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Verizon To Kill All Unlimited Data Plans
afabbro writes "Verizon mentioned in an investor conference that it will be eliminating unlimited data plans, even for those it grandfathered in. From the article: 'Speaking at the J.P Morgan Technology Media and Telecom conference today, Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo told investors that the company's 3G unlimited data plans that customers were allowed to hang onto last year when Verizon switched to a tiered offering will soon go away entirely. Instead, the company will migrate its existing and new 4G LTE customers to a new "data share plan."
The company has yet to announce the details of this new plan, but it has said previously that the data share plan will be introduced in midsummer. The plan will allow people on the same family plan to share buckets of data each month, much like they share voice minutes and text messaging. It will also allow individuals to share data across different 4G LTE devices.'"
Ridiculous text message pricing was the gateway drug.
On chasing away a good portion of your customer base.
If they really, really want to let me out of my contract here in a month or two, so be it. T-mobile and Sprint still have unlimited plans, so I guess that's where I'll be heading.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
How long before AT&T follows suit?
"God does not play Minecraft with the world." - Albert Einstein
That sucks. Even though I don't use data much on 3g, it was always nice to know that I didn't have to worry about a cap. Now I have to worry about it. Bah.
I'm up for a discounted phone in June. I'm hoping I can lock in two more years of unlimited before this change goes live. At the prices they currently charge for data, I'll switch to a feature phone and carry around my old smartphone in wifi mode before I switch to one of their limited plans.
With the el-cheapo carriers heavily advertising their cut-rate plans, how long can AT&T and Verizon keep it up? Why would anyone pay $80/month when they can get the same service from another carrier for less than $50?
Unless the big boys start offering either better service or lower prices, how will they stay in business?
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
They're sort of like a tick that attaches itself to a host and keep engorging itself until it pops.
It's gotten itself firmly attached to the wallets of 93 million people. Now it's sucking hard. The pop will come enough...
http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/19/verizon-quarterly-revenues-q1-2012/
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
Too bad. They used to be better than the rest. Those were the days. It's unfortunate that they're such dimwits too. Yes, capacity is a problem, until up put a mini-switch/router on every 12th telephone and power pole and then it isn't. The technical problem is solvable, but they'd have to spend some money renting space, placing and maintaining equipment and getting easements. Stock prices would fall for a quarter and some exec wouldn't waddle away with the bonus he truly believes he deserves.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
how they market speak that shared plan people are "allowed to pool" their network usage. Rather than the more accurate "forced to share usage". It puts people on family plans at the mercy of their teenage daughter. DOOOOOOoooommmmm.....
Those guys are just as expensive as AT&T and Verizon. I'm talking about discount carriers, like StraightTalk and Red.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
*HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA*
And you'll get $10, where as the attorneys will get $100 mil.
I'm paying $50/month for 450 minutes and 500 texts.
Are you actually using 450/500 or are you paying for the option to use up to that amount but only using a fraction of that?
I was paying about $8 to $10/month for virgin mobile pay as I go.
You can calculate the crossover point of pay as you go vs contract and its really quite a bit of use, darn near a part time job. I'm convinced most contract people would be better off pay as you go. Not all, but most.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Not if they offered to honor the original contract terms for the duration of the contract and terminate it immediately upon its completion. Just like credit cards: terms have changed, you either accept them or you live out your existing contract as specified with no further changes allowed.
Verizon's unlimited 3G meant I could play Pandora through my phone while I was driving without worrying about data caps. :s And they have very good coverage from what I noticed. I guess this means I'll just have to actually use my iPod or something, assuming I can remember where I put it and a way to set it up to either play through the car radio or into my hearing aid.
My contract is up anyhow and I need to trim down expenses. I have the HTC Droid Incredible, which is a nifty enough little phone. All I really need is texting, email, and maybe some minimum amount of minutes. A camera on it would be convenient. I really don't want to move from Verizon because I know their coverage is solid, but I don't want to reward their greedy data tier plan behavior. Any recommendations?
I agree. I have a grandfathered plan and this news is somewhat alarming, but many times I have been with other people who have Sprint or AT&T that hit dead spots the moment they leave major metropolitan areas and the interstates. That was the reason I switched to Verizon in the first place. I can't really make a credible threat to leave Verizon, because even with whatever capped plan they introduce (the current ones are ~2GB only!) it is unlikely that Verizon will actually be worse in general than AT&T, etc.
Goodbye. Guess you don't want my money anymore. Or rather, you obviously do, you just want more of it. You got greedy, now you get none.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
If they try to charge ETFs on people who are grandfathered in and decide to cancel, that would be a breach of contract, wouldn't it?
The contract you signed sucks, BTW. (for you, of course, not that you had much in they way of choice if you want a mobile phone).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'm glad they are doing this. I'm currently paying ~$100 a month, and the only reason I keep Verizon is that I'm not on contract, and I have an unlimited plan that would be impossible to replace if I cancelled.
I've been with Verizon since owning a Motorola Startac. Killing the unlimited plan should make the switch to another provider painless.
IMHO.. it won't be worth being part of a class action.
The new trick is that *you* have to pay postage to opt-out of the class. I always opted out when they sent a SASE, but now I mostly shred them. I'm sure they expected this.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
According to Nokia Siemens Networks, the average amount of smartphone data used per day is 15MB (about 450MB per month). If you're using ten times that amount on a grandfathered plan that costs you peanuts, it's hardly surprising that someone somewhere will run the numbers and work out that you are of no value to the company.
By all means shout "right, that's it! I'm off to Sprint!" but it'll be a hollow victory as Verizon will probably be more than happy to see the back of you.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
It will also allow individuals to share data across different 4G LTE devices
does that mean we can now share our 4G cell phone data plan with a 4G usb stick and not have to buy another stupid data plan for it?? because i'm all for that.
They actually increased the GB allotment.
AT&T has been at $30 for 2GB for four fucking years now, I mean, if they upped it 1GB a year it would seem reasonable - but to keep the bandwidth static is absolute BS.
I don't mind paying, if it is fair.
I too was ready to throw in the towel for phones but I was happy to talk to an alltel provider who was happy to sell me unlimited everything. This included their USB cell modems, so it was an easy choice to switch to them and keep having a cell phone.
My fiance had verizon and her phone was so locked it wouldnt even let you download pictures it took, compared to mine which was the same model. I was disgusted by cell phones.
Then VZW purchased them and its been going south ever since. The only reason I have a phone is because its an android, i can hack it if i want to, and I have unlimited data which is fair for the price i'm paying. I get 100Mbps cable for less than my phone gets 1.5Mbps
Take this away and I feel like you're screwing me harder for phones that now come with crapware, keep installing more crapware, and your support shoots me in the face when my phone overheats and dies in front of you because i have "done bad things to my phones software" which they cannot prove.
Sorry, can't help it. I stuck with Verizon from God knows how many years, switched to my first data plan this year knowing that lucky first adopters had it unlimited and now this brings a sweet joy of satisfaction and sort of commie style equality: NOW we all are in this shit together.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Is this really that bad? Selling a limited resource as "unlimited" is not sustainable. I'd rather have the smaller proportion of folks who use a larger proportion of data pay more for it. So what?
Hey, if they'll honor the terms for the remainder of my contract, I'll stay at least that long. If not, I'm gone. Verizon's expensive but I'm willing to pay the premium price for my unlimited data plan (topped out at 8.7 gigs one month!) and decent coverage. But I'm not going to keep paying well over a hundred bucks a month to a company that won't give me the service they sold me. I made a commitment to pay them $$$.$$/month for 24 months and I expect them to provide no less than the level of service I was promised when I made that commitment for the duration of that contract.
It used to be that service got better over time. My first cell phone plan back in the 90s just got better and better. When I signed up, it was 60 minutes in a 3-county area. Then it was half the state. Then they doubled the minutes. Then my home area was the entire state. By the time I moved to another carrier, my home area was 3 states. The new carrier gave me 240 minutes, free evenings (6pm) and weekends, and 5 states as my home area plus free long distance. All for $10/month less.
Somehow, it's gotten all flipped around the last few years and carriers are constantly finding ways to reduce the level of service they're offering.
At least if we want to have it fast. There are just real, physical, limits you hit in to with wireless. There is only so much speed you can get with a given technology on a given amount of spectrum, and spectrum is licensed. That speed is shared with all users on a segment. So the only thing you can do is build out the segments smaller. Well not only does that cost money, but it is hard to get done in many places, since segments require towers, and there are practical limits to how small you can make them.
So that means people have to play nice and share. If everyone can just use whatever they want, shit will get slowed down to a crawl. If people play nice and share it can be fast for everyone.
With wired connections it is somewhat feasible to want them to just be faster. Cable companies can start using DOCSIS 3 and allocate more channels to data (it is like 40mbps per channel shared on a segment) and they can also build out their segments to include relatively few houses (even then there are limits). For wireless, you can't do that that, doesn't work that way.
Now that said, the limits are stupidly low with most providers, they need to up them to something more reasonable. However we do need limits. Otherwise it will be poor speeds all around because some people will want to slam the connection 24/7.
That is how it works. You have money to donate to politicians and politicians can make laws to benefit you. It's a win win situation for politicians and businesses but it isn't so good for everyone else.
And, after looking at it, I'm not clear whether this is only 3G unlimited data plans or all unlimited data plans, including grandfathered 4G plans.
You are comparing his statement to supporting rape? I think maybe you have a problem with blowing shit out of proportion.
As for not wanting you to use unlimited amounts of data, they don't, which is why they are changing the plan. They tried it, some people, probably you, used way too much data and wouldn't moderate usage, so they aren't selling unlimited plans anymore.
Unlimited to many reasonable people doesn't mean "No limits at all of any kind," it means "No specific or preset limits." For example at work people have unlimited bandwidth. We have no traffic shaping, no port rate limits, you can use as much is available, which is a lot. However, it is shared among lots of people. If everyone tried to slam it 24/7 we'd get shit speeds. So you have to moderate your usage. Use it when you need it, leave it idle for others when you don't. Fail to do so and we'll notice, and come and talk to you, and if necessary cut your net off. It is "unlimited" in that we don't set any hard limits, but that doesn't mean you can use all of it all the time.
That entitled attitude is precisely why companies have to start setting limits. People who say "They said unlimited, so I am going to stream video all day, torrent all night, and use every last bit of the bandwidth I can. It is unlimited, that is my right." Well, that gluttonous attitude is unsustainable for people to all have good access since if people won't moderate their usage, they'll impose limits to moderate it.
WTF is wrong with you? And which what part of "recent" did you not understand? Those links you very carefully (lol) pasted in are for the ancient Droid. Which is not sold anywhere in a 1st World nation, and certainly not by Verizon.
Seriously. "February". And not February two years ago. Geez. Think.You simply have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.
And since I know much more than you, what does that make you, other than an asshat troll?
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Ok, fine, you don't want us to have unlimited plans anymore.
If a customer has an unlimited plan (grandfathered in), and Verizon ceases offering it, what will they offer in return?
It sure would be nice if common practice was, when they take something away, they give you something in return.
What is the exchange? Lower rates/costs? Better network performance? Higher throughput?
Don't have anything to give after you take away "unlimited", Verizon? Then give the customer the reason you MUST do it. Prove to the customer that this is necessary, at the very least.
Show the customer a convincing, legitimate reason to stay, or they're going to wonder why you're simply "taking away from them".
Don't just take and take and take and take - that's what the customer doesn't like.
The customer is not stupid, but can easily be misinformed, and perception is everything.
We have 3 data plans, only one unlimited, that would easily fit inside some shared bucket for less money.
My dream - someday to walk around as my mobile phone is making IP-based calls and getting passed from WLAN to WLAN.
I was wondering when Google was going to buy up some fiber and a frequency space (or maybe use >3Ghz which is currently unlicensed) to support their own infrastructure for Android devices.
I am patenting this post. LOL
Self Defense - A Human Right www.a-human-right.com
'Speaking at the J.P Morgan Technology Media and Telecom conference today,
At least the picked the most ironic place to announce their plans to lose two billion dollars the honest way - by screwing their customers into cancellations.
The representative did not know anything about this announcement. He said that grandfathered 4G unlimited users will keep unlimited until they cancel or change their plan. For those of you that are currently unlimited on Verizon, he also told me that you can get unlimited wi-fi tethering for an additional $30 a month. Still kind of expensive when you consider you are already paying $30 for data on your phone to begin with but if you use it all the time it might be worth it.
I have been debating about going with Republic wireless for my phone and Ting for a hotspot. The only thing that was holding me back was my unlimited 4g data on my thunderbolt. I hope wave c gets here before VZ makes the material adverse change in my contract. That way the change will be easy to justify. Right now my ETF is $545 - $40 a month.
Strange, in upstate NY's southern tier it is the exact opposite. AT&T and Sprint have coverage and Verizon has none except for the cities and interstates.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.
It should not surprise anyone that Verizon is going to eventually push people off the unlimited plans. However, if you have unlimited data now, you should not worry until you upgrade your device (or your contract expires). They do retain the rights to change plans and pricing at any time, but they would have to let everyone out of their contract. They will just wait out the current contracts rather than let everyone out since the "issue" of unlimited will work itself out in less than 2 years from the date they stop allowing contract renewals on the old unlimited plans. If they want to boot the users who burn through ridiculous amounts of data such as 1TB a month now, they can deal with those on a case by case basis.
Right now, the only un-throttled unlimited service in the US is with Sprint, who isn't known for fast 3G speeds, and is just getting ready to launch LTE in a handful of markets. Rural customers will be waiting quite some time for Sprint LTE and some may never see it. Also, Sprint may decide to drop unlimited someday. AT&T has caps and overages (and places still stuck on EDGE), and T-Mobile has caps + throttling, and limited coverage in rural areas (also has places stuck on EDGE). The value oriented prepaid carriers all cap or throttle as far as I know. Leaving Verizon just to prove a point isn't likely to accomplish any more than leaving AT&T.
To the carriers defense, there's only so much capacity to go around. LTE will help, but usage continues to grow. More spectrum helps (but this complicates device design and roaming). More cell sites would help too, but they are becoming next to impossible to build in urban and suburban areas, where they are needed most, due to ridiculous health concerns, aesthetic / property value concerns (which is silly since most people want their mobile phones to work at home), and general local government roadblocks for permits.
Verizon users used to pay around $40 for unlimited data on a BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device. This was before the iPhone, and before streaming video and music was common over wireless networks. In fact, I seem to recall that streaming was blocked in the terms of service. Typical usage was low - mine was less than 100MB. The browsers on most devices were terrible and couldn't load a full site without crashing or rendering it in an unreadable mess, so it was hard to use a lot without tethering which was also not allowed. Now, 2 GB for $30 seems a little high, but it is more value for the money than what was available just a few years ago.
I don't want to give up my unlimited plan any more than anyone else, but I never expected it to last forever either. At the end of the day, the carriers are seeing a shift away from voice usage and towards data usage. That's why you can now get an unlimited voice plan for about the same cost as 1,000 minutes a few years ago. Voice isn't the money maker anymore. The wireless carriers are in business to make money, and will make sure that continues to happen. And before anyone suggests having the government run the networks, think of the last time you dealt with the DMV, IRS, or any other government oriented operation. Then look at just about any politician to see the very definition of greed.
The simple solution is for everybody to start calling Verizon to inquire about data plans, get support for anything and everything-- and even just to find out how your favorite verizon person is getting along. Call now. Call often. In fact, don't stop calling. Call, call call. Choke their lines, make it hurt. Plus, I'd bet that it'd be a great idea to check out all their wonderful offerings on their web sites-- all of them-- a lot. Check your bill. Twice. Make sure you read it right. In fact, have your wife / coworker / friend / friend's mom / neighbor-down-the-street / heck, all of 'em read it twice just to make sure you didn't miss anything. You might also want to call their sales line to find out about all their great offerings and add-ons. I'll bet they have a *ton* of cool stuff you could buy. But I know it's hard to decide right away. In fact, you might have to really get them to explain it carefully with plenty of detail in order to fully grasp the sheer awesomeness of their products. In fact, you might even have to think about it some and then call back and ask them to explain anything you didn't completely get the first time. You could also call them to tell them what a wonderful job you think they're doing. I'm sure they don't hear that anywhere near enough. You could really brighten up some verizon employee's day by calling them up just to tell them. And you know, all of the verizon employees do a terrific job and I'd be willing to bet they'd ALL enjoy hearing your opinion! Plus you should also call their bosses to congratulate them. And send emails-- lots of emails. Calling isn't the only way to let them know what a superb job you think they're doing.
You know, with all their loyal, friendly customers and fanatical fans-- they just couldn't bear the thought of taking away their unlimited Internet...
Verizon has a huge billboard by my computer shop boasting of being the nations #1 4g provider... There's no 4 g for 100 miles from the sign! They are charter members of the Obfuscation Bureau!
*HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA*
And you'll get $10, where as the attorneys will get $100 mil.
Yeah, I'm sure Verizon would laugh like that at giving $100 mil. to lawyers.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Unlimited mobile broadband plans from Verizon/Alltel stopped being offered awhile ago. The last ones offered by Verizon were in 2007 before they established overage charges, and by Alltel in 2009 before the acquisition was complete. All grandfathered unlimited mobile broadband plans are well past the two-year agreement terms. Unlimited data plans on phone may extend a bit longer into 2013.
... ~$500/month.
... I would be willing to pay $200/month for my 50GB of usage. Others may not be willing to pay that much, in which case, they already have options for lower tier data packages and can moderate their use accordingly. Offer an option to your current heavy data users. You'd be surprised what your heavy data users are willing to pay given the opportunity.
I am on a grandfathered unlimited plan from Alltel. This is the ONLY decent internet coverage where I live. Satellite and Dialup do not count. The other two big networks (Sprint/AT&T) do not reach my house. Right now, we average 50GB per month, topping out at 80GB one or twice a year (usually right around when Steam has their summer/winter sales). Based on current Verizon rates:
Highest tier current mobile broadband plan: 10GB at $80/month. $10/GB overage. Estimated combined cost
Offer me a high-tiered plan that costs less than a T1 per month. 30GB is not enough, keeping going into 50GB, 80GB, 100GB range range for those of us that need it. $4 per GB is not unreasonable
The current data plans are not about now, but about the future. If they start capping the main body of users to squeeze more money out of them right now, there will be wide uproar. Right now it's only a few geeks and mobile workers that are protesting.
Everyone is shifting from text messaging and voice phone calls to IP based alternatives. People watch media on mobile devices more and more. If the phone companies don't start charging for IP traffic, their business models will fail in the future. If they wait too long, they will not get away with it because everyone will be suddenly influenced. Now people are eased into the business model and once they go over their plan, are already used to pay for the extra usage.
The real problem here is market dominance. The few players that actually have coverage or roaming agreements for areas big enough to matter, can basically charge what they want. Because of the high investments in setting up networks and the lack of requirement to roam/peer with other providers for the current big providers, that situation will not change. Either the USA will have to put up with it, or cut up their "too big to compete" telephone companies again and do the mini-bell model once over. I'm not saying that is a good solution, but there may come a time that it will be a better solution than the status quo you will be in otherwise.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
Here's Droid 4 which came out 2-3 months ago.
http://www.androidcentral.com/droid-4-root-discovered-already-downloadable-now
I support this if it means I get to take my subsidized device and switch carriers with no cost.
Reminds me of the Zip drive click of death. You got a voucher for $10 off any future Iomega purchase at their web site. By then I had no desire to ever purchase any of their products.
That's a myth perpetuated by the carriers, but actually the US has plenty of spectrum; they just want to make sure they don't have to *share* spectrum with anyone else, and to buy up everything available. Even if they did, they could co-habitate, using new technologies that more efficiently manage the signal. Sending and receiving cell phone data isn't like overlapping trumpet blasts, after all.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
I should not be responding to an AC, but please show me just ONE successful communist regime, past or present, where all citizens had an equitable standard of living.
I've had T-Mobile since 2004 and I get just fine service almost everywhere.
Sure, if I'm waaaay out in the boonies I may be stuck with GPRS data, but I almost always have a signal to make a call.
Add on the fact that you can make/receive calls over wifi totally seamlessly and that makes it even better. When you're connected to wifi the phone will shut off its GSM radio and you save tons of battery life.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
Unlimited was a bad idea to start with. Imagine an electric company that had an unlimited electricity plan. Instead, data needs to be priced like a bulk commodity, just like electricity, or water, or natgas. This means it should be cheap enough that no-one worries about using data, but they don't OVERuse it either.
And talk and text should be treated as data. The notion that they are different is outdated, and warps that price structure of all mobile services. Text should be so cheap that it is offered for free when you buy a phone. Phone service should all be VoIP, and as such should cost a few dollars a month. Heavy duty downloaders should pay their fair share according to their usage, but there should rarely if ever be a bill for more than $150 absent your phone becoming part of a botnet.
The world has changed. It's time to stop living in the 90's.
Khmer Rouge worked pretty well. Most everyone there was equally miserable.
Oh, you said SUCCESSFUL. Nevermind.
They only drop your unlimited if you upgrade your unlimited 3g plan to a new 4g plan. This isn't taking effect in the middle of your term, and doesn't seem to happen if you don't upgrade.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
GSM + No Contract + Coverage in most Cities...and they seem to cost less too. The only real issue is that I'd hate to give my my droid2...it's old but with AOKP, it runs like a dream.
I've been a Verizon customer for a couple of years, but got fed up with the prices they charged while I was deployed and not even using the service, merely to keep my phone number for when I got home.
I'm tired of it, and tired of being locked into contracts and paying for data. I want freedom! So here's what I did:
Yes, I paid an early-termination fee. But by my calculation, even with paying the full cost of the phone, I come out even in six months. And I no longer have to worry about the tyranny of a contract. I'm free to go to any MVNO.
Don't think things like that can happen? Look at Arizona, if you fall behind in your car payments it is a FELONY unless you BRING the car to them.
Aaaand.. why is that a terrible thing? That when people are in possession of something they no longer own, (when they were responsible for "picking it up" for themselves in the first place), they are expected to return it to the rightful owners? Or similarly, that falling in "breech of contract" has consequences?
What you seem to be saying, basically, is, "If you like stealing stuff, dont vote republican".
The implied inverse of that is, if you dont like people stealing stuff, vote Republican.
Works for me.
within two years, of course — if you keep the same phone or buy one elsewhere, you're out of the contract. The option seems to be buying the new phone full price from Verizon to stay with the unlimited plan (pay $800 to keep the contract vs the former $300). Compared to their other plans ($80/10GB), and assuming you use at least the 10GB, staying in the grandfathered plan is still cheaper than tiered. (ESP if you tether everything in your house and use way more than 10GB/month.) But fck it, I was only with VZW for a few of the grandfathered unlimited contracts. I'll find another carrier with better plans.