The menu at Verizon Wireless now includes five different flavors of unlimited data. The carrier’s Welcome Unlimited, announced Tuesday, offers unlimited smartphone data but subjects it to enough restrictions that it feels like the mobile equivalent of an airline’s Basic Economy fare.
Welcome Unlimited starts at $65 before taxes and fees on a single line and offers the usual range of discounts on multiple lines–four on a bill run $30 each before the usual surcharges. Like Verizon’s 5G Start plan, $5 more a line, it includes no priority data and limits 5G to the carrier’s slower, low-band “Nationwide 5G.” Unlike 5G Start, Welcome Unlimited doesn’t allow any mobile-hotspot use.
A year and a half ago, only getting low-band 5G might not have impeded the everyday Verizon experience much, considering how scarce its millimeter-wave 5G has been. But the carrier’s swift rollout of C-band 5G has made a huge difference even with a large fraction of the country waiting to get those mid-band speeds.
Verizon’s other three postpaid plans include C-band and mmWave while offering their own mix of extras:
- 5G Do More, from $80 base rate on a single line to $45 for each of four lines, includes 50GB of premium data, 25GB of mobile-hotspot data, one free TravelPass international-roaming day a month, 600GB of Verizon cloud storage, 50% off Verizon Fios or fixed-wireless home broadband, and up to 50% off a hotspot, smartwatch, or other connected-device plan.
- 5G Play More, also from $80 base rate on a single line to $45 for each of four lines, includes 50GB of premium data, 25GB of mobile-hotspot data, the Hulu/Disney+/ESPN ads-included streaming-video bundle, a choice of Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass, and 50% off Verizon Fios or fixed-wireless home broadband.
- 5G Get More, from $90 base on one line to $55 for each of four, features unlimited premium data, 50GB of mobile-hotspot data, and the combined extras of Play More and Do More.
Things remain simpler at Verizon’s two rivals: AT&T and T-Mobile each scrape by with three unlimited-data plans, each of which covers their full range of 5G services. AT&T’s entry-level option, Unlimited Starter, costs $65 before taxes and fees on one line and includes no premium data and 3GB of mobile hotspot, while T-Mobile’s low-end Essentials runs $60 before taxes and fees on one line and covers 50GB of premium data but no mobile-hotspot use.