Verizon may sell LTE-only phones starting 2014 and begin reducing subsidies
It sounds like there may be some big changes in the works for Verizon. At Deutsche Bank’s Media, Internet, and Telecom conference, Verizon's chief financial officer Fran Shammo said that there are plans for the carrier to offer LTE-only phones starting in 2014, and that change may also see the beginning of Verizon reducing subsidies on devices.
The idea is that Verizon is expecting to transition all voice calls to Voice over LTE (VoLTE) by the end of this year, and once that is done, the CDMA hardware inside phones will be unnecessary. Verizon would still maintain the CDMA network, but most of the company's resources would be put towards LTE. So, Verizon could remove the unnecessary CDMA hardware and sell LTE-only devices beginning in late 2014. This move could ultimately reduce subsidies over the next two to three years.
Verizon has vocally supported the idea of ending subsidies before, which would lead to customers having to pay full price for devices. Of course, normally when a company makes a move to do away with subsidies, like T-Mobile, monthly plans would become cheaper as a result. But, we have yet to heard that side of the plan from Verizon.
source: Verizon (transcript) via The Verge
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