a month, but that’s still substantially more at the year mark (previously $175 or less, now $230). Verizon still has yet to specify a full list of models the term “advanced devices” covers (the term used in the ETF hike info sheet), but we’re guessing it includes the Blackberry Tour, Storm 2, and Droid phones, at least.

The new terms will be reportedly rolled out to new customers starting November 15. Incidentally, that’s a mere week and a half after the new Android 2.0 Droid phone hits on November 6. So Verizon customers might want to act fast if they’re planning to go Android — as a short wait could end up costing them.

Topics

AT&T
Verizon

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Haole built. O'ahu grown

Mobile

T-Mobile’s 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T

Ookla's second-quarter market report has just gone live, revealing that T-Mobile still has a commanding lead over rivals Verizon and AT&T when it comes to offering the fastest and most consistent speeds throughout the U.S.

T-Mobile took the top spot for performance on both its 5G and 4G/LTE networks, with median download speeds of 187.33Mbps on 5G and 116.54Mbps across the board. Overall, that's nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T, which clocked in at 59.67Mbps and 54.64Mbps, respectively. The Un-carrier also delivered the most consistent speeds of the bunch, with 85.7% of tests showing at least 5Mpbs download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

Mobile

T-Mobile’s 5G network just beat Verizon and AT&T (again)

T-Mobile smartphone.

T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T always claim to be America's best 5G network in their commercials. T-Mobile boasts this even more so, and as it turns out, it's true. During PCMag's annual Best Mobile Network test (previously known as the Fastest Mobile Network test), T-Mobile won over Verizon and AT&T as the Best Mobile Network for the second year in a row.

PCMag gave T-Mobile the title after testers drove 10,000 miles across the country to measure its performance against Verizon and AT&T. The test involved driving to 30 cities and six rural regions to test each mobile carrier's reliability using Samsung Galaxy S22+ smartphones. As expected, T-Mobile won that contest in 18 cities out of 30, followed by Verizon with eight and AT&T with four.

Mobile

5G coverage map: Where you can get 5G on Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile

Qualcomm 5G at CES 2019

Gone are the days when 5G was just a buzzword and deployment was experimental. Today, 5G is an established worldwide networking protocol built into most high-quality and flagship mobile devices. 5G stands for fifth-generation mobile technology, and it's destined to replace 4G (and older protocols) worldwide with speeds up to 100 times faster. Not only is it faster, but it is also more responsive for overall coverage and reception. That means faster uploading and downloading of documents, images, and videos. For home use, it means replacing fiber-optic cable with fast wireless connections.

There are two forms of 5G technology currently in use: Sub-6 relies on lower frequencies to deliver a much larger network, but the trade-off is that you'll receive only marginally faster speeds than you would with 4G. While mmWave connections rely on much higher frequencies that deliver dramatically faster download speeds, those radio waves can't physically travel long distances or make their way through obstacles like walls or even windows, which reduce signal strength.