Verizon Wireless Deals New Prepaid Plan Options

Need a new phone? Not so hot on the idea of buying one on-contract? There's a solution here, and Verizon Wireless is really hoping that you'll give its newly defined prepaid plans a look. The prepaid market in the U.S. is a hot one, largely dominated by MVNOs that run on Sprint's network, but VZW is chipping away, and these new plans show that. This week, it announced the availability of a new prepaid plan beginning May 1, offering unlimited talk and text messaging, as well as 1 GB of data for $80 per month. It's launching on the Samsung Illusion, a phone that'll go for $169.99, and will be available at VZW stores, Best Buy, Target, RadioShack and Walmart.

You have to remember that prepaid pricing is very different from postpaid. This $169 phone is yours to keep -- no two-year deal required. Additionally, starting May 1, customers can purchase a prepaid $129.99 Verizon Jetpack 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L (quite the name, no?), and take advantage of new prepaid Mobile Broadband plans. With the prepaid Jetpack, customers can now create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously. Prepaid 4G LTE Mobile Broadband plans are as follows: $15 for 250 MB of data weekly, $60 for 3 GB of data monthly or $90 for 10 GB of data monthly.


Subsidization is fine, sure, but we're pleased as punch to see Verizon offering up prepaid options, too. Now, to get a prepaid phone selection that's actually enticing...