Amazon seeks to offer free mobile telephony to its subscribers: Bloomberg

Amazon has also talked to AT&T, however the plan may still take several months to launch and could even be scrapped, a person asked said.

The plan is currently being considered for the US market, where the subscription cost is $139 a year and includes free shipping, Prime Video and Amazon Music with free access to 100 million songs.

“We are always exploring adding even more benefits for Prime members, but we have no plans to add wireless services at this time,” Amazon spokeswoman Maggie Sivon said in a statement. Verizon and Dish declined to comment.

Previously, the subscription cost $119 per year and as of March there were 167 million subscribers, which represents a stagnation from the previous year, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Amazon’s direct competition in the United States is Walmart, with a price of $98 per year. Recently, Walmart obtained an agreement to include a subscription to Paramount +, as part of its benefits.

Shares of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile were down between 4% and 7%, while Amazon was up 2%. Dish Network advanced 17%. Talks between Amazon and Dish were reported last week.

The aforementioned telecommunications firms did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

With information from Reuters and Bloomberg.