It could put pressure on rivals such as AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel Corp, the second and third biggest U.S mobile services, to follow suit with price cuts of their own. It may also hurt smaller competitors such as Leap Wireless International Inc and MetroPCS Communications Inc , which already offer big discounts.
Shares of Verizon Wireless parent Verizon Communications Inc were down 1.5 percent on Friday. Shares in Vodafone Group Plc, a minority Verizon Wireless owner, were also down 1.2 percent in London.
Verizon Wireless said on Friday it is replacing a $99.99 voice plan with a $69.99 plan that includes unlimited phone calls and an $89.99 plan that also includes text messages.
However, the company upped its fee for data services such as Web surfing to $9.99 per month in a plan which caps data use at 25 megabytes of downloads, from a $19.99 service plan for 75 megabytes of data downloads.
Executives for Verizon said while voice revenues would come down initially, the ultimate effect of all the changes would be an increase in revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
They did not give specific details.
The increase in data fees comes as Verizon and its rivals look for ways to ease pressure on their data networks. The growing popularity of Web-capable phones has vastly increased data use.
AT&T's mobile chief said late last year that he was looking for ways to ease data usage. A spokesman for AT&T declined comment on whether or not his company would follow suit.
AT&T currently offers a $99.99 unlimited voice plan and data services for $29.99 excluding text messages.
A Sprint representative was not immediately available for comment. Sprint offers voice and data services for $99.99.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
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