Verizon is taking a page from T-Mobile’s controversial ‘price lock’ book (for a limited time)

Remember T-Mobile‘s signature “Un-carrier” moves that basically revolutionized the US wireless landscape between 2013 and 2020? In a way, you can say Verizon is having an Un-carrier moment of its own today, dropping a surprising announcement (at a surprising time) to “accelerate” its “customer-first strategy” and establish a new “industry standard” in a field where T-Mobile has made a lot of mistakes and caused a lot of controversies of late.

You can stop worrying about (core) price hikes

That’s right, Verizon is ready to guarantee your monthly rate will not go up for the next 36 months if you’re a myPlan or myHome subscriber. Existing customers don’t have to do anything to join the program, which is certainly nice, and new users obviously get automatic access to it as well.

But Verizon being Verizon, it probably shouldn’t come as a shock that the operator’s first-ever price lock promise doesn’t also cover taxes, fees, and “perks.” Still, this remains an important step in the right direction for a carrier that was almost universally considered the greediest and sneakiest of America’s top three wireless players until not long ago.

That might be a thing of the past now, and even if certain taxes and fees will go up in the near future, at least Big Red is being honest about that possibility today. 

Interestingly, you can also extend that three-year price lock guarantee by “changing your myPlan”, which will apparently reset the clock to zero and give you another (partially) worry-free 36-month window. Presumably, that’s only going to work if you switch to a plan of higher or equal value and not if you move, for instance, from a top-tier Unlimited Ultimate to a cheaper Unlimited Plus option.

How would you like a free phone to go with your “locked” plan?

No, free phone deals are definitely nothing new for US carriers, but Verizon is doing something very cool on that front too, allowing new and existing myPlan users to get amazing devices at no cost (after bill credits) with the trade-in of “any” phone from Apple, Google, or Samsung in “any” condition.

Those are some hard-to-beat promotions across the board, although T-Mo obviously offers a lot of sweet deals of its own on free phones, wireless plans, home internet routers, and home internet plans. And something tells me more will come after this Verizon announcement.