Verizon offered up quite the tease last week when it revealed that it was boosting speeds on its FiOS internet plans while refusing to detail how much it was going to charge for each tier. An anonymous Verizon employee has given us the answer, however, courtesy of a trove of training materials preparing staff for the upcoming changes, which are set to go into effect on June 17th. The company's base 15 / 5Mbps internet service will now cost $64.99 per month with a two-year contract, compared to the $54.99 that's currently charged with a one-year deal. That $10 price bump isn't consistent across the board, however: both the new 50 / 25 plan (replacing the 25 / 25 option) and 150 / 65 plan (replacing the 50 / 20 option) cost the same as their predecessors at $74.99 and $94.99 per month, respectively. Meanwhile, the new 75 / 35 tier slots in right between those two options at $84.99, and the 300 / 65 service that we're all dreaming about rings up at $204.99 per month — $5 more than the 150 / 35 ultimate plan it replaces.

Of course, this isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison. The new rates are priced with a two-year contract (month-to-month plans cost $5 more), and if you don't have phone service there's an additional $5 surcharge on top of that. There's another fee hidden in there, too. If you're interested in getting the two top-speed plans, the documents say that most will need to pay $100 to have their equipment upgraded as part of a two to four hour service call. That fee won't apply if you sign a two-year commitment, if you're a new customer, or if you already have Verizon's current 150Mbps internet service. That's not all: if you're in a building that uses VDSL — a system that uses existing copper wiring to deliver FiOS to apartments instead of new fiber optics — you'll be subject to the new prices but won't see a speed increase at all, as can be seen in the chart below.

It might seem odd that Verizon is increasing the prices of its lowest-speed plans while leaving the cost of many of its other plans unchanged, but it's a familiar tactic. For many users the increased speeds are likely more than they would ever need, and by raising the price of entry Verizon will likely see increased revenues. With the price changes all of its internet services are bunched up at over $50 per month with only $10 separating them. It's akin to the prices for popcorn at the movie theater — if you want any, you'll need to pay quite a bit, and then you can get twice as much for only a bit more. Still, we suspect the power users out there will be happy with Verizon's pricing for its high-speed plans — it looks like many of those users will see increased speeds without any change in price come June 17th.

Note: Verizon's current 3 / 1Mbps FiOS internet plan is only available as a step-up service for customers upgrading from the company's DSL plans, and we suspect the new package will be the same.





Thanks, anonymous!