Verizon CEO Says It’d Be ‘Easy’ to Go Contract-Free

T-Mobile shook the mobile world up a couple of weeks ago when it announced its first no-contract plans, and it seemed likely that we’d be hearing from its competitors in some way or another as time passed – hopefully with good updates. Well, I somehow managed to miss this last week, but so far, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has taken to the podium to express his willingness to go down the same path as T-Mobile.

According to McAdam, making the move would be “pretty easy”, as we’d expect, but his company won’t introduce such an option unless it’s something that customers ask for; he states: “We can react quickly to consumers’ shifting needs.“

His choice of wording is a little interesting, because to me, it seems like it’d be a no-brainer that this is something consumers would want. No one likes contracts, so to have the option is going to be appreciated. There are, however, some caveats with a no-contract plan, as we discovered with T-Mobile’s move – namely, no free phones. While some companies could undoubtedly offer some bare-bones phones for free, but it seems unlikely that any of these carriers would have great interest in that – they may eventually all offer no-contract options, but they’re still very much in the business of making money via any possible avenue.

But with that downside comes a couple of great upsides – the largest being the fact that consumers could purchase unlocked phones cheaper via miscellaneous methods, such as online marketplaces. It could also lead to better price-competitiveness in general. Want to go with T-Mobile for service but Verizon is selling Phone A for a better price? Nothing would stop you from buying from one to go with the other. That’s consumer freedom I can get behind.