As if Amazon doesn’t have enough services, there are widespread rumors that the retail behemoth, with over 300 million active customer accounts and over 1.9 million-selling partners worldwide, is exploring offering free mobile wireless service. If the rumors are to be believed, the tech giant is in talks with wireless phone carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T to negotiate low-cost or potentially free phone plans for Prime subscribers. If the plans were to go through, Amazon might be able to offer their customers wireless plans for just $10 a month or less.
We reached out to Amazon, and while a spokesperson wouldn’t confirm any ongoing talks, he did offer this statement:
“We are always exploring adding even more benefits for Prime members, but don’t have plans to add wireless at this time.” – Bradley Mattinger, Amazon spokesperson
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I guess the keyword there is “at this time.” However, part of why Amazon would want to create its own phone plan is to attract more customers, as the company has hit a bit of a plateau ever since raising its annual subscription price from $119 to $139 per year. A low plan from Amazon could also do a lot of harm to the 3 major phone carriers, as the lowest unlimited individual plan comes from Verizon at about $60 per month.
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Plus, Amazon will do pretty much anything to be more attractive than its rival competitor, Walmart, which has a lower membership plan with the same perks as Prime and free grocery delivery on orders of at least $35.
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The tech giant could go multiple routes with this new phone plan idea. It could resell mobile services from larger carriers, choose to offer wireless to its Prime members at an attractive price, or even offer Prime wireless to anyone who wants to switch services and become a Prime member.
With the big mobile carriers, this could be bad news. They want fewer competitors so that they can make more money for themselves, and since Amazon would only want to make itself a reseller, the company wouldn’t have to worry about spending millions of dollars on creating its own mobile network. However, since many wireless plans are now being offered as bundles with things like cable and streaming services now anyway, this could also be an opportunity for the big phone carriers to see a return on their investment.
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Probably the biggest downside of this phone plan will be the amount of data Amazon will have access to. Amazon already collects so much data on people between their prime memberships and what they search for, people’s devices like the Alexa device, and more. This phone plan would likely just give the company more access to people’s data so that they can send more targeted ads and make more money off people.
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I’m not quite sure yet if this mobile phone plan is a move in the right direction, although those low-price plans sure do sound tempting. My biggest concern is the privacy and safety measures that Amazon plans to put in place with the possible mobile service and how they plan to protect and serve their customers’ best interests without collecting information on them for their own gain. We’ll first have to see if these other major phone carriers make any sort of deal with the tech giant, so I’ll be paying close attention and will provide any updates.
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