Verizon raised the monthly price of its Unlimited Ultimate plan by $5 on May 7, lifting the cost for new customers to $85 a month for one line. Existing customers already on the plan will not see a change in their monthly bill.
The carrier said the new price still comes with its three-year price-lock guarantee, which applies to the base monthly rate in place when a customer signs up. Verizon also added Identity Secure and Verizon Family Plus to the plan, saying the extras deliver $15 in added monthly value for the new $5 charge.
The move fits a pattern that has defined Verizon’s pricing over the past year. The company raised prices for customers on myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts in February 2025, followed by an $8 increase on Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plans in March 2025. Later in 2025, Verizon lifted its device activation fee from $35 to $40, ended loyalty discounts, hiked tablet plans by $5 to $10 and raised two key billing fees.
That sequence has come alongside sharper messaging from management about value. In January 2026, CEO Dan Schulman said the company would stop rolling out price increases without corresponding value and enforce a customer-obsessed culture. But just weeks earlier, Verizon had already disclosed that it would raise the monthly price of its Netflix and HBO Max streaming bundle from $10 to $13, with that increase taking effect on May 6.
The new Unlimited Ultimate price lands as Verizon is still fighting to slow customer losses. The company’s wireless retail postpaid phone churn reached 0.97% in the first quarter of 2026, two basis points higher than a year earlier, and Verizon has lost more than 2.25 million customers over the past three years. That backdrop helps explain why the carrier keeps reshaping plans and fees even as it promises more value.
Frank Louthan said the industry is under heavier competitive pressure, and that the push for subscriber growth at Verizon and T-Mobile is helping drive the latest round of pricing moves. For Verizon, the test now is whether bundling more features into its top plan can offset another increase without pushing more customers toward rivals.
Verizon said customers who subscribe to the new Unlimited Ultimate plan will get access to Identity Secure and Verizon Family Plus, which it described as providing an additional $15 in monthly value for just $5. It also said the changes give customers more value as part of their relationship with the company, with security and family management tools now included in its best mobile plan.
Even so, the fact that the increase applies only to new customers shows the company is trying to avoid another immediate hit to the people already paying for the plan. The real question is whether that restraint can hold if competition keeps tightening and churn keeps moving the wrong way.
