Just a few days ago, we saw an internal Verizon document stating that the carrier would begin selling its BlackBerry, DROID, and Palm smartphones on a prepaid basis. Today we can confirm that Verizon will, in fact, be offering the majority of its smartphones on a prepaid basis. The folks at Engadget were sent a photo of a Verizon Prepaid BlackBerry Curve 8530 box, complete with pricing details that match up with the document that you can see here. The BlackBerry Curve prepaid plans include monthly plans that range from $45 to $75 a month, along with a $30 per month data plan. As you can see below, Verizon's inventory shows that their lineup of Android and Palm devices will also be eligible for the prepaid plans. There's no information on when this new prepaid strategy will go live or what kind of pricing we can expect for the handsets, but I have a feeling that we'll learn more sooner rather than later.
By selling all kinds of hot new smartphones on a prepaid basis, Verizon just blew the prepaid market wide open. Usually when you think of prepaid, cheap messaging and flip phones come to mind. Now customers have access to powerful handsets that people really want. Sure, they'll probably cost quite a bit initially, but you usually end up saving quite a bit of money by opting for prepaid rather than locking to a contract. Would any of you consider picking up a new BlackBerry, Android, or Palm handset on a prepaid plan when Verizon makes this all available?
Via Engadget
