Verizon customers’ bills are going up starting in June for... reasons

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A few extra dollars on the phone bill is what many customers will see. The administrative fee for postpaid customers is going to go up to $3.30 per voice line, starting in June. If you have a data-only line for a tablet, there is no change to the fee increase.

The price increase on consumer accounts was not cited in an email from the company.

From time to time, we review and make adjustments to fees to defray some of Verizon’s administrative and telco expenses and costs of complying with regulatory requirements. To that end, Verizon Consumer will implement a change beginning in June.

Really clears things up. The new economic adjustment charge will be added to some business accounts on June 16th. The monthly charge for each phone and data device is $2.20 per line, and 98 cents for basic phones and tablets on an account. The reasons for the new charge are more explicit.

The current economic conditions impacting businesses worldwide continue to mount and despite our best efforts to mitigate further impact, we intend to offset a portion of these costs by implementing an Economic Adjustment Charge.

It isn't alone here. AT&T settled a class-action suit in California so it can keep charging customers for its services. AT&T recently raised prices on some older plans, and CEO John Stankey said on the company's last earnings call that there would be price hikes across the industry. On the company's Q1 2022 investor call, Hans Vestberg mentioned different types of cost adjustments and changes to pricing as options to combat inflation.

Net income was down 12.4 percent despite a 2.1 percent increase in total revenue. One way to address the shortfall is to raise an ambiguous monthly fee. The class-action lawsuit in California alleges that the fee is used to pad its margins without raising plan prices. It may have written big checks in the C-band auction last year.