[SLME]

http://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-add...tag=YHF65cbda0

The offers come after the company posted fourth-quarter results that showed a spike in customer defections.

Verizon is hoping some extra data and a few discounts will lead to better customer loyalty.
Verizon is offering a few more carrots to customers. Sarah Tew / CNET

The nation's largest wireless provider will pack an extra 1 gigabyte of data into its More Everything plans that range from 1GB to 3GB, or $40 to $60, a month, the company said Wednesday. The extra gigabyte of data is in effect a $10 discount on some of its plans.

For a limited time, it will also let customers with More Everything plans of 6GB or more add smartphones on Verizon Edge and pay the discounted network-access fee that was previously available only to customers with plans of 10GB or more.

The offers take effect Thursday and are available to new and existing customers.

The changes come after Verizon posted fourth-quarter results that showed a spike in customer turnover, an illustration of the competitive pressures facing the New York telecommunications company. Though the company said it wouldn't chase certain lower-end customers, the new promotions show that it's willing to stay aggressive against an onslaught of discounts and offers from Sprint and T-Mobile.

With video and gaming taking up more bandwidth, and plans offered by AT&T and Verizon capped at a certain level, consumers are more conscious of the data they use up.

Verizon also introduced several new tiers of data plans under More Everything, which is designed to provide a common bucket of data that multiple accounts can draw from. The new tiers include a 6GB plan for $70 a month, a 12GB plan for $110, a 14GB option for $120 and a 16GB option for $130.

Verizon's Edge plan, meanwhile, lets customers pay a monthly fee over 24 months to cover the cost of their smartphone, rather than paying for the phone upfront. In exchange, they get a discount on their device-access fee, or the fee they pay so their phone can connect to Verizon's network. Customers on a more expensive, 6GB-or-above plan pay a lower fee: $15 a month. Customers on a cheaper 4GB-or-less plan pay $25 a month. The cutoff before was 10GB, but the change is available only for a limited time.