Verizon share price down, joins US carrier price war

Verizon Communications Inc., the biggest wireless carrier in the US, launched its October promotional line-up, meeting expectations to double data offers, following suit after top rivals Sprint and AT&T had already launched the “price war”.

The announcement comes after on Saturday AT&T said that it intends to double the data amount available on higher-end share family plans. In addition, a similar statement was also made by Sprint on Wednesday. AT&T doubled its $130-a-month data plan from 15 to 30 gigabytes in order to compete with Sprint, which started offering promotions in August 2014. T-Mobile also offered a better $100 four-member family plan and even extended it by two weeks, ending October 28th.

Verizon revealed that it will offer its customers a 15-gigabyte data plan at the price of $110 monthly, which is $10 cheaper compared to the previous 14-gigabyte plan. The company will also offer a 30-gigabyte plan, which will cost $130, reducing the plans original price by $95. In addition, according to the wireless carriers statement, the shared data allowances for family plans are to be doubled, starting at 20 gigabytes.

The new and more attractive offers come at a time of fierce rivalry between the US wireless carriers, which are all trying to expand their reach by offering great data capacity instead of lowering prices. Customer loyalty is under assault, as rivals even began offering cash to lure customers away from the others, while lucrative smartphone deals could also pressure customer bases, in light of new releases, like the iPhone 6.

Verizon Communications Inc. was 1.12% down to close at $49.43 per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of +5.19%. The company is valued at $204.90 billion. According to CNN Money, the 25 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Verizon Communications Inc. have a median target of $55.00, with a high estimate of $60.00 and a low estimate of $41.00. The median estimate represents a +11.27% increase from the last price of $49.43.