Verizon sweetens new Mix & Match plans

It didn't take long for Verizon to tweak the broadband end of its new Mix & Match plans.

Verizon, which launched the new broadband-led packages in January, announced Thursday that it is doubling the two sub-Gigabit speed options of the plans without raising the baseline price.

The new 200Mbit/s plan (up from 100 Mbit/s) still starts at $39.99 a month, while the new 400Mbit/s option (up from 200 Mbit/s) remains at $59.99. There's no change to Mix & Match 1-Gig options. Here's how this set of Mix & Match broadband options, which all include prepaid Visa cards and a year of Disney+, stack up now:

Figure 1:

The video end of the Mix & Match package features Fios TV services (starting with a 125-plus channel bundle starting at $50 per month, on up to a 425-plus lineup starting at $90 per month), as well as an option to bundle in YouTube TV starting at $49.99 a month. Verizon also offers a 60-day "test drive" of Fios TV's big package for $50 per month. (Verizon will then recommend the best plan to the customer for the longer term.)

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Why this matters
Verizon has not announced numbers indicating how its new Mix & Match packaging is resonating in the market. But doubling the speed on the two sub-Gigabit options indicates that Verizon is eager to stoke more consumer interest.

Speaking earlier this week at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice USA, downplayed the threat posed so far by Verizon's new Mix & Match packages. Goei said Altice USA has effectively blunted Verizon's offensive with its own promotions, citing strong subscriber growth in the last three months. Altice USA will decide whether to extend those promos based on how the market continues to react, he added.

Verizon lost 51,000 Fios video subs in the fourth quarter of 2019 and added 35,000 Fios Internet subs, ending 2019 with 4.15 million and 5.90 million, respectively.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading