Verizon launches a Yahoo brand mobile phone service Yahoo Mobile in an attempt to use consumers total apathy towards Familiarity with the Yahoo brand to launch a new wireless provider.
Yahoo Mobile works on the Verizon network and offers only one subscription: unlimited LTE data for $ 40 per month, plus delayed tethering and a subscription to Yahoo Mail Pro. It is a good price; Verizon charges $ 65 per month for a prepaid unlimited plan and AT&T charges $ 45 per month.
If all this feels like a lazy attempt to recycle the Yahoo brand, it gets worse: Yahoo Mobile is actually just a new version of Visible, which another spin-off telephone service managed by Yahoo. The single plan is the same, their websites beat beat by beat, and Yahoo Mobile even offers Visible’s phone insurance plan under the Visible name.
Verizon closed Yahoo’s purchase almost three years ago. The deal included the Yahoo brand and major web services such as Flickr and Tumblr. But Verizon was primarily interested in Yahoo’s advertising technology and Yahoo doesn’t do much. Both Flickr and Tumblr have since sold out and Yahoo’s biggest announcements are payments for data breaches.
Spinoff providers such as Yahoo Mobile and Visible have Verizon diversify its activities and test new ways to sell wireless services. Verizon is not exactly a popular brand, but Visible has hip branding and a simple price structure – something that can appeal to younger customers. Yahoo Mobile offers a different view, only with the extremely attractive perk of … Yahoo Mail subscription.