Verizon reportedly plans to subsidize the cost of an Apple Music subscription to customers of two of its Unlimited data plans as early as this Thursday.
9To5Mac reports customers who have either the Beyond Unlimited or Above Unlimited plans will receive the streaming music service at no additional cost. This is not the free trial the service currently offers, according to the site, but a full subsidized subscription.
Verizon did not immediately reply to Fortune‘s requests for comment.
This is the latest news in an escalating game among cellular carriers to attract and retain customers as the age of 5G technology draws near. T-Mobile, in September 2017, added free Netflix service to family plan subscribers on its unlimited data plans. Earlier that year, AT&T began giving its regular unlimited data plan customers a free subscription to HBO, as well a $25 monthly credit for the company’s pay TV services, DirecTV, U-Verse and DirecTV Now. By comparison, AT&T’s slower speed, but more inexpensive, “Mobile choice” plan don’t get free HBO.
Apple Music is looking to gain ground on competing services, such as Spotify. In May 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the streaming service had more than 50 million users, a combination of paid users and free-trial members. Spotify, as of last September, reportedly had 87 million paying customers and another 109 million members using the ad-supported service.
