Verizon Quietly Drops Extra Fee For Its 5G Network

It seems that Verizon has quietly dropped the $10/month extra fee it planned to charge customers who wanted access to its budding 5G network. The change is noted on its website, where users have noticed the new lack of details about that previously announced 5G fee plan. This quiet change is not surprising given the competition Verizon faces from carriers that aren't charging their customers extra.

In 2019, Verizon indicated that it would charge its customers $10 per month to access its 5G network. The idea didn't go over well with consumers, as you'd expect, plus the carrier's biggest competitors — AT&T and T-Mobile — have no plans to charge their own customers this extra 5G fee. That would make both carriers a more appealing alternative to Verizon, which is facing particularly stiff competition from T-Mobile.

As first noted by Light Reading, Verizon appears to have scrubbed mention of that fee from its website. A look at its current 5G offers includes one prominent detail: "Plus, 5G UW access at no extra charge with select Unlimited."

Verizon was publicly sticking to its 5G fee plan as recently as this past March, but something has changed since then. The carrier confirmed that it is not charging extra for its 5G Ultra Wideband network 'at this time,' indicating that perhaps something will change in the future. That seems unlikely, though, unless competing carriers also decide to roll out a similar fee.

Verizon customers are still awaiting the nationwide launch of its 5G network; at this point in time, it is still only available in select big cities, including NYC, LA, Washington DC, Cleveland, Boston, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, and a handful of others. Earlier this year, the company said that its nationwide service will arrive with only 'some improvements,' instead experiencing gradual upgrades over a longer period of time.