In Verizon’s Price Battle With AT&T, Users Get the Spoils

Your mobile-phone bill may finally be shrinking. The industry’s fight over prices, ignited in 2013 by T-Mobile US, is beginning to have a noticeable effect even for consumers who haven’t switched carriers.

As they jockey to match or beat each other’s discounts for new customers, the wireless companies are also passing along savings to their current users to keep them from running off to a competitor. Even Verizon Communications, the largest US wireless carrier and the one that gets the most revenue per customer, has been dragged into the fray. With no formal announcement or fanfare, it matched AT&T’s latest price cut for big-spending, family-plan customers -- itself a move to get closer to the $140 a month T-Mobile charges for an equivalent package.

While sales are still expanding for mobile carriers, savvy consumers have been able to save hundreds of dollars a year. In its latest price cut, Verizon reduced the monthly charge for using a smartphone on a 10-gigabyte service plan to $15 from $20. For a family using four smartphones, that means a monthly plan of $180 just fell to $160 -- in line with discounts AT&T announced in February. Verizon says its promotion is temporary.