Verizon has put a price on Apple’s new iPhone Handoff feature that allows sharing a single phone number across two compatible iPhones, and it will cost $10 per month, double what T-Mobile charges for the service.
The option requires iOS 27 and works with the new iPhone Duo and the iPhone 18 Pro, as switching between the foldable iPhone and their regular candybar is the most likely scenario someone would want to use it in.
Verizon says you can switch the active device at any time while keeping full access to its 5G network. The idea is to carry the pocketable Duo, which has a 5.4-inch outer screen, on the go and use the iPhone 18 Pro for work, or the other way around. The phones are eSIM only in the US, so there is no physical SIM card to shuttle between the two, and Handoff would come in handy.
How iPhone Handoff Actually Works
iPhone Handoff is a carrier-dependent feature introduced with iOS 27 that lets one phone number live on two separate iPhones, with only one device active on the cellular network at a time. That is a meaningfully different setup from traditional dual-SIM phones, where a single device runs two separate lines simultaneously.
With Handoff, a user owns two physical iPhones tied to the same number and the same eSIM-based service plan, and they manually (or automatically) designate which of the two is currently taking calls, texts, and data over Verizon’s network.
The practical use case Verizon is pitching: someone who carries a foldable iPhone Duo for everyday use but wants a more traditional slab-style iPhone 18 Pro for travel, work, or specific tasks, without juggling two separate phone numbers or forwarding calls manually.
In theory, that is a convenience feature aimed squarely at people who already own, or are considering owning, more than one current-generation iPhone, a relatively small but high-spending slice of Verizon’s customer base.
Verizon vs T-Mobile: monthly fees and annual difference
The single biggest reaction to Verizon’s announcement is about price, not functionality. T-Mobile already supports iPhone Handoff and charges half of what Verizon now plans to charge for what is, on paper, the same capability. That gap has become the headline across outlets covering the story, and it puts Verizon in the position of defending a premium for a feature it did not build and does not otherwise differentiate technically.
| Carrier | iPhone Handoff Status | Monthly Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verizon | Confirmed, “coming soon” | $10/month | No firm launch date announced |
| T-Mobile | Already live | $5/month | Half of Verizon’s announced price |
| AT&T | No committed plans reported | Not announced | Has not confirmed support for the feature |
| Deutsche Telekom | Supported (Germany) | Not confirmed in US coverage | International carrier offering the feature |
| EE | Expected support (UK) | No confirmed date | Reporting does not confirm launch timing |
Two things stand out in that comparison. First, Verizon is not introducing a brand-new feature to the market, it is pricing an already-available capability at a premium relative to a direct competitor.
Second, AT&T’s apparent silence creates a three-way split among the biggest US carriers: one has committed to a lower price, one has committed to a higher price, and one has not committed at all. That inconsistency is unusual for a feature that depends entirely on Apple’s own iOS 27 software layer rather than any carrier-specific network engineering.
