Verizon unlimited data plans changing in July

[jwinslow]

Will merge in a few weeks, wanted to make sure folks noticed...

Verizon's 'DataGate' plans leaked in excruciating detail

​

As rumored yesterday, all customers grandfathered into the unlimited monthly data will be allowed to keep it, even when upgrading to new phones.

Business discounts, currently applied to the limitless plans, would now only apply to primary lines that are willing to fork out $50 or more; however, the wording did not indicate whether or not those grandfathered in would still receive those same benefits.

• EXISTING CUSTOMERS- That have our $29.99 unlimited data plan WILL BE GRANDFATHERED IN, they will keep their unlimited plan after 7/7/11
• EXISTING CUSTOMERS- That current have the unlimited data WILL BE ABLE TO UPGRADE AND KEEP the unlimited data feature (No known end date on this as of this moment)
• EXISTING CUSTOMERS- That add lines post 7/7/2011, will NOT be able to choose the $29.99 unlimited data feature
• NEW CUSTOMERS- Any customer that sets up service from now, until 7/7/2011 WILL BE ON, AND WILL BE GRANDFATHERED into our $29.99 unlimited data package
• NEW CUSTOMERS- Any new customer that set up service AFTER 7/7/2011, WILL NOT be able to choose the $29.99 unlimited plan
• BUSINESS DISCOUNTS- Currently our business discounts apply to the $29.99 data plan on the primary line only. Most discounts are 20% despite whatever monthly access discount they have
• BUSINESS DISCOUNTS- After 7/7/2011 data discounts will only apply to the $50 and higher data packages on the primary line.
• Discount break down ex. of customers with a 20% feature discount on their primary line. ($50-20%=$40/month for 5GB and includes the business e-mail feature)
• -- ($20/GB vs. $40/GB+ Business e-mail )

I'm looking for official verification that a 3G unlimited plan to 4G phone upgrade in a year doesn't change things, but currently they two use the same data plan so there's a good chance it will be grandfathered in as well.

 

[OHSportsFan]

Crap crap crap.

I'm so far behind on the new phones, but I know I'll want one in the next year+. :(

Is 2GB good enough? Doesn't seem like it and obviously having "unlimited" anything for the same price is better. Hmm, this may just force my hand.

 

[jwinslow]

2 gb would mean very little video watching, music listening or major downloads. No, the plans are not very reasonable.

One thing to note is you can download as much as possible over WiFi, which I use at home and the occasional restaurant. Many folks could add school or work wireless to that list. The cap is merely your non WiFi usage.

I really think they are going to push people to use WiFi tablets, which will lose a lot of data subscriptions, but avoid crippling their networks with the incredible growth of smartphone usage.

 

[BuckeyeTillIDie]

The cell phone crazy continues to spiral into insanity.

 

[3074326]

I love you Verizon, but I'll be switching back to AT&T when my contract is up just because of this.

 

[scarletmike]

Well, fuck. I don't currently have a phone that makes sense for data usage, period. However, I know I will end up with a very data-capable phone before too much longer, which may push me to upgrade to the unlimited data plan and eat the cost right now...

 

[OSU_Buckguy]

in a month, virgin mobile releases the motorola triumph, which is like a droid x-lite: 1 ghz snapdragon, android 2.2, 4.1 wvga, 5 mp with front-facing camera, hd 720p, hdmi out. the sprint network is inferior to verizon's and vm's customer service is known to be bad, but i can get 1200 minutes with unlimited text and data for $40 (or $25 for 300 minutes and unlimited).

 

[jlb1705]

It doesn't matter how good their network is if they price everybody out of using it.

$2 per MB for pay-per-use? So downloading a 5MB mp3 would cost 99 cents for the song and $10 for the bandwidth?

 

[jwinslow]

It doesn't matter how good their network is if they price everybody out of using it.

$2 per MB for pay-per-use? So downloading a 5MB mp3 would cost 99 cents for the song and $10 for the bandwidth?

I'm sorry sir, you still have to pay $10 extra for text messages. I don't care how many times you point out that we are charging for something that your phone does for free when you don't send text messages.

 

[NateG]

Looks like I'll need to use my wife's upgrade to a smartphone sooner than I wanted.:(

 

[Cincinnatibuck]

I was going to switch from Cincinnati Bell to Verizon when the new iPhone came out later this year. With this price change Verizon is making, looks like I may be going with the Motorola Triumph with Virgin Mobile. Only reason I wanted the iPhone was so that I could stop carry both my Blackberry and iPod Touch with me. I'll have to get use to having an Android phone and a iPad.

 

[jlb1705]

I was going to switch from Cincinnati Bell to Verizon when the new iPhone came out later this year. With this price change Verizon is making, looks like I may be going with the Motorola Triumph with Virgin Mobile. Only reason I wanted the iPhone was so that I could stop carry both my Blackberry and iPod Touch with me. I'll have to get use to having an Android phone and a iPad.

I take it you ruled out AT&T? They have tiered data too but it's not quite as brutal as what Verizon is doing. I've been happy with AT&T around here for the last year and a half.

They're also selling unlocked iPhones now, so even if you're opposed to AT&T you could always pay a little more to get one of those and drop a Cincinnati Bell SIM card in it.

 

[jwinslow]

I take it you ruled out AT&T? They have tiered data too but it's not quite as brutal as what Verizon is doing. I've been happy with AT&T around here for the last year and a half.

AT&T
$15 - 0.2 gb
$25 - 2.0 gb
$45 - 4.0 gb

VZW
$30 - 2.0 gb
$50 - 5.0 gb
$80 - 8.0 gb

AT&T has good plans if you virtually never use data outside of wifi. The 2 gb plans are similar, while VZW offers more high end bandwidth (for outrageous $).

 

[MaxBuck]

My understanding is that if you ever want to have grandfathered unlimited-use data on Verizon 4G, you'd better get a 4G phone by July 7.

 

[Basebuck]

My understanding is that if you ever want to have grandfathered unlimited-use data on Verizon 4G, you'd better get a 4G phone by July 7.

Interesting. At the bottom of the chart that Jwins posted it groups 4G and 3G together. I'm going to stop by Verizon after work and ask. I've got two kids who I think I'm going to upgrade this week. The last thing I want is my kids on a limited data plan. That's just asking for trouble.