Verizon’s Long Term Evolution (LTE) network was recently launched to the cities of Seattle and Boston. LTE, Verizon’s anticipated 4G network, has gained significant ground in terms of product availability and will continue to expand until it is fully operational in 2013, as Verizon promises. LTE is set to debut in 25 other cities, and will be made available to 100 million people by that year. What Verizon must concentrate on is their price management for the product. LTE is a faster network than its former 3G, it also has the capabilities to download and upload large amounts of data in a matter of minutes. LTE’s 4th generation network is, as its name implies, a more evolved network and therefore calls for a more evolved form of pricing. As Verizon calls for change, it seems evident that they’re turning towards a tiered-type data-pricing plan similar to their competitor, AT&T.

For Verizon, this change in pricing would be able to cut the cost of the new network significantly. Using a tiered-type pricing plan, Verizon would be able to charge users more for their data accessing needs rather than charging a base price for an unlimited plan as they do with the Blackberry phones. This change may be significant financially for the company as it’s using billions of dollars to produce the network. However, no decisions have been made or finalized, as of now.

The change to a tier-type pricing plan may lead to disadvantages and advantages depending on what type of data user a person is. It will undoubtedly save money for clients such as stay-at-home moms who have smart phones, just for the luxury of it. However, for the network users who use a large amount of data on a daily basis, their costs may raise as they use more and more data. This price differential per customer may lead to consumer disagreement and cause the company problems. Though nothing has been finalized, Verizon has taken all customer and company concerns into consideration and is currently working on a new pricing plan.