A new report from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) says the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will soon allow for more than $50 billion in subsidized wireless phone plans to be sold in the U.S. by end-2017.NTIA’s report is a follow-up to the FCC’s April 2018 Open Internet Order, which allowed unlimited mobile phone plans.
In the new report, NTIA finds that some of the nation’s largest carriers — including AT&P, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon — are expected to sell over 2 billion subsidized smartphone plans by the end of 2017.
That’s up from the previous NTIA estimates of less than 700 million subsidized smartphone lines in 2018.
The report says that most of the new subsidized plans will be sold by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mo.
But it’s not just AT>s plans that will get some attention.
NTIA also found that several of the largest wireless carriers, including Sprint, are also expected to begin selling subsidized mobile phone lines by the same date.
This includes AT<, Verizon and Tm.
The report also found some new carriers that may soon offer subsidized wireless plans to customers with data plans.
AT&ts plans include the Frontier, Sprint Nextel, and Sprint Next 2 lines.
And Tm is expected to offer the T-Mob and Tmo lines as well.
