Josh Hendrickson
Yahoo, the once-famous search engine and email provider, is back (well, it never left technically). But it’s not announcing another relaunch of its search engine or media ambitions. No, its parent company, Verizon Media, thinks Yahoo would make an excellent mobile phone service. Yahoo Mobile, to be exact. Yeah. Seriously.
You’re probably wondering, why turn Yahoo into a cell phone service provider? We wondered the same think, and Guru Gowrappan, the CEO of Verizon Media, already has answer according to CNN Business—because Yahoo is a “really trusted brand.”
Whether or not you agree with the sentiment, Yahoo Mobile is open for business right now. For $40.00 a month, you’ll get unlimited talk, text, and data. The company says it won’t even throttle you for excessive data use. It may slow speeds in times of congestions, though, the same as nearly every other carrier.
Your $40.00 a month also comes with hotspot access, though it’s limited to one device and capped speeds of 5 Mbps, which is pretty slow. The nascent carrier uses Verizon’s towers for coverage, which gives it a large swath to work with, and you can pick from iPhones, Samsung devices, and more. There are even a few pre-owned options if you want to save a few dollars.
And of course, you can naturally sign up for payment plans to grab an expensive phone for a low monthly price. You’ll still pay quite a bit upfront though, an iPhone 8 on a payment plan calls for an initial payment of $336, plus the first month’s bill.
Yahoo Mobile is also touting access to its Yahoo Mail Pro accounts, and phone customer service for all Yahoo accounts. That’s nice, we guess, though we’re wondering if anyone uses Yahoo email anymore.
via CNN Business
