Slashdot Mirror
Verizon Wireless Goes Ahead With 'Bucket' Data Plans
CanHasDIY writes "Previously, it was reported that Verizon was considering eliminating their current data plan scheme, as well as the grandfathered unlimited plans, in favor of a new 'bucket' plan in which up to 10 devices would share a data allotment. Verizon has now officially acknowledged the new scheme, called the 'Share Everything' plan, which will go into effect as of June 28, 2012. According to USA Today, 'Under the new pricing plan, a smartphone customer opting for the cheapest data bucket, 1 gigabyte, will pay $90 before taxes and fees ($40 for phone access and $50 for 1 GB). Customers can add a basic phone, laptop and tablet to share data for $30, $20 and $10, respectively.' Those of us still grandfathered into the unlimited plan will be forced (when upgrading) to either sign up for Share Everything or one of the tiered pricing plans currently in effect."
Looks like the prepaid phone market's getting another customer when my Verizon contract ends.
$50 for 1 gigabyte of data?!? That's insane!
Wow, what a deal! Thats only $9 a device for 100MB each!
Now it's as bad in the US as here in Canada?
$50 FOR A GIG!?!?!?!
Man, these guys are smoking some killer crack.
Unless the other carrier follows suit, how on Earth do they expect to keep customers?
Certainly,while Sprint and T-Mobile may be small, and AT&T has sucky customer service and/or coverage (I'm sitting here at home with a AT&T smartphone that has zero signal - thank Heaven for automatic call forwarding), any of the three would be infinitely better than being forced to shit out what is likely going to be a three-digit cell phone bill each month.
Then again, knowing carriers, they'll likely start jacking their rates in proportion to how badly they want new customers vs. getting a piece of that pie.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
According to USA Today, 'Under the new pricing plan, a smartphone customer opting for the cheapest data bucket, 1 gigabyte, will pay $90 before taxes and fees ($40 for phone access and $50 for 1 GB). Customers can add a basic phone, laptop and tablet to share data for $30, $20 and $10, respectively.' Those of us still grandfathered into the unlimited plan will be forced (when upgrading) to either sign up for Share Everything or one of the tiered pricing plans currently in effect."
The "bucket plans" are for people with MULTIPLE LINES. Any price comparison for someone who has JUST ONE LINE (as they attempted here) is completely POINTLESS. Compare the new "bucket" rates to FAMILY PLANS for MULTIPLE smartphones and you will see that the pricing is either pretty much equal, or cheaper depending on how much data you use. Regardless, I expect approximately 9,234,987 slashdotters will be chiming in about how if they ran a wireless company, they would do things completely differently. I can't wait to read each and every reply.
need to be signed-up with teh DoJ collusion/antitrust plan.
Some may win, some may lose.
In my case, if I had my current ATT account on Verizon, that'd be saving me a nice chunk of money. Anyone with more than one device is coming out ahead. Anyone with a current Verizon data plan *and* a phone will come out ahead. Anyone who is currently paying for tethering will come out ahead.
Personally, I hope ATT does this quickly, as well. (Although, frankly, I wish I could skip the $40 voice part... as it works out to about $2 a minute for the usage I have in a given month.)
Actually those of us with grandfathered unlimited plans will not be forced into this bucket of ripoffs plan when we upgrade UNLESS we want a subsidized phone. From here on out, I'll be getting slightly older unsubsidized phones.
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
Is this some kind of 'cloud' service to upload your bucket list?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Even before reading this I decided I'm going back to a landline in September. I'm out.
I recently moved to a rural area where VZW is the ONLY carrier providing service. Unfortunately I had to leave T-Mobile (which I loved) and come to the Dark Side. I always thought it was kind of silly that they charge so much extra for the wireless hotspot service. I guess probably enough people were tethering without that service that they decided to just roll it into their data fees and make it non-optional. I cannot wait until another carrier, any carrier other than VZW, offers service here.
Error 404 - Sig Not Found
There is a lot of merit to the bucket idea, where multiple devices can draw from the same data allotment.
Lots of us have cell phones and tablets, (or would like to). Or we live in household with a a couple low-data users.
If nothing else,it puts the policing of high-data use into the group, and brings peer pressure into picture
when you actually share a plan in such households.
But for the individual user with two devices, 90 bucks for one gig, and then having the bill jacked up simply because there is another device
on the line is getting crazy expensive.
It seems like carrier pricing is getting out of hand.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I wonder how long it will be before AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile follow suit with this. At least it means one can leave the contract because of the rate hikes.
Pretty sad the state of cellular in the US. Two years ago, I was paying around a C-note at T-Mobile for two devices. Tethering? No problem.
Now, with AT&T, I'm paying $400 (although work defrays most of that) for the same thing. Four times the cost, and the speed difference isn't that noticable.
With Windows update and a laptop on the road far away from any Wi-Fi, after one deals with applications updating, the phone's apps updating, the updates of the OS (such as Motorola updating the Atrix and Photon to relock bootloaders), there isn't much left of even five gigs before one goes into $10/gig territory.
DID you not see the BIT about them dropping all THEIR other plans? So there's plenty point TO comparing these new prices to existing one-LINE Verizon prices as Verizon CUSTOMERS will soon be paying these prices or no LONGER be Verizon customers.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
'Under the new pricing plan, a smartphone customer opting for the cheapest data bucket, 1 gigabyte, will pay $90 before taxes and fees ($40 for phone access and $50 for 1 GB).
Not that I'm a defender of Verizon, but why the hell would anyone sign up for a shared plan with only one device? Obviously you're going to lose out... the prices are designed to make it marginally cheaper to add additional devices in return for a higher "first device" fee.
The new "share everything" plans are designed to make it easier (and a bit cheaper) for families with a bunch of smartphones, a tablet or two, and text-messaging addicted teenagers. Not for single-device customers looking for a bargain.
Just a jump over the 49th parallel (Canada) we have Wind Mobile (major cities only). $40 for pretty everything unlimited, no contract. You guys in the U.S. are getting screwed up the ass.
AccountKiller
$50 for 1GB per month, on a single device, then pay extra to add other devices? TEN years ago, I had a 56k modem (up to 136GB per month) that I could share among any number of devices with some Linksys HomeLink cards (1Mb over phone line) and some powerline phone-jack duplicators. The dial-up service cost $20 from Southwestern Bell, which has since been gobbled up by the AT&T monstrosity (seriously, regulators, remember "Ma Bell"? Break that shit up, and DO NOT APPROVE MERGERS!).
OK. TWO people will have to pay $50 for 1GB of data, which they have to share!
You're right, that sounds so much better! A $150 ($130 plus tax and then all the little fake "fees" and "services" they apply to the bill afterward) for two smartphones with ONE WHOLE GIGABYTE TO SHARE!
Q: Will Verizon convert me to a new plan, or can I keep my old plan?
A: Verizon won't switch you over to the new plan unless you ask. You can keep your old plan, even if you trade up to a new phone after that date and extend your contract.
Q: What if I have an "unlimited data" plan? Can I keep it?
A: Yes, you can. But —and there's a big "but" here— Verizon will no longer let you move the plan to a new phone after June 28, unless you pay the full, unsubsidized price for it. For most smartphones that will add hundreds of dollars to the price. A subsidized Verizon iPhone 4S costs $200. The price you'll pay if you keep your unlimited plan: $650. (Verizon stopped signing up new customer for unlimited a year ago)
So for me, nothing will change, at least for a while. I'll still have my 30$ a month unlimited plan. This may shift when it comes time to get a new phone, but thats a ways off. In two years who knows what the wireless landscape will look like.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Where do you get the idea this is only for people currently on family plans? I don't see anything in any articles saying this isn't for individual users as well.
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Unlimited xfer (at throttled speed, mut meh) for 50/mo.
Unlimited xfer (at 4g speed) for 90/mo.
The only carrier in the us that rewards you for owning the damned handset.
With free unlimited talk and text. Don't forget that; it's what makes this pricing feasible.
And for twice that, you already get 5GB! At full speed.
That's what people get, when they allow their government the power to push against the companies. (Of course that doesn't work, if the government IS the companies.)
I can just hope that things get better for you in the US. Even though that would require what would basically be a un-brainwashing...
At $50/gig its cheaper to rent a video at redbox or netflix than to download and watch the trailer on youtube to see if its worth renting.
The cost superficially appears astounding. However I'm actually using about 10 megs a day on average over the air (non-wifi) according to "data counter widget" and paying $20/month to republic wireless for unlimited service... so I'm paying about $66/gig if I did my math correctly.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless just love their customers. I for one am excited about Sprint's LTE service (when available) and pricing....wooo hooo
"Tucows Inc. (NYSE AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC), a global provider of domain names and other Internet services, today announced that its mobile phone service Ting would unveil a shared data plan on February 2, 2012, four months prior to this announcement."
https://ting.com/blog/ting-to-launch-shared-data-plan-four-months-ago/
DID you not see the BIT about them dropping all THEIR other plans? So there's plenty point TO comparing these new prices to existing one-LINE Verizon prices as Verizon CUSTOMERS will soon be paying these prices or no LONGER be Verizon customers.
Not all of them.
or one of the tiered pricing plans currently in effect.
Was that so difficult? Disclaimer: When my grandfathered unlimited goes away, so do I. Also, what the shit is with your illogical, all-caps emphases?
So I get less for more and I can only keep my old plan if I pay the ridiculous unsubsidized prices whenever I decided to upgrade my phones... I think a better name for these plans would be "Screw Everyone".
You would think these companies would have learned you can't do this sort of thing from the Netflix fiasco....
It's pretty obvious the new pricing is a "screw the single user who wasn't using a bazillion bytes of data or talk time" plan. Maybe it's Verizon's way of saying I should get hitched? My mom would like that, for sure.
Or maybe they're abandoning the singles market in dense urban centers to Sprint (about the only place Sprint works well, so it plays to their strengths).
Honestly, I was thinking about switching to Verizon when my AT&T contract ended later this month or when the next iPhone came out. It would have only been about $5 more. Now it will be $25 or more greater. Non-starter for me, and I suspect many others.
I haven't found any mention of what happens should one go over the data cap with the new plan, does this jump to the next data bracket or are there other overage fees?
This is completely 100% false. THERE ARE NO OTHER PLANS. From the Q&A linked in TFA
Q: I'm single and I just want a smartphone, that's it. The cheapest Shared Everything plan looks pretty expensive at $90 per month, and that's with just 1 gigabyte of data. Is there no alternative?
A: There's one cheaper plan, intended for first-time smartphone buyers. It gives you unlimited calling and texting, and just 300 megabytes of data per month. If you're frugal with data usage, that will get you by. It costs $80 per month.
In other words, you can do this plan for 1GB of data, or pay $80 for 300MB of data (basically, $40 for 300MB of data, since the phone access costs $40), or you can not buy a smartphone from Verizon. There are literally no other options for new customers.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
If by free you mean $40 each.
I currently pay over $200/mo for my two unlimited smart phones. This will drop my price to only $120/mo for 1gb, and I really don't go over that between the two of them. Anyone know how much it is to up the GB on the plan? I didn't see anything in the article.
This includes unlimited texts, plus tethering & wireless hotspot, each of which costs extra (unlimited texts is, I know, normally $20/mo by itself). So when you start to compare prices, make sure you're comparing apples to apples.
I'm more interested in when the new individual plans, though. With wifi hotspot, there's no need to have a dedicated plan for anything besides my phone that I'm likely to be using.
US customers are getting ripped off...I mean they take the whole sphincter muscle as well!
I read where it said you can keep the Unlimited plan as long as you don't upgrade your phone, or if you do upgrade your phone you can still keep the unlimited plan as long as you pay full price for the phone.
Right now my plan consists of 3 phones, 2 smartphones with unlimited data and 1 regular phone with no data. I pay ~160 (after taxes and fees) a month of unlimited text, 1100 minutes between the phones. Oh annd I have unlimited data.
So, now with this new plan, I'd have to pay $40$ for 700minutes and 25 cents per text on one phone. Add a "Share Everything" plan for $50 (although I doub't 1gig will cut it). Add 1 other phone to the "Share Everything" plan for $30. That's $120 right there before taxes and fees. There's no indication of what the pricing is to add a line to an existing plan, but let's assume the current rate of $10. So, that comes to a grand total of $130 before taxes and fees. After taxes and fees, it'll be around $140-$150 range?
So let's see for a $20 (at best) to $10 cheaper plan, I'm losing 400minutes, unlimited texting, and wads of data? Woo! What a deal, sign me up for that now!
Some companies offer 1GB for $20 for one line. If you only need two lines, which plan are you going to go with buddy?
Psst... you need to compare to know this. (But ain't that pointless?)
I have a verizon sold android, and have been wanting to change carriers for a while. Can my current phone be switched, or do I need a new phone? I have not really kept up with this aspect of phone plans. I am grandfathered in on a verizon unlimited plan, of which I use about 10 minutes talk and 1 megabyte data a month on, and pay $100 as it is. So even though $90 would be cheaper and probably fit me, I would just as soon switch to a $50 plan from sprint or someone else, if the phone switching hassle is not too great.
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
Not only that, they can still buy unsubsidized phones that will still work with their unlimited plan.
Umm...I think you have that backwards.
SWB gobbled some companies and renamed itself SBC. Then SBC gobbled some RBOCs. SBC had a joint venture with BellSouth called Cingular. Cingular gobbled ATT Wireless. Then SBC gobbled ATT and became "the New ATT". Then the New ATT gobbled BellSouth and renamed Cingular to ATT Mobility.
It is not pretty much equal you. It will cost me $30/month more for my family plan and mean I can't use more data in the future. I will want more data in the future.
Are you employed by verizon or painfully dense?
Let me make this short:
You're completely retarded (as evidenced by your post)
You didn't even read the fucking article (please see my first point)
That does not help one bit.
I want less minutes and less text in my family plan. They have already forced me up to 600 minutes of which we use about 150 minutes combined.
So for 3 phones you have to pay:
$40: 1st phone (smart one)
$30: 2nd phone (basic!)
$30: 3rd phone (basic?)
$50: 1GB
===+
$150 for 1GB shared data or $50/month for 333MB if shared evenly. WTF is Verizon thinking!
In other news I read Lenovo becoming an access provide:
http://news.lenovo.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1602
In NL the prices would be 2GB for 35EUR/month or 5GB for 50EUR/month.
I thought that these prices were to expensive already.
That's free talk and text if you pay $50 a month to be on the network, so talk and text is $50 a month, not free. How does everyone miss that????????
Seriously wTF?
demonlapin, are you retarded?
I loled at your subtle attempt to make the OP aware of how idiotic it is to capitalize random words.
Shouldn't they be calling the the 'Screw Everyone' plan instead of 'Share Everything' plan.
I currently have 2 basic phones and 2 smart phones on my plan. I have 1400 minute/unlimited text plan with 2GB data plan on one smart phone and unlimited (grandfathered) on other smart phone. Cost: $240/mo.
Both smart phones combined don't hit close to 1GB/mo usage over last six months. Average combined is about 350MB (highest was a little over 600MB)
On the new plan (with 2GB shared) my cost will be $200/mo (2 basic ($60) + 2 smart ($80) + 2GB shared ($60)). I'll save $40/mo even with upgrading data usage to something far above our normal usage.
I know this is great for my case. I will certainly benefit from it.
However, I understand how one-line folks (and possibly/probably others) will get shafted if they drop all other possible plans outside the share everything stuff.
My point: This Verizon thing isn't all bad -- but it seems to only cater to people with usage and phone setup like me.
"can you pay me now?"
Please tell me again how that makes a price, TEN times of what I pay, acceptable... (9.90€/1GB, 19.90€/5GB. Prepaid. No other costs. No catch-22s. (And no nonsense like meddling with tethering abilities.))
Seriously, the only reason they can do that, is because most Americans *hate* anyone who defends them against the industry, and because even if, those defenders (your government [= the employees of the only company where you are the boss]) are moles and part of that industry themselves.
How many comments have you made for this story? Wtf is wrong with you?
Those of us still grandfathered into the unlimited plan will be forced (when upgrading)
Whelp, looks like I'm going to be stuck with this Palm phone forever. Ah, WebOS, I guess you're not that bad...
Look, $50 for 1 GB is insane. 10 GB for $90? Not so much.
You get unlimited text/voice/etc for $40 per smartphone. Get 2 other friends to split the cost. Now, you're paying $70 (total) per month for your smartphone w/3 GB worth of data. That's not a bad deal, especially considering the unlimited voice/text and tethering. You can't get that good of a deal right now.
Hopefully, they'll come out with more frugal plans for us single folk, but I wouldn't count on it.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Can anyone cite a technological reason why unlimited data should cost any more than the $30 or $40 per month that normal broadband does? Is the infrastructure really that bad or telcos really that greedy?
Call Verizon yesterday about the ShareEverything Plan.
My current plan has 4 smartphones , 1 basic and 1 tablet.
The bill would go up by $30 dollars if I switched. The amount of data I could used would go down by 9 GB .
Funny hearing the silence from the customer service agent when I asked him . "You mean my bill would go up and I only get 5GB for 5 devices ?"
This clearly does not benefit the single or double user. But seems to fair better for family plans.
Good analysis here for multiple scenarios with real world numbers.
http://news.yahoo.com/verizons-sharing-plans-numbers-124403216--finance.html
That is all this is. What most people seem to have missed is the fact that verizon has not currently stated how users will be notified.. sharing 1G of data between two phones.. when 1 might be a heavy user, will the other user be notified when they reach the 1G limit.. or will they just be charged an overage fee.
Data is data, and should be sold as such, you pay for 1G through 10G of whatever, and you use it as you see fit, no matter the number of devices or uses, then you pay for more data when you run out and need it.
Carriers have lost so much revenue on voice and sms, that they needed to find a new cash cow, and rather then be reasonable, they (and I do mean they as the others will follow suit) chose a very confusing and convoluted method of charging per device, and then charging even more for less data per device then the current plans.
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
Maybe they should get investigated for price fixing...
Also, what the shit is with your illogical, all-caps emphases?
I believe that is whats known as "parody".
So get a prepaid cell phone plan and use free wifi for the data. I have almost no use for "always on" phone data - I can just go to McDonald's. (ProTip!) So my home landline is a Magic Jack on a $25/mo dry loop DSL (let's call it the Schrodinger's Voice plan!). Then that makes my $100 block (about three per year) of prepaid minutes last even longer. I don't text. So my yearly communication costs are something around $500 total, instead of about $1300 per year.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
They are not getting rid of the other plans. Here is Verizon's site for the new plans, and it clearly states that the existing tiered plans aren't going away; just the unlimited plans.
This plan is for people who want unlimited voice, text and/or want to share a data plan over many devices. Not for anyone else. Definitely not for me. As someone who pays $10-15 a month for basic prepaid service, I think it is ridiculously expensive, and a good reminder of why I don't intend to get a data plan any time soon.
But can you ever really be sure?
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
So time for wireless cellphone dial up then? It sounds like this is AOL's big chance to return to profitability.
Why do people have these devices anyways? It's rarely to get work done...
Isn't the US in a recession? How can you people afford to have a mobile device and be financially sound?
This is my favorite quote yet: "What I'm doing is giving you the flexibility to share the data you've paid for," Chief Marketing Officer Tami Erwin told Reuters. "Customers who are using more than one device will very quickly see the value in this." Which is from this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/12/verizon-share-everything-family-data-plan_n_1589216.html
They're charging me extra for letting me use the data I already paid for, and act like they're doing me some unusual favor.
Assuming I am understanding these plans and packages correctly, I will need a phone data plan AND a computer data plan (another $50)? I can't use the current phone data plan, in Apple iPhone 4S with its Verizon's 3G, to use as a wirelesss hotspot to the computer devices through their wireless connections?" It's dang expensive already!
I'd like to use it as a backup in case my home's Time Warner Cable's Internet connection goes down, or need to go out that has no open/free wifi for quick Internet usages.
Maybe I need to switch carrier? :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
BECAUSE...
It's MOST LIKELY....
WILLIAM SHATNER...
That you're TALKING to!
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
and a cleaning woman.
Wow, these people really do fucking hate America and Americans
Are they going to charge extra for lube, or is it included?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
OK. Two Android users in my family, but we have separate plans. ($39.99 x 2) + ($10 x 2) + ($30 x 2). That's $159.98 per month for 900 minutes, 8 GB data (LTE gets 4 GB for $30), and 2000 SMS. Under the new bucket plan, the same capacity would cost me ($40 x 2) + $90 = $170. I don't get how this helps.
More like a very small bottle cap you would find on a mini bar, and thats a generous comparison.
Think you have it bad in the States? Canadian providers are even worse (and our coverage sucks). Check it out. $51.20/mb. PER MEGABYTE
Yeah. It's a base price you can't escape.
Well, duh. They're giving away the stuff that's now much less valuable - the talk and text - and killing you on data charges. This is obviously not a good plan for you.
My contract is up in August and so am I as a customer after about 8 years. Last summer we could keep our unlimited plans through upgrades. This summer they want to screw me over now... no more money for you Verizon.
Just the dick move that will give Sprint more customers.
Sprint the only big name that has unlimited data on most of their plans.
Currently for one smartphone with unlimited data and two "regular" phones we pay $139.31 a month (with an 18% discount from one of our employers) and I regularly use 3-5GB of data a month on my phone since I spend a lot of time on stakeouts for work and there is nothing like internet anywhere at 3AM when all you're doing is watching the world go by.
Assuming the other two people on my plan stay with "regular" phones after our next renewal and I go with a 4GB package for $70/month, that puts us at $139.40 after our employee discount.
Not the WORST jump... but still enough to make me consider alternatives.
He's the one making up "hyperbolic shit," in his own words. He refuses to cite any sources for his claims, which directly contradict those in the article.
That's insane... My current plan has 2000 free minutes of talk (to any network, excluding foreign nets), 2000 free SMS (same; only sending costs, receiving is free), and 4GB high-speed data per month. After the 4GB are used up, I get unlimited data with less bandwidth for the rest of the month (although in practice, 4GB is plenty). The plan binds me for two years, because I opted for the "free" Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. I pay 20 € per month, including taxes. Service provider: "3" (Hutchinson) in Austria.
I cannot believe that the rates in the US are so much higher... usually everything is cheaper over there (except getting sick).
Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
So get a prepaid cell phone plan and use free wifi for the data.
Some of us have jobs and can't hang out at McDonald's all day. Some of us live and/or work in rural areas and don't have any McDonald's or other free wifi close by.
Please stop giving out ProTips. You kinda suck at it.
It's even better for small business. I have 10 consultants who we normally spend $2000 a month on wireless (50% of their bill) and for 3g aircards. With this plan, i can buy them all iphones and spend $500 a month.
Sure, call me a heathen, but I have no use for using a phone for data. That's why I have a computer. It's even a Mac- double whammy on me!
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
until they upgrade. You can buy your own phone and also keep your unlimited data. They wanted to make sure to implement this in such a way as to not let current data customers opt out of contracts.
In other words, you can do this plan for 1GB of data, or pay $80 for 300MB of data (basically, $40 for 300MB of data, since the phone access costs $40
To be totally pedantic: $25 for phone, $25 for data and $30 for that fancy phone you bought on a high-interest hidden installment plan.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Here's one: bullshit. $90 is still $90, and 1gb is still a paltry pathetic 1gb. One device or several, it doesn't matter. A ripoff is a ripoff.
This is just a scheme to raise prices, that's all it is. Right now I pay $40 for phone service and $30 for 4gig of data. I don't see any benefit as a consumer to paying an additional $20 and getting 75% less service.
Wait, unlimited text? How soon before someone comes up with IP-over-text tethering?
What about an app that provides SLIP using software-defined analog modems to take advantage of unlimited talk?
Fuck you, and Fuck you again. You greedy scumbags. Prices should be going down and caps should be going up. Not the other way around. Fuck you.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
they may fix their mistake
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I think that Verizon thinks they're dealing with addicts; the first hits are cheap and then the price goes up.
The trouble is that they're probably right.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
(let's call it the Schrodinger's Voice plan!)
(let's call it the i'm a cheap bastard plan!)
if you're grandfathered-in to an old alltel plan, do NOT let them take it away from you!!!
old alltel local (regional) calling plans are cheaper than their nationwide (all they offer as vzn) plans for those who don't need nationwide coverage.
some old alltel data plans were truly unlimited
Wrong. If you buy a plan, you get 2GB of data for $25, and $10 for GB if you go over (http://www.virginmobile.ca/en/features/features-summary.html#deviceType_DATASMRT)
At Verizon, not only is id $50 for the first GB, but it's $15/GB after that. The only way to get it cheaper is to guarantee the plan each month, up to $100 for 12GB. You have to use more than 8GB per month for the Verizon plan to be cheaper per GB.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
This is when I'm happy to be an engineer for a tier-one cell phone manufacturer, and my company phone has an "unlimited everything, everywhere" plan. Long distance (international) - no problem. Data usage? No limits! Roaming? Who cares? I only use my personal phone now for game playing, and WiFi access to get updates for comics, and news... FWIW, my company encourages us to use our cell phones for both business and personal calls, etc. Good (and cheap) advertising, I suppose!
Well actually there IS a cheaper plan, but only if you only have a feature phone, see page 2 of:
http://solutions.vzwshop.com/shareeverything/pdf/verizon_share_everything_plan_details.pdf
Fuck that!
Roll over data would be nice.
Heh... They tried to get me to buy into a "family" plan and their tiered data plans was going to "save me money" over my absolutely unlimited everything setup on my single phone. They faced the same reality that I was going to spend MORE doing it that way than anything else- needless to say, the wife stayed on her AT&T plan and I didn't move anyone onto my account that day.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Well, one of the execs had jokingly called Verizon Wireless, "Bohica Communications" at the time of the Christmas party at Primeco the year the merger had come to pass.
Seems that it was strangely prophetic.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
You'd think that, but here's the thing, Verizon's contracts are airtight and most likely have a clause in there that they can change it whenever. I've not been through this myself, but I do work as a debt collector for an agency that they contract through and I see crazy shit like this constantly. They are evil. EVIL.
Now, before anyone goes on about how I'm the scum of the Earth because I'm a debt collector, I will say that while many of the people in my industry are the scum of the Earth, my agency is the nice agency.
I would have agreed with you, until I spent some time traveling around Europe.
I bought a phone, figuring any phone I bought would be unlocked because hey, Europe. Nope! My pre-paid cheap-ass Android phone was region locked to the Netherlands. For two years. I have no contract mind you, just a phone that roams in any other country (Vodaphone).
Also, you have to consider that each country in Europe is the size of a state in the U.S., and if you travel much at all you have to have a SIM for Germany, Switzerland, the netherlands, France, etc. So only five countries worth of SIM cards and you are already at Verizon levels of charging, not to mention you have to manage all those damn sim cards, and you don't have the same number when traveling.
Meanwhile, in America, you get all 50 states, basically like all of Europe, for one fee.
Now that said I think the Verizon fee is WAY too much, considering how much consumers have been paying to date. I personally think people should be charged based on the data they use (based on the principal that it's stupid to have pricing models that do not agree with the laws of physics and human nature). But the base fee is absurd for the amount of data you get.
I was thinking about switching away from AT&T, but unless they charge the same absurd base rate for a bucket plan I can't see that happening. Sprint? I may have to give them another look...
One last thought - is this new base rate necessary for Verizon to pay off building out the LTE network they've been feverishly assembling?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Germany's cell towers for some weird reason don't reach the USA. I don't see how this solution will help me over here in the USA.
1GB data plan from Verizon: $50
1GB data plan from Uganda Telecom: $17
i thought he dide on the bridge from the falling bus? *actually still waiting for the followup where he escaped with flyingsquirell suite, fingers crossed:') *
ya they finally redid the math and got the order of magnitude error fixed in the text pricing subroutine!
Once again the Slashdot community has convinced me that I am the only geek I know who connects to every wifi hotspot I can legally use. 80GB in one month because you were on a "movie rampage"? Sounds more like you're a fucking idiot to me. Don't brag because you've done something stupid, okay?
Holy crap, the US telecoms are still ass-raping customers. $50 for a gig of data, are they crazy? Here in Finland I have a 3.5G mobile hotspot (21 Mbps) that supports up to 8 devices with UNLIMITED data... wait for it... $12/month. And I recently heard that one of the operators has a data-only SIM plan for HALF that. My hotspot works all over the whole country without roaming charges too.
It seems the US telecom companies are just inventing new and creative ways to screw over their customers... without spending any of that money on upgrading their infrastructure.
This is very similar to Rogers up here in Canada.
Three smartphones:
$95 first phone
$25 second phone
$25 third phone
That's for 600 shared weekday minutes, unlimited between phones minutes, unlimited evening (9pm!) and weekend minutes, 1GB shared data and unlimited text. Add $8/phone for Caller*ID and and $7/phone for early evening (6pm) billing. Now I get the early evening add-on for free as part of a promotion when I signed up, but that's still ridiculous. After government bullshit and taxes, I end up paying $120 for the first phone and $40/mo for the second and third phones.
I did have the 6GB/$30 data plan on my phone and kept it for years but couldn't share the data, so I dropped it since it'd end up costing me more to keep 6GB on my phone and add another 1G plan on for the other two, but we haven't gone near our limit yet -- I think the closest we hit was 600MB one month. 1GB isn't actually terrible unless you're using it for streaming music or watching Netflix or youtube. I tether to my phone semi-regularly (ssh mostly). I was holding on to the 6GB because Rogers didn't really have a decent overbilling policy until this year. Now they just bump you up into the next data plan, which I'm happy with.
You have to lie to them if you want to add a tablet to the plan though; they don't accept data-only devices as part of the family plan, so you buy a SIM card, say you bought a kid a phone from a pawn shop and activate the SIM. You'll never get voice on the tablet or data stick but who cares; $25 for the device instead of a separate plan and bill to pay.
Ting (part of Tucows) is $6 per-device per-month. Any number of devices per account. Plus usage. No extra fee for teathering. They're on Sprint's network for data (3G and WiMax-type 4G currently). And on any available CDMA network (e.g. Verizon as well as Sprint) for voice. You have to buy the phones full price up front. But the selection's decent. And the usage fees end up being way cheaper for my wife and I than our previous separate Sprint contract and Trac prepaid accounts came to. In fact it's coming in cheaper than the previous single voice-only contract on Sprint. The teathering is a very nice feature - there's not wifi everywhere yet. If you want to watch feature-length movies on mobile I'm sure it could get up into Verizon's pricing range. But for static Web content (like reading /.) it's pretty impossible to run the data charges up anywhere near there.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
That is gross! In Hungary I pay $10/month for unlimited data plan. Well, it is an enterprise price plan, but still. After 2 GB mobile operator may limit bandwidth to around 1 Mbit/sec. However a friend of mine once had an insane amount of 200 Gb traffic in a month and he did not notice any degradation in speed, it was always well above 2 Mbit, sometimes reaching 5 Mbit/s. Verizon has clearly gone out of its mind.
Two phones: $12. 4 GB: $82.50. 500 minutes: $9. 1000 texts: $5. Total: $108.50. Sprint 3G and WiMax for the data. Free CDMA roaming for the voice (so includes Verizon coverage). Rates vary by month according to actual usage. No contract. But you need to buy the phones up front. And you can go to a data only plan, shutting off voice and text entirely if you want.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
When my current contract expires, I'll not be renewing through Verizon.
I have to add to this thread that we (Ting at ting.com) have been offering share everything plans for four months now (at better rates and without a lot of weird rules or penalties) and that our customers are loving the service and saving a lot of money. It was driving us a bit nuts that Verizon was getting so much hype for this "groundbreaking" announcement. So we responded with this cheeky post (and actual press release):
https://ting.com/blog/ting-to-launch-shared-data-plan-four-months-ago/
Some of us have jobs and can't hang out at McDonald's all day.
I work at McDonald's, you insensitive clod!
It helps Verizon RAPE their customers for more money, which is the only point of this whole thing.
"There are laws that enslave men, and laws that set them free. " - Sean Connery as King Arthur
Hmm, ramdom full-word capitalization? I guess it's some sort of code. Let's see what it says.
Well, I guess that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Maybe the words have to be rearranged in order to read the code?
He's saying that Verizon was trying to create longer queues in the stores when it's time to upgrade their phones. Maybe? Let's try something else...
If we take some liberties with spelling (which could either be due to the parent's poor grammar or, more likely, to throw off the KGB), it's clear to me that the secret message is that Verizon is dropping even their old single-line plans (DID LONGER LINE) in order to screw over and make more money from (TO BIT(E)) their customers (THEIR CUSTOMERS).
Well played, parent commentor. Well played.
From 2Degrees Mobile in NZ: http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/paymonthly/plans/shared-data - NZ$5 charge + devices at $1 per month per device.
Seems a whole lot more reasonable than what Verizon plans to offer. You Americans are getting totally ripped off.
ISPs and Telcos could learn from this (I know I have): don't rip off your customers and they will love you.
Founder & COO, Hayai India (hayai.in) / USA (hayaibroadband.com)
For roughly 3,68 dollar in Lithuania I get 1GB,1000 SMS and 100mins. Ouch
Thanks. I don't think the OP got it.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.