Yahoo Mobile: the Verizon Phone Plan That No One Asked For (arstechnica.com) 31
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Remember Yahoo? It's back... in phone-plan form. The Verizon-owned company is trying to get customers excited with a new "Yahoo Mobile" service that combines Verizon's 4G LTE network with Yahoo mail, for some reason. Why even put the word "Yahoo" on a re-branded Verizon data plan? Because the service comes with Yahoo Mail Pro, the ad-free version of Yahoo Mail that normally costs $3.49 a month. Yahoo Mobile also includes "24/7 Yahoo account customer service." Verizon says Yahoo Mobile has "no hidden fees" or "clingy contracts." "We're the only plan that gives you Yahoo Mail Pro for ad-free email across ALL your devices," the Yahoo Mobile website says. (Fact check: True.)
Yahoo Mobile costs $40 a month and provides "unlimited" data, with a caveat. "In times of traffic, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic," the announcement said. With the more expensive Verizon-branded unlimited service, customers have the option of buying plans with no data slowdowns until they use 25GB, 50GB, or 75GB in a month. With Yahoo Mobile, the speed limits can be imposed any time the network is congested, regardless of how much data a customer has used. Yahoo Mobile also comes with an "unlimited mobile hotspot for use with one connected device at a time," but those hotspot speeds are capped at 5Mbps. The Yahoo plan doesn't have access to Verizon's 5G network, though that's not really a big deal yet. Aside from the Yahoo-specific aspects, Yahoo Mobile is essentially the same plan offered by Visible, a Verizon subsidiary.
Yahoo Mobile costs $40 a month and provides "unlimited" data, with a caveat. "In times of traffic, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic," the announcement said. With the more expensive Verizon-branded unlimited service, customers have the option of buying plans with no data slowdowns until they use 25GB, 50GB, or 75GB in a month. With Yahoo Mobile, the speed limits can be imposed any time the network is congested, regardless of how much data a customer has used. Yahoo Mobile also comes with an "unlimited mobile hotspot for use with one connected device at a time," but those hotspot speeds are capped at 5Mbps. The Yahoo plan doesn't have access to Verizon's 5G network, though that's not really a big deal yet. Aside from the Yahoo-specific aspects, Yahoo Mobile is essentially the same plan offered by Visible, a Verizon subsidiary.
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What 5G network?
Probably this one. [tomsguide.com] Now, tell me your "no true 5G" stories. If no one can have a 5G network until the standard is ratified, what's that stuff Huawei's making?
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Oddly, Yahoo! manages email for att.com customers. This puts Verizon in the position of controlling A&T&'s email.
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well it is kinda better than the 75 gbyte deal. at least you can sometimes use it.
also if the network is congested in all practicality all the devices will get slower speeds depending on their connection strength. depends where it's congested though too, but the qos juggling is shite anyways.
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First Mover Advantage... or not (Score:1)
Must be depressing for Yahoo to know that with the lead they had with Yahoo Instant Messenger, along with the infrastructure and name recognition they had, they could have easily captured the Slack/Teams space...
(Yes, I know, ICQ, IRC... Yahoo was "big corporate" though.)
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Not as depressing to know that with the lead they had as an index to the internet, they could have captured the whole Google space.
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Not as depressing to know that with the lead they had as an index to the internet, they could have captured the whole Google space.
^^^^ This this this.
They had zero competition, complete dominance in the market for search, and then lost it all through laziness and lack of vision (or interest) in what might come next.
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"Plan That No One Asked For"? (Score:3, Interesting)
I feel sorry for the customer service department, though-- imagine spending all day every day telling angry retirees how to use "The Google" without double-clicking a blue 'e', or dealing with "I've been hacked!" calls whenever there's a popup ad.
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The only old people I know that use Yahoo are the ones that signed up in the 90's/early 2000's and haven't switched. I assume that the entirety of Yahoo's user base by now only exists because of inertia. There's also a group very similar to this, except with AOL.
They are a minority though, most switched to something else some time ago (almost all to Gmail).
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I did sign up in the mid-90's, but I refuse to use any Google products (except for maps sometimes). And Yahoo still works just fine.
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And some still use AOL. :(
lol whut (Score:2)
"Because the service comes with Yahoo Mail Pro, the ad-free version of Yahoo Mail that normally costs $3.49 a month. Yahoo Mobile also includes 24/7 Yahoo account customer service."
1) I use an ad blocker so I never see ads on the free version of Yahoo mail. That must be what that blank space on the right is.
2) I've never called Yahoo account customer service and never will. I didn't even know they existed. If I've managed to get by without them for the last 20+ years, I think I'll be okay going forward.
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Re: Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla just brandna (Score:2)
They may be tools, but people have very good reasons for buying an F-150 pickup instead of a Honda Civic. There are real differences among these different products and just because someone insists on using one over the other doesn't mean they're a brainwashed fanboy.
Visible Wireless (Score:2)
Yahoo Mobile costs $40 a month and provides "unlimited" data, with a caveat. "In times of traffic, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic," the announcement said. With the more expensive Verizon-branded unlimited service, customers have the option of buying plans with no data slowdowns until they use 25GB, 50GB, or 75GB in a month. With Yahoo Mobile, the speed limits can be imposed any time the network is congested, regardless of how much data a customer has used. Yahoo Mobile also comes with an "unlimited mobile hotspot for use with one connected device at a time," but those hotspot speeds are capped at 5Mbps.
You're better off with Verizon's Visible Wireless [visible.com] if you need more than 1 line and for whatever reason want Yahoo! Mail Pro. You get all the same plan features (unlimited data, messages, and minutes, and unlimited 5 Mbps mobile hotspot) and all "Taxes and fees are baked in. No additional nonsense."
1 line = $40
2 lines = $35 per line + $3.49 per month for Yahoo Mail Pro = $38.49
3 lines = $30 per line + $3.49 per month for Yahoo Mail Pro = $33.49
4 lines = $25 per line + $3.49 per month for Yahoo Mail Pro = $28
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And you can band together with random internet strangers for that, each line is paid for separately.
(Reasonably happy Visible customer here. It can be somewhat buggy at times, but $25 for unlimited data including hotspot)
Though pings aren't great, and at times in certain areas, the speeds can be not great, for example I was in the basketball arena of a reasonably large catholic university in a major city during a basketball game a couple months ago getting 1-3 mbps.
But in my corner of suburban hell, 50 mb
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Well, I've been using Visible for about 7 months now and absolutely love it. Paying $5 a month thanks to banked referral bonuses, but it will still only be $25 when the bonus runs out. Got in when the data speed was uncapped so there is no limit. And it just works everywhere I need it to work.
Not much mention of it but Visible has a party plan where you don't even need to know the other people in the party, and you, personally, don't need to have multiple lines. Just join some random party via the subr
I'd pay money not to have a @yahoo.com address (Score:2)
n/t
Yahoo Mobile is essentially the same Visible plan (Score:2)
Yahoo Mobile is essentially the same plan offered by Visible, a Verizon subsidiary.
This is called rebranding. In the world of cars, it's also called rebadging.
Y mobile (Score:2)