Verizon today unveiled their new 4G LTE Broadband Router with Voice, which as the name creatively implies provides users with a home router for voice and data powered by Verizon's LTE network. The Novatel-made device features a backup battery, one jack for a home phone and three Ethernet ports, with the ability to connect up to ten devices simultaneously.

According to the Verizon website, the 4G LTE Broadband Router With Voice sells for $50 if you sign a two-year contract, or $200 if you don't. The device is also being given away for free as part of a limited time promotion to new customers signing up for voice and data.

The device requires you sign up for Verizon's Share Everything plan, obviously meaning that everything including voice service gets pulled from your existing bucket of data.

This is effectively a fusion of the company's Verizon Home Phone Connect and the Verizon Home Fusion LTE services. High data costs make it clear that this isn't aimed at customers inside Verizon's landline footprint who currently enjoy unlimited FiOS and DSL connections.

4G LTE Broadband Router with Voice is a product aimed squarely at two groups of customers: those outside of Verizon's landline footprint without any decent fixed line options (like satellite broadband customers), or the millions of DSL customers Verizon's currently in the process of backing away from.

Verizon and AT&T ultimately want to pull DSL and POTS service from tens of millions of customers they don't want to upgrade, instead pushing them toward LTE services that will likely be much more expensive for those users in the age of video streaming. Severing these DSL customers, then pushing this LTE service (and it's $15 per gigabyte overages) on them is part of a larger plan at big red that has been years in the making.