Verizon officially announces contract-free service

News by Michael Oryl on Monday September 22, 2008.

Verizon Wireless has announced that, starting today, it is offering consumers the ability to use its service without signing a one or two year contract. Customers that sign up for the new month to month service have the option of either paying the full retail price for purchased cell phones or they can bring their own compatible CDMA handset with them from another carrier.

Since there are no contracts to sign, customers can end their month to month agreement without any early termination fee at the end of each monthly period if they so choose. All normal Verizon voice and data plans are now available without a contract.

Great news for those who think contracts suck!

Many details here : www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/09/22/its-official-verizon-wireless-says-contracts-are-optional/

This is a great adjustment that corrects a serious injustice... being put on a contract term and subject to ETF if you bring your own equipment.  Once I opened a line for a Blackberry Pearl review unit, and had to cancel the line inside of 30 days or I would be under the gun for $175 if I closed the line inside of a year even though I didn't get a hardware subsidy.  Kudos to Verizon for doing this. 

I think it's a great move for growth because now people may look at a phone on a shelf and say to themselves "Hmm... I could get that working by adding it as a family share line for ten bucks a month with no contract worries."

That's cool. I could swear that Verizon already had contract-free service, but I guess not. At least they've jumped on the bandwagon.