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."

Comments

Oh really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like the prepaid phone market's getting another customer when my Verizon contract ends.

Re:Oh really?

[schwit1]

I just got the HTC EVO V on Virgin Mobile
$45/month with 1200 minutes and unlimited data.
4G, Android 4.0 and it's a hotspot.

Re:Oh really?

[afidel]

Well, it's 2.5GB of full speed data and then you get throttled severely, but it's still better than spending twice as much for about a third the data. My wife has the best plan ever IMHO, 300 minutes and "unlimited" data and unlimited SMS/MMS for $25/month with no other charges except local sales tax. She is also on Virgin Mobile. The best thing other than no bill shock for data usage is that in the rare event she goes over the 300 minutes it's only $.10/minute until her renewal date. Oh, and no contract, not that I would even think of switching given the direction the industry is going. I just hope Sprint stays desperate enough to keep us =)

Re:Oh really?

[ae1294]

Looks like the prepaid phone market's getting another customer when my Verizon contract ends.

You don't have to wait if they change the terms of your contract.

Re:Oh really?

[cluedweasel]

Considering the Verizon 3G around here delivers 0.3 Mbps down and 0.35 Mbps up, just how severely throttled could VM's data be in comparison?

Re:Oh really?

[afidel]

It's 256Kbps down, not sure what the upload gets capped at, so not much worse =)

Re:Oh really?

[Rasperin]

Check out Sprint, believe it or not they have real unlimited data and reception is really good (esp if you have a phone with a good radio). I never lose 4G and I'm in Kansas, the middle of nowhere.

Re:Oh really?

[0100010001010011]

They're getting the iPhone 4S later this year.

$30 month (if you sign up for auto pay).
300 minutes.
"unlimited" data. Which is the 2.5GB as posted below.

I'm a "Heavy" user and never hit that limit. I tether to it all the time when on the road. It's mobile WiFi for passengers when driving too. I've never come close to the 2.5GB limit but I don't download videos with it either.

Re:Oh really?

[Adriax]

They aren't changing the terms of the contract, they're waiting till your current contract expires then changing your subscription and removing the previous service as a contract option.

You're only under contract with verizon during that 2 year period after you purchase a phone from them at their "subsidized" price (what the phone would actually cost on a free market if they didn't have the power to jack up the price for non-contract phones). After that you're just a normal subscriber, unrestricted and unprotected by a contract lock-in, able to quit at any time without penalty.

Re:Oh really?

[cluedweasel]

Not everyone lives in an urban area. Here in my neck of the woods, open wi-fi (or any wi-fi) is few and far between once you get out of town. The 3G coverage is slow, but at least it's there. Even in built up areas, wi-fi can be sketchy. I had the fortune to stay at the Polo (Fawlty) Towers in Las Vegas not so long ago. Their wi-fi was down for my entire stay. The nearest free wi-fi? At Starbucks in the Planet Hollywood hotel. After a long day at a conference, I really didn't feel like hanging out in Starbucks. My VM mi-fi device worked a treat. Nothing to heavy on the data usage but at least I could catch up on e-mail and the news.

Re:Oh really?

[poly_pusher]

Verizon's being pretty crafty about that as well. They are not changing the terms of existing contracts. Once your contract is up you simply wont be eligible to renew your current plan and must switch to one of their "new and improved" plans...

Re:Oh really?

[ae1294]

sooo you'll get a bill one month for 42 million dollars because they auto converted your plain... nice...

Re:Oh really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey Verizon, bundle this!

Imagine a ASCII middle finger here.

Re:Oh really?

[erp_consultant]

Yup. I'm with AT&T but if they start pulling this sort of crap I'm gone. I got grandfathered into an unlimited data plan and as far as I'm concerned a deal is a deal. I pay my bill they should honor the contract. Yeah, I know that Verizon isn't breaking the contract and are waiting until it expires but it still doesn't pass the smell test with me. If certain people are abusing the data usage then go after them not people like me that are light to medium users. Greedy pricks.

Re:Oh really?

[Hadlock]

My coworker asked me "how many gigs is 77,000mb?"
 
Me: "Uhh, roughly 77GB, depending on what metric you use, why?"
 
Him: "Oh, I was just looking at how much data my phone's used this month"
 
Me: "... who is your carrier?"
 
Him: "Sprint"
 
Sprint might be a shit company with shitty customer service, but goddamn, 77GB is a lot of data, and that includes tethering too. Wow.

Re:Oh really?

[Deep Esophagus]

Prepaid is the way to go. We use Tracfone; my wife estimates that it runs roughly $10 a month for the two of us. Of course, we only use the phones when we're not at home (where we use the VoIP that came with our ISP package) and we only use them for phone calls and text messaging. I hear horror stories about phone bills that run into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars and I wonder... why would anyone put up with that crap?

Re:Oh really?

[Svartalf]

Which is actually illegal. The terms of the deals are they extend this phone at ths price with this payment plan and you agree to not walk away from those terms for a time no less than two years- which you pay a penalty to them if you do.

The terms for payment and the services offered legally don't have an expiry. The way they get you to change contracts up is to "upgrade" your phone at a discount at the 1-2 year mark.

Sadly, this little price increase just made it more economical to not sign a new deal and just simply buy the phone at full price, keeping the old terms in place. You'll save $200-400 over the lock-in term of the agreement to do that so long as you can bear the brunt of the up-front price. I suggest saving up for it or using revolving credit on a short-term basis.

Re:Oh really?

[ae1294]

When has legality ever really stopped a corporation like Verizon...

Re:Oh really?

[gl4ss]

HIlarious. Wifi is free all over the place, tablets are less expensive in TCO than phones, and you idiots willingly pay these huge fees to the greedy telecoms for your tiny little phones. You're gonna be old, blind... and poor.

I'd take 256kbps works anywhere connection over hunting wifi, asking baristas for access and signing up to random hotspot systems..

the more important thing is, with unlimited you can leave constant updates on and use your smartphone as intended. 256kbps is even enough for spotify.

the new verizion data bucket deal is fucking ridiculous. america is truly a 7th world area when it comes to mobile bandwidth(you can get 4 devices for unlimited hsdpa for the verizon price around here and you can do several gigs in first few hours of the month..).

Re:Oh really?

[tzanger]

I find most free wifi to be worth every penny.

If the DNS servers they supply aren't overloaded or dicking with your queries then the pipe is too saturated to do much more than facebook or twitter. Many end up blocking anything other than port 80 or 443 anyway. It's easy enough to get around the shitty DNS servers and I usually fire up an ssh proxy anyway for my web browsing, but I find it much less of a hassle to just tether to my phone. I'm not a huge data consumer so the 1G plan that I share with my wife and teenage son works for me.

Re:Oh really?

[pnutjam]

I have true unlimited data on Verizon (company plan)

Re:Oh really?

[pnutjam]

Kansas is a phone company's dream for tower placement, anywhere hilly and full of trees, or urban with lots of buildings is a whole different story. I get crap reception with sprint in rural western Michigan. I was actually able to get some data service with Verizon, slow..
I do hear the t-mobile has good service in that area, but I have not had the opportunity to try it.

Re:Oh really?

[Rasperin]

Really I've found out this tends to have more to do with the radio in the phone then the provider. Don't get me wrong, when I was on verizon I really did get reception everywhere. But with Sprint, my service seems to be dependent on the phone I have, the new Motorola phone is impressive 4g everywhere and signal even on the local campus (because the buildings are basically built out of led or something unnatural no cell service really get's through here).

Re:Oh really?

[YouWantFriesWithThat]

that's not what the verizon rep told me yesterday. you only will be placed on a new plan if you buy a new phone with the upgrade discount, that has always required you sign a new contract. you can buy ebay/amazon phones forever and keep your old plan.

Re:Oh really?

[batrick]

If that's megaBIT then it's more like 10 GB.

What the Hell???

[jtownatpunk.net]

$50 for 1 gigabyte of data?!? That's insane!

Re:What the Hell???

[SirGarlon]

Yes, but Verizon I'm sure will market this as beneficial to subscribers. "Now you get unlimited voice and text, and you can put all your devices on our network for CHEAP!" Conveniently sweeping under the rug the massive price increase on data...

Re:What the Hell???

[Penguinisto]

Thinking it over, I suspect that Verizon is about to prove that yes, consumers really are that stupid.

After all, they've been raping their customers for years, almost at will and whim. What makes 'em think that anything will change now?

Re:What the Hell???

[Anonymous Coward]

Thinking it over, I suspect that Verizon is about to prove that yes, consumers really are that stupid.

After all, they've been raping their customers for years, almost at will and whim. What makes 'em think that anything will change now?

It's a semi-free market. Show them you won't put up with their bullshit. Try something like 'Republic Wireless'...

Re:What the Hell???

[petteyg359]

Wrong. It now becomes $90 per month, according to TFA, because you have to pay an extra $30 to add the scond phone.

Re:What the Hell???

[Penguinisto]

I'm not a Verizon customer. How exactly does one leave Verizon if one was never with them in the first place?

Re:What the Hell???

[Baloroth]

You are being a little dense. Previously, up to 2GB of data would have cost me $30 a month. Now it will cost $50 a month, for 1GB. Before that, $30 would have gotten unlimited data.

So from a consumer point of view, the deal has gotten worse and worse. And it still costs money to add devices to the plan for data sharing, leaving this an all-around shitty deal.

Re:What the Hell???

[TheScarryKitty]

You should listen the Marketplace Tech Report by John Moe about this. He asks the Verizon rep "why?" and there is a 10 second uncomfortable pause followed by a incoherent, rambling, talking point type response.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/verizon-trying-stamp-out-unlimited-data-customers/n
Laughed my ass off listening to it on the radio.

Re:What the Hell???

[jtownatpunk.net]

Let me make this quick: Generally, as technology improves and the customer base grows, the cost-per-customer of delivering service decreases.

With Verizon, the faster you can move data to your devices, the less of it you're allowed to move and prices keep going up. Unlimited data didn't start out at $30, it started out at $15. And I don't know where you got $60/month for a gig of data. There's no reason to make things up. Verizon's a la carte pricing for data on smartphones is $30 for 2 gigs, $50 for 5 gigs, $80 for 10 gigs.

Re:What the Hell???

[C_amiga_fan]

Still think wireless internet is the future? Rather than wired internet?

I get $90 for phone number one, and $120 if you have two phones. So it isn't any cheaper. (And for us single folks, it's actually MORE expensive.) Hard to believe Verizon used to offer me a phone for just $10/month. Creeps.

VirginMobile offers me unlimited data for $35 a month. True it slows down to 2xISDN speeds after 3GB, but I still prefer to stick with them.

Re:What the Hell???

[CanHasDIY]

Let me make this quick: If you had two smartphones, the same 1GB (if that's all you used) would have cost you $60 a month. Now, it's $50, and $50 is less than $60.

From TFA:

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)

$40 + $50 != $60, by any stretch of the imagination.

Re:What the Hell???

[h4rr4r]

Yes, $60 is less than $50, but the $40 per phone service charge is more than what we are paying now. Also many people use more than 1GB, especially between 2 or more people. My family plan has two users that together use 4GB of data and under 300 minutes and 500 texts combined, we currently pay $120. Under this plan we would pay $80 just for phone service and another $70 for data. That means our bill would go up by $30 a month.

Instead I will switch carriers. I have no interest in unlimited voice, nor texts. I would in fact love a data only plan and just use voip.

Re:What the Hell???

[chromas]

1) Subscribe to their service
2) Leave
3) Profit

Re:What the Hell???

[h4rr4r]

Many people are on family plans and this will increase their costs.

Do you work for verizon?

Re:What the Hell???

[Sechr Nibw]

You can keep your unlimited data plan, for a price. Rather than signing a new 2 year contract, and saving $500 on your new phone, you can pay full price for the phone, not be locked into a 2 year agreement, and keep the unlimited data package.

Re:What the Hell???

[Man On Pink Corner]

How do you reconcile your statement with the Q&A from the article?

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.

If USA Today is making that up, as you claim elsewhere, they have one hell of a lawsuit coming from Verizon. They would have yanked the quoted text the second someone told them how badly they'd gotten it wrong. Why is it still up there?

Re:What the Hell???

[h4rr4r]

Then why not switch to another carrier and buy an unsubsidized GSM phone that works when I travel?

Re:What the Hell???

[Baloroth]

Actually the current plans are going away. You can still use them if you already have one, but they are no longer available for new customers or customers who are upgrading to a smartphone. You also can't hang on to old unlimited data plans if you are upgrading, period (unless you pay full price for the phone, of course, although don't be surprised if Verizon "helpfully" upgrades you to the new plans anyways, wireless carriers have been known to do that in the past), though they can shift to a tiered plan, for now. Expect Verizon to phase those out completely as well in 2-3 years, just like they are with their unlimited data plans.

Re:What the Hell???

[desdinova 216]

at least until they decide to change that, like they did to the people that previously had unlimited.

Re:What the Hell???

[LordLimecat]

Because then youd miss out on the world renowned Verizon customer service experience!

Oh wait.

Re:What the Hell???

[AvitarX]

They aren't particularly cheap anyway.

I compared them to my current plan with Tmobile, and it is a steak contrast, and all the add-ons were more too.

TMO = $60 unlimited texts and minutes + $20 2 GB fast data, slow as hell past + $8 handset protection, and if subsidizing a phone $20/month (actually they just finance your phone over 24 payments, so it varies some).

Verizon (maybe ATT?) was well over $140, and I think it peaked at 5 or 10k messages (I regularly break 5k). The loss protection was $15/month vs $8.

Tmobile, for $15 will up my fast internet to 5GB/month, and allow sharing with laptops for free on that price (activate hotspot feature on phone).

I am glad TMO has coverage in my area, but if can be a pane when traveling for work, with large areas 2G or voice only (ATT free roaming).

The price of an iPhone is not the phone unfortunately.

Re:What the Hell???

[Githaron]

Same here. The most I have ever used in a month was between 6 and 8GB. I usually use around 2 to 4GB in a month. I want unlimited because it is simple and I like to know it is there is I need it. I would accept limited if it was metered (no ridiculously priced overages) and reasonably priced. They really should just have one low price for unlimited phone and texting and then charge $2 to $5 per GB used for data. Data would cheap enough to be reasonable but high enough that most people would not go and burn 100+GB. Eventually, they could move the voice and texting to VOIP and use the newly release airwaves for data. Right now, at $10 - $60 does per GB, it would be cheaper to drive to the store and buy a DVD/Bluray and drive back then it would be to buy a high-quality digital download.

Re:What the Hell???

[C_amiga_fan]

This interview is hilarious:

Verizon Spokeswoman: We think that people need to go to a usage-based model for data and pay for the amount of usage that they're using so that everybody is able to access the network...... And we're charging on the megabytes of data that they use.
John Moe: Why?
Spokeswoman: Uh................... er................... cough............... People have changed the usage of how they're using their devices. They're moving to using more data, and to ensure the speed and reliability and the access to the network, people are paying for the amount of data that they use.

LINK - http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/verizon-trying-stamp-out-unlimited-data-customers

Re:What the Hell???

[CanHasDIY]

Instead I will switch carriers. I have no interest in unlimited voice, nor texts. I would in fact love a data only plan and just use voip.

A buddy of mine is talking about doing just that; basically, he would ditch his current plan in favor of a 4G iPad w/ unlimited data only, then just use Skype/GTalk/whatever for any of his voice-call needs.

He seems to think it will work out to a net savings, but depending on your needs and usage, YMMV.

Re:What the Hell???

[niado]

This would decrease the cost for family-plan users who use less than 1gb of data (admittedly that is a somewhat low quantity).

Currently, with a family-plan you are required to pay $30/mo for 2gb of data for each smartphone. For example, I have two smartphones on my plan, they each cost $30/mo (in addition to all other plan costs). So, I'm getting a total of 4gb/mo of data for $60/mo total. With the new plan, I could get a 1gb/mo 'bucket' for the family to share and pay $10/mo less. The gb/mo quantity actually does vary depending on which smartphone you have, so ymmv as far as that goes.

Now, this would only be beneficial in circumstances where users are currently using less than 1gb/mo. I feel that it is very likely that users in higher data usage brackets will be paying much more than they currently are, which is the point of the change. Verizon is trying to discourage users from using more data so they do not have to upgrade their infrastructure.

Re:What the Hell???

[AvitarX]

Probably meant "steep" with auto-correct...

Re:What the Hell???

[Shadow99_1]

You forgot they charge per phone, so it's like $30 per phone and then $50 for the data alone. Your still screwed.

Re:What the Hell???

[kesuki]

it's not really that bad, the wifi support of modern phones means you can use waps to connect, instead of the towers bandwidth.

and i just got a contract for 5 GB of data for $50 a month, so those numbers are wack. in fact they didn't have a datapak below 2 gb except for multimeadia phones which are at 75 mb for $10 a month.

Re:What the Hell???

[Pros_n_Cons]

You can keep your unlimited data plan, for a price. Rather than signing a new 2 year contract, and saving $500 on your new phone, you can pay full price for the phone, not be locked into a 2 year agreement, and keep the unlimited data package.

If you're not under contract anymore what is to stop them from just saying sorry contract over, then insert whatever plan they want on the 25th month of a 24mo contract?

I recently bought an unlimited data plan on e-bay and I was told over and over by AOL (assumption of liability) yes sir we will transfer the unlimited data. recorded her and everything. Next day I have a 2gb plan and they've been "trying" to get that unlimited data i was promised. Its just so hard to get to the people above loyalty dept who can actually honor what they said they would honor. the fun part is its $175 to cancel the plan 1 day later. no 60 days, no 14 days. Someone might not even know if they have service! The audacity of Verizon to a new customer like myself is shocking.

I've spent months trying to get a unlimited plan for a good price now all I want is to get as far away from this company as possible without paying fee. I might not have 4G on sprint, but i've had them for 3 years and not a single problem. 80gigs one month (movie rampage) and they didn't bat an eye. I feel scammed. $99 to e-bay for an unlimited account. promised a service i did not get then have to pay $200 just to get away from them. or continue their current game of.. we're trying to get it for you sir. please just pay a few more monthly bills at our insane prices while you wait.
get away from this company if you can folks. seriously.

Re:What the Hell???

[kesuki]

it is $20 a line using their most basic service, $30 a month is probablly for texts or something. and like i said most phones use wifi. if your job site lets you use wifi that is unlimited. so at home you can get $10 internet, buy a $30 wap, and stream all the movies and music as you want. they do suck though but some of us don't have a choice of network.

Re:What the Hell???

[kesuki]

do you use the words "Shared Everything plan"
shared minutes plans exist. for less than $90 a month. they are not lying but they minced their words well.

Re:What the Hell???

[kesuki]

I literally got a 2yr contract smartphone from not smartphone plan yesterday. for $20 a month for the line, then $50 for a 5 gb (1 line) datapak. don't need 'shared everything' plan cause i have the only smartphone.

Re:What the Hell???

[rfunches]

USA Today is making that up. There's an unlimited calling, unlimited texting, 300 MB data plan but

• 1) it's only for basic phones (not smartphones)
• 2) it costs $70 per month (not $80)

VZW's PDF (http://solutions.vzwshop.com/shareeverything/pdf/verizon_share_everything_plan_details.pdf) excludes smartphones from the "Share Everything Plans for Basic Phones" and "Data-Only Plans," therefore the minimum charge per month is $90 -- $40 for the device, $50 for 1 GB data. I'd argue the minimum is $100, since (if you keep reading) it's worded like a family plan with a two-device minimum, and the cheapest 2nd device is a tablet @ $10.

What isn't clear is if there will be single-line pricing, though the wording ("Select one smartphone and up to nine more devices", emphasis mine) implies that it'll exist. Most of the multi-line scenarios I can think of, however, are running $10-$30/mo higher with SE, with the biggest hit to basic phone non-texting customers. In my case, it's $110 now (2 basic phones, 1 smartphone w/unlimited data, no texting) vs. $150+ on SE (1 smartphone, 2 basic phones, 1 GB data, which I would definitely use in a month) so that's a ~33% increase.

Re:What the Hell???

[immaterial]

He didn't forget that, he left it out just as he left out the non-data-related costs of the normal plan. "Your" not paying attention.

Re:What the Hell???

[eldepeche]

I'm currently on a family plan. I just looked at my bill, and I'm paying:
$100 for 1400 shared minutes and unlimited messaging
$10 per line
$30 per smartphone
which adds up to $180 for 2 smartphones.

With this, I would pay:
$60 for 2GB data plus unlimited messaging plus unlimited minutes
$40 per smartphone
which is $140 for 2 smartphones. If I up the data to 4GB, it's $150.

It's the same price to add a smartphone, so you just compare the new data price to the old voice+text price.

Re:What the Hell???

[juancnuno]

I will soon be paying T-Mobile $10 a month for 2 GB of data

Re:What the Hell???

[immaterial]

He's talking about data plan cost, not the entire plan cost. $30 each for the data portion for two lines under the old scheme, $50 for data for two lines under the new scheme. Talk/text parts of the plan are an additional cost under either scheme.

Re:What the Hell???

[eldepeche]

It costs $10 to add a line to a family plan now, with an additional $30 if it's a smartphone, so the price has only gone up for basic phones. Also, minutes used to cost you something, and now they are included in the price of the bucket of data.

Re:What the Hell???

[eldepeche]

The cheapest family plan is $100 if you include unlimited text messaging, or $70 without it. It costs $40 to add a smartphone ($10 per line plus $30 for smartphone data). So now it's cheaper if you get less than 4GB of data. Also, $10 gets you 2 GB more, instead of 1GB for only one phone. If you use any text messages at all, it's cheaper no matter what.

Re:What the Hell???

[Overzeetop]

It's $40 for a smartphone, whether you use data or voice or texting. Plus the cost of data. They are requiring everyone to have an unlimited voice+text plan (ex: neither my wife or I have texting - it's actually blocked at our request - and we share 700 minutes and have never gone over) regardless of whether you use it or not. They understand that there are other services (like iMessage and Google Voice) which are cutting into their texting revenue and voice revenue, so now they're going to require you pay the full price just to turn the handset on.

2GB for $60 is close to what you pay for two individual 1GB plans (presuming you weren't on the double your data plan), so that's ever so marginally better.

Now, I actually have ATT right now, and was considering switching to Verizon (both iPads are Verizon - better terms for payg data). I pay $60 (less $10 corp discount) for my "family" plan with no texts and 700 minutes. Every additional phone is $10, regardless of type. Smartphones require a data plan, and we each have the $15/mo plan (200MB; enough 11 out of 12 months of the year, since we don't stream). So a dumb phone is $10 extra and a smart phone is $25 extra. The verizon plan is going to be $50 minimum data per month and $40 per smart phone? Ouch.

Re:What the Hell???

[Jon_S]

OK, verizon, so then go ahead and charge me by the megabyte (or gigabyte). They aren't doing that.

They require at least a $50 base charge (supposedly made palatable because it also includes the voice and text -"now unlimited!' - I never used up my voice and text quotas!) for 1 GB. Can I just pay per gigabyte after that? No. If I upgrade my dumb phone to a smart phone so I can use that data, I have to pay an extra $20 - $30/mo. *with no extra data* (adding a smart phone to the plan is $40/mo. Right now, adding a dumb phone to a family plan is only $10 plus $10 for text).

Every time one wants to "share" the rationed GB's with another device, one has to pay $20 - $40 /mo. extra for no more data. That's not paying by the GB.

Stop lying through your teeth VZW! If bandwidth is limited, then just sell it by the GB.

Re:What the Hell???

[Jon_S]

You are quoting their current plans. They disappear at the end of the month and are replaced with the just announced data plans starting at $50/mo 1 GB (including voice and text, but *not* including the monthly price to put a device on the network, which is $30 for a dumb phone and $40 for a smart phone).

Re:What the Hell???

[Obfuscant]

If you're not under contract anymore what is to stop them from just saying sorry contract over, then insert whatever plan they want on the 25th month of a 24mo contract?

The fact that you haven't agreed to service at that price?

I've been without a contract for cell service for five or six years now. I've upgraded my phone at least twice (not through the carrier), and I've never had them say "here's your new plan we want you to pay". In fact, I've gotten them to add on an obsolete data plan to my old grandfathered voice/text service, so I'm paying $10/month for data.

In the meantime, they've added 500 weekend anywhere minutes and changed how they charge for email to SMS messages so I get those free.

T-Mobile, in case you were wondering.

I also don't bother trying to watch TV on my phone either, and I watch movies that are locally stored, so YMMV.

I recently bought an unlimited data plan on e-bay and I was told over and over by AOL (assumption of liability) yes sir we will transfer the unlimited data. recorded her and everything.

That's what you get for trying to buy cell service from someone on eBay. What reputable cell service provider would use eBay as their sales floor?

Re:What the Hell???

[Fjandr]

I don't use AT&T, so I've never had reason to delve into this issue, but how exactly do they enforce the cost differential between a smartphone and a dumphone on a GSM network?

If you're not using any extra smartphone services (like BES) which require the plan be specifically provisioned for a smartphone, what's stopping you from activating a dumbphone and tossing the SIM into a smartphone afterward?

Re:What the Hell???

[Kalriath]

I think it actually works like so

1) Subscribe to their service
2) Leave
3) ???
4) Loss

Re:What the Hell???

[Svartalf]

Which, if you did the math, is often cheaper than the subsidized phone deal. You just have to choke down the price of the phone up-front.

They've priced themselves into a corner with me. I'll just save up and buy a new phone- it's cheaper, actually than the deal they're offering. And I'm disinclined to move the business partner off of AT&T onto Verizon even though they've got better voice coverage. It'll now cost me MORE than it's worth to leave things alone- and now I'll be looking for alternatives down the line.

Re:What the Hell???

[Svartalf]

Coverage. None of the GSM providers have anything other than craptacular voice coverage (Yeah they say they've got coverage, but when you try to use it, you end up sounding like you're under the water at the bottom of a well...) compared to Verizon. Data coverage tends to be more even so far. It's why I stayed with them even though they WERE slightly more expensive. Now...we'll just have to see what comes out of this.

Greed does not befit them and this isn't a way to ever higher profits.

Re:What the Hell???

[Svartalf]

They're constrained by what they can/can't do there by the law. Lacking a current contract, they're mainly limited to the terms of the prior agreement (i.e. the contract is still really in place, but they won't subsidize a phone for you if you don't sign up with a new contract with new terms).

Sadly, they've placed themselves in a bad position with the current plan. It's actually cheaper for many people to run with their current contract terms and buy the new phone if they'll save up the money for it or put it on a revolving credit plan and pay it off in a couple of months' time than take them up on these shared buckets. They've priced them too high. Seriously. It's $20 more for the 10Gb tier than before this bullshit- and while they weren't shared, I can assure you that I use that much data by myself fairly regularly on my dongle. It might work out "okay" (though more expensive...) for someone with a family and four smartphones with slightly lower than average to average use. It doesn't work out okay for road-warriors and remote people using their service. It just got more expensive is all it did.

Re:What the Hell???

[Rei]

I don't get why utilities are so expensive in the US.

Here in Iceland, we're considered an expensive country. And you should expect the same sort of thing with anything having to do with data, since it's not exactly cheap to run underseas cables to us, and all the electronics hardware has to be imported, and not nearly in as much bulk as places like the US can buy in. So why is it that our utilities on things involving data are so cheap?

For my phone, I use NOVA. Since I don't call much and text in-network, I get the free, per-usage voice/text plan. The data plans available are 1GB for $7,60 or 10GB for $23, both at 5 MB/s. And coverage? We have one-7th the population density of Iowa. Here's Síminn's 2G coverage and here's 3G coverage (note that the population here is clustered around the coasts, there's no permanent residents in the interior and that you can't even drive on the few roads in the interior without a high-clearance 4x4). You can get 3G on some glaciers here! I was facebooking from the top of a mountain last weekend.

Or TV, for example. From Síminn, which I subscribe to, the base package is $7,60, a middle-of-the-line package is ~$27, and the everything package is ~$44.

We're on an island in the middle of nowhere. These sort of things should be way more expensive than in the US, not cheaper. Why is this? And availability, too. Back when I lived in Iowa City (a big 10 university town, I should add, so there were some fat pipes running into the place), the best uplink speed I could get on my netconnection was 1.5Mb/s (down was better, but not impressive). Here I get 50Mb/s bidirectional, and that's considered bad.

I don't get it, America. What's up with all that? I'm in freaking *Iceland* here.

Re:What the Hell???

[bedouin]

In Egypt I pay about $60/month USD for a 10gb USB modem. When you go over the limit you're throttled unless you 'recharge' by purchasing 1gb for $5. My iPhone with a very generous call/text limit comes with a 3gb data plan for $25/month. Tethering is enabled with no extra charge or hacking required either.

Americans get shafted so hard when it comes to mobile fees. I didn't even bother with a smartphone or data plan there because it was barely worth it. Prices go down for this stuff everywhere except the US.

Re:What the Hell???

[h4rr4r]

I have 550 minutes not 1400 and do not have unlimited messaging. I also have unlimited data for $30 each phone. We use 4GB now, in 6 months it will be more.

Re:What the Hell???

[bongey]

One item you are forgetting is they have increased the prices of their data plans and removed many promotions.
Examples :
Unlimited data == 2GB now , $30, 10GB is $80
3GB ==2GB now for tablet ,$30
4GB for 30.00 is gone.

Finally they really are charging a lot for going over your allowed data usage . $10 bucks per 1GB , I do not think it is pro-rated.
I just found this http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/science_tech/verizon-share-everything-plan-will-verizon-wireless-new-data-share-plan-cost-or-save-you-money

PricewaterhouseCoopers. 'sending carriers' average revenue per smartphone user down to $83 per month last year. That's a drop from $86 in 2010 and $93 from 2009.

So they are losing money per customer , this really just a way to make more money off of you.

Re:What the Hell???

[pnutjam]

Sounds like you were trying to transfer an existing plan, which is probably well out of the new subscriber cancellation policy. I just switched my wife from sprint to verizon, she is getting 4GG, 1K texts, and 950 minutes (to get friends and family, 950 is way too many, but 400 is not enough without friends and family), it is costing us about the same as sprint with unlimited data and texts and 700 minutes (400 minute plan with 300 free extra minutes since we were long time subscibers).
Sprint's service has been getting worse and their phone selection is nowhere near as good as Verizon's.

Anyway, my point is we had 7 days to cancel.

Re:What the Hell???

[ganjadude]

right, IF you use that 1 gig or less you are fine, Me, my last 5 months were 27,22,29,33 and 19. Tell me how much I am paying under the new plan now????

Re:What the Hell???

[ganjadude]

oh yeah, and we have 2 family plans all maxed out (grandparent and a 6 person household) oh, and that was just MY data, not the data from the other phones

so, again, how is this new plan helping me in anyway shape or form??

Re:What the Hell???

[ganjadude]

funny thing, my buddy just went to upgrade to a razr maxx, The verizon rep tried to take away his unlimited plan claiming that they were not allowing the 4g plans to follow the grandfathered plan. After making 4 phone calls to different stores we finally got one to say we could keep the plan as soon as we mentioned sprints unlimited plan.

Re:What the Hell???

[OhHellWithIt]

I can't see any way that this benefits my family. Right now, we've got two Blackberrys with 150 MB data plans and a "feature phone" with no data plan, sharing 700 minutes of voice time, coming in at around $90/month before insurance on the third phone. We only use about 1/6 of the data and even in a heavy month have only used 1/3 of the voice. All I see is that it's going to end up costing more money if we have to go to a new plan, and it's looking to me like I'll be shopping for another carrier when the time comes.

Re:What the Hell???

[mlong]

No it is:
1) Subscribe to their service
2) Try to leave
3) Early termination fee? $350? Seriously?
4) Wait 2 years
5) Leave
6) Oh it's 2 years later...nobody cares about the higher fees anymore

Re:What the Hell???

[Tharkkun]

Thinking it over, I suspect that Verizon is about to prove that yes, consumers really are that stupid.

After all, they've been raping their customers for years, almost at will and whim. What makes 'em think that anything will change now?

You're just figuring this out? Wait and see exactly how stupid people are when a million of the new macbooks are sold.

Re:What the Hell???

[EvilBudMan]

It's all of that fish. That's why. You can't get decent fish in Iowa. Things have kinda changed here as speed has increased a lot in the last few years but yeah cell phone companies profit more in the US than anywhere, but with your prices being lower than the UK maybe you have some form of subsidy. Like I said there is a lot of money and work too in fishing.

Re:What the Hell???

[Fjandr]

Ah, yeah. A subsidized phone is a deal with the devil, so you're at the whim of their insane terms. I don't do that, personally.

Re:What the Hell???

[godefroi]

Your question is silly, and the answer is obvious:

country....population....area
Iceland....320,060.......103,001 km2
USA........313,753,000...9,826,675 km2

Add to that the fact that 2/3 of the population of Iceland is in one single metropolitan area, and you can see what's going on there.

Re:What the Hell???

[jbolden]

The deal is completely unusable for a single. You just can't consider Verizon with one phone. At 2 phones it is slightly worse. I have a 3 phone family plan. It is more or less a wash.

$90 for 1GB

[headhot]

Wow, what a deal! Thats only $9 a device for 100MB each!

Holy shit!

[Anonymous Coward]

$50 FOR A GIG!?!?!?!

Man, these guys are smoking some killer crack.

Re:Holy shit!

[Kalriath]

Apparently they're taking pricing advice from New Zealand telcos. That's about what my provider charges me.

Seriously?

[Penguinisto]

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.

Re:Seriously?

[dkleinsc]

Unless the other carrier follows suit, how on Earth do they expect to keep customers?

Odds are good that they're trying to see if other carriers follow suit. Back in the days before the Internet, 1 airline would raise prices at 4:45 PM on Friday afternoon, see if the other airlines raised their prices to match over the weekend, and if they didn't then lower the prices back down at 8:15 AM on Monday morning. Legally, that's not price fixing, even though in practice it is.

Re:Seriously?

[LordLimecat]

Over the years I have come to understand that Verizon really truly does not expect or want to keep customers. Their only goal is to infuriate, annoy, inconvenience, and generally cause problems for as many people as is possible.

I believe that they are not a data carrier, as much as a hatred delivery company who uses their status as an ISP to more easily deliver that seething contempt to its customers.

Re:Seriously?

[dohnut]

I was planning on switching to Verizon from AT&T sometime here in the next 6 months. After reading about these rates over the last couple days, those plans are aborted. AT&T is bad, but they're not that bad.

I already pay $70 for 2GB with AT&T. Why would I pay an extra $20 for half the data? I was hoping to do a break-even switch in the fall figuring I'd pay about the same but get better coverage with Verizon (in my neck of the woods anyway). I guess I'll stick with crap(pier) coverage and save some money though.

Re:Seriously?

[dohnut]

So, I found this on Computer World (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228051/Unlimited_data_customers_freaked_out_by_new_Verizon_shared_data_plans):

" You're not required to move to Share Everything, but if you do, unlimited data will not be retained on your line. As a Verizon Wireless customer you have choices when you upgrade at discounted pricing. You can choose from a standalone data package starting at $30 for 2GB or a Share Everything Plan. If keeping unlimited is important to you, you can choose to upgrade and pay full retail price for the phone."

So, can I assume that if I'm not upgrading, but as a new customer I can still get the standalone data package? Even after June 28th? Because (almost) all of the news sites are saying that this option will not be available after June 28th? So, I guess I'll just sit here with my thumb up my ass and see what happens because actually telling me now in a clear and comprehensive manner is obviously asking too much. PR fail.

Re:Seriously?

[evilviper]

Unless the other carrier follows suit, how on Earth do they expect to keep customers?

They have been screwing their customers for a good long time, and their market-share keeps increasing... Supply and demand. Apparently they don't want to keep growing so fast, so they will keep on manipulating the supply-side until it happens.

Sprint and T-Mobile may be small, and AT&T has sucky customer service and/or coverage

Sprint is more than 50% the size of either Verizon or AT&T. They aren't doing as much marketing to get themselves in the public consciousness, but they're actually pretty damn big, and a solid #3. What's more, they're the only one doing anything innovative... Boost and Virgin mobile are the only respectable pre-paid services, the most inexpensive ways to go, and they're both Sprint. Republic Wireless (at $19/mo for unlimited everything) has real potential to completely disrupt the cell phone industry, and it's all based on Sprint's network.

Re:Seriously?

[thegarbz]

I'm not sure if it's the same in the US but here in Australia the oil companies follow a similar system which has resulted in a weekly price cycle that fluctuates as much as 20c / L.

Basically on Thursday fuel is at its peak and the companies slowly undercut each other a cent or two at a time several times throughout the day. On Wednesday one of the companies will hit the terminal gate price and won't be able to bare the cost of a further discount and put premium on their fuel. The other companies see this as an opportunity to make some profit margin again and raise their prices accordingly.

Every so often this results in failure which then makes the news as fuel is cheap all week because one company raises prices but the other companies are out of sync and by the time they raise their prices the first company is undercutting them again and the price bounces around mostly the cheap point.

Our competition watchdog has said that upon investigation it's not price fixing but rather a curious side-effect of intense competition, and that consumers are no worse off because the cycle is quite stable and they can choose to purchase fuel on the cheap days.

Re:Seriously?

[Fjandr]

Margins on gasoline at US retailers aren't large enough to allow discretionary price swings of 20c/gal, much less 20c/L. Any swings that large will come only as a result of something influencing terminal prices. As far as I'm aware, even the stations bearing a major oil company's name are only franchisees leasing the rights to the name.

Re:Seriously?

[Keen Anthony]

Verizon's network is better is certain places. For example, I am currently in Phoenix, Arizona. I can and have been in places in the middle of nowhere in Arizona and California and New Mexico, and have gotten service whilst others around me on T-Mobile and AT&T did not. I don't travel to the middle of nowhere anymore, so fear of losing connectivity is no longer a concern for me. I point this out only because fear of losing that connectivity has allowed Verizon to keep many customers it would have lost already to AT&T. Verizon had a reputation as being somehow the better network overall for a lot of consumers, especially enterprise customers.

I'm one of the many grandfathered customers who still has unlimited on a smartphone. So, at the moment I'm weighing my options of jumping ship for AT&T or staying on to see if I can tolerate the new data caps.

Re:Seriously?

[icebrain]

My wife and I still have unlimited data on our phones (I'm running a Charge, she has an iTurd). I don't want to lose that unlimited data, should I ever need it.

Then again, I just don't see how people manage to use gigs of data every month. Even with what for me is heavy usage (streaming some music, occasional Netflix videos at the gym, navigation and random browsing, etc) I've never topped 400MB. What the hell are you people doing that uses so much?

Re:Seriously?

[thegarbz]

Right it's the same thing here. But the key part is being a franchisee doesn't give you the right to sell petrol at any price you want. That's actually common at most franchises here that the parent company dictates prices for products and specials on any given day. I know most of our country's oil prices are controlled centrally from a head office somewhere.

Re:Seriously?

[Kyrene]

My father worked for them back when they were NY Telephone and retired sometime after they became Verizon. That's a good 35+ years of history in the making right there....

Re:Seriously?

[GJSchaller]

AT&T has indicated they are following suit, while Sprint has not.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/12/verizon-introduces-share-everything-service-plan-for-up-to-ten-devices/

The plan is a boon if you have more than one device, and becomes better the more devices you have on the single plan, even with the increased data rates.

As a current Verizon customer, the new plan works for me *specifically* because I have more than one device. While I would be paying more if I just had a smartphone on the new plan, the inclusion of a tablet for $10 extra, pulling from the same data pool, more than offsets the cost of a separate plan for the tablet ($30 / month). It's not a huge savings, but it's notable in that I can now have multiple devices, plus tethering at no additional cost, instead of a separate plan for each device and extra for tethering, which would add up to more in the end.

Re:Seriously?

[Keen Anthony]

In addition to web browsing and occasional navigation, I stream radio and podcasts nearly daily whilst driving: Pandora, TuneIn, etc. Then there are a few social network updates, including picture uploads, but it's the streaming radio that makes up the most of my usage. I'm at 0.248 GB according to Verizon. I still would like to maintain unlimited service. Verizon has offered no reason other than the desire to make more profit as an explanation for the increase. I did the math, it will be an increase for me if the plan listed stands. As a long-time VZW subscriber, I'm too used to paying a premium. I just started looking at other carriers' plans, and there are some very good plans out there. I wonder how many customers Verizon will lose solely because customers got curious about what else was out there. I for one likely wouldn't have bothered to look at other carriers had Verizon not done this.

Re:Seriously?

[Fjandr]

In the US, retailers try to entice people into their station with a 2-3c difference per gallon, since their profits are derived wholely from in-store sales. The lowest price ones are the stores selling gasoline without proprietary additives from the major labels, and they can only undercut by maybe 5c/gallon before losing profitability. The lack of margins and the fact that all the gas comes from the same terminals means there's really no price competition in the States.

*shrug*

[tgd]

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.)

Re:*shrug*

[Anonymous Coward]

Some may win, some may lose

Some will only sing the blues
For the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on.

Re:*shrug*

[h4rr4r]

This is false.

I have two smartphones on my data plan with unlimited data and this will increase my cost $30/month or mean I have to use less data. Niether is attractive to me.

Re:*shrug*

[Anonymous Coward]

Please provide a link to a Verizon site that backs up your assertion - one that is shared by NONE of the articles I can fine.

Everything said by anyone not on Slashdot is taking this as "you don't get a choice if you're a new [or upgrading] Verizon user". These are the ONLY plans.

If you truly believe you're right and all those articles are wrong, back it up with evidence. Show us the link.

Re:*shrug*

[h4rr4r]

Minor shift?
$30 extra a month to get only the data I use, and not what I will want to use in 6months is a minor fucking shift?

You must work for these assholes.

Re:*shrug*

[cayenne8]

Some may win, some may lose

Some will only sing the blues

For the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on.

/me Holds Lighter in the Air....

Re:*shrug*

[Overzeetop]

I have two smartphones with data on AT&T for $100/mo. I could add any additional dumb phones for $10 each and any smart phone for $25 under the plan I'm on ($10 phone + $15 minimum data plan).

The new V plan is $130 for the two phones, plus $40 for every extra smart phone. I'd say the $360/yr extra for a family with 2 phones is not a great deal, nor is the extra $180 for every additional smart phone. To be fair, every phone on my ATT plan shares the original pool of voice minutes (which is north of 3000-4000 with rollover), but on V that $40 for a smart phone buys you exactly zero extra data.

Re:*shrug*

[Svartalf]

Excuse me... If you think I'll come out ahead, you're smoking CRACK.

1 Galaxy Nexus. 2-3.5 Gb use per month. Grandfathered unlimited data.
1 LTE dongle as primary internet. I'm a consultant and "landline" internet isn't possible. ~10Gb per month.

You see a problem there? I'll end up spending approximately the same or more per month under the new plans. I'm not coming out ahead. There's others. YOU might come out ahead. About 1/3rd or so will come out ahead. But it's not this shiny thing you or Verizon make it out to be.

Re:*shrug*

[tgd]

Excuse me... If you think I'll come out ahead, you're smoking CRACK.

I have no idea who you are, nor do I care in the least if you'll come out ahead.

Why in the world would you think I would?

Not Forced

[Physician]

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.

Re:Not Forced

[idontgno]

I have to ask this. I have wondered about this for as long as I've had mobile phones on a contract-based carrier (versus PAYG carriers).

If you bring your "older unsubsidized phone" to Verizon and say "Hi, I'd like to continue my current contract but switch to using this phone on your fine network", will Verizon really say "Oh, gosh, I wish I could sell you a new phone and put you into one of our draconian plans, but I guess we have to do it your way."?

It doesn't seem like a very Verizon thing to do. Frankly, (and I speak as a current Verizon customer), it seems like their answer will more likely be "Buy one of our new phones and get inside the box, peon."

I got the deal I wanted out of them, but I now they're not gonna give me a second shot at them, so I'm fully expectiong to hop out of their "loving arms" the instant our mutual obligation is satisfied.

Re:Not Forced

[Physician]

"Verizon issued a clarification to The New York Times today, noting that the loss of grandfathered unlimited plans will be limited to those customers purchasing new subsidized devices for use on the carrier. Users who do not upgrade their devices or who choose to upgrade at unsubsidized prices will be able to keep their unlimited data plans. Still, the change would appear to be set to affect the majority of Verizon's current unlimited data customers, as most customers are interested in regular handset upgrades at subsidized prices. - Customers will not be automatically moved to new shared data plans. If a 3G or 4G smartphone customer is on an unlimited plan now and they do not want to change their plan, they will not have to do so. - When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing. - Customers who purchase phones at full retail price and are on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan. - The same pricing and policies will be applied to all 3G and 4GLTE smartphones."

Re:Not Forced

[Svartalf]

Either that or save up for a new one- you're still ahead in many cases if you're doing that; it's actually my current plan going forward.

Re:Not Forced

[Svartalf]

What most people don't get is this: It's actually cheaper, even if it's slightly more painful up front, to buy the phone unsubsidized and keep the plan.

Cost per month of the pre bullshit tiers of 5Gb (what most power users will have...): $50
Cost per month of the unlimited plan: $30
Cost per month of the 6Gb tier under the "Share everything" plan: $60

Cost of an unsubsidized Galaxy Nexus: $649
Cost of subsidized: $199

So... $450 dollars divided by 24 months is $18.79 per month.
The move from unlimited to a 5Gb tier is $20 per month. The move to the "Share everything" equivalent is $30.

It'll cost you $720 more to take that subsidized device over it's "expected" lifespan with the new notion Verizon's got for you than if you bite the bullet and buy it up-front.

Take a wild guess what I intend on doing... If enough of the left over unlimited and 10Gb tier people do this to Verizon, they might even wise up because it'll cost them those profits they thought they were getting.

Re:Not Forced

[Svartalf]

Oops... It's $720 - $450. It's not QUITE that nice with the Nexus, but it's that nice with a slightly cheaper phone.

I'm not sure I get it

[fustakrakich]

Is this some kind of 'cloud' service to upload your bucket list?

Damn you VZW

[hawkeyeMI]

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.

Re:Damn you VZW

[JoeSchmoe007]

Check out Page Plus: http://www.pagepluscellular.com/

They are prepaid reseller using Verizon network. There is a forum here: http://www.howardforums.com/forumdisplay.php/364-Page-Plus-Cellular

Re:Damn you VZW

[Svartalf]

Riight. Want to have me move a Horse Farm operation in next door?

Re:Damn you VZW

[oh-dark-thirty]

There's an Android app called FoxFi that enables wifi hotspot use, for free.

Re:Damn you VZW

[nedlohs]

Given the cost of land and that the soil is full of lead, go ahead. You won't last long. Of course you'll also have to meet a bunch of zoning/etc rule but those can be changed via elected officials.

Rural live has a bunch of advantages and a bunch of disadvantages. And they come in packages you don't get to pick and choose.

And of course urban level connectivity might be a bad thing for those who like the rural life in the longer term. I'd move in a flash if I could get the connectivity that lets me have the job I currently have (which is 99% remote and could easily be done from anywhere with good enough connectivity - luckily so far the Indians we have tried to employ just have been poor enough work wise that I'm still worth the cost). I suspect I'm not unique in that position - the rural environment meshes fine with the stereotypical basement dweller who shops on amazon and socializes on Call of Duty if they can get the connectivity. So supply/demand would then drive up prices in rural areas and fill them with antisocial nerds.

Buckets might be ok, but these prices?

[icebike]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[SydShamino]

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.

Hyperbole much?

[macwhizkid]

'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.

Re:Hyperbole much?

[CanHasDIY]

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.

Indeed; that is addressed in a Q&A page linked from 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.

Re:Hyperbole much?

[dufachi]

The problem I'm seeing is if it's $30 per additional phone, I certainly hope that new device gets another 1GB added to the bucket. Otherwise, a family of 5 sharing 1GB of Data for $180 would be ridiculous. For that matter, $180 for 5GB is absolutely insane pricing.

Re:Hyperbole much?

[CanHasDIY]

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.

Indeed; that is addressed in a Q&A page linked from 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.

That Q&A is USA today-conjured bullshit, plain and simple.

Somebody take a shit in your niswa or somethin' bro? Being just a bit defensive, aren't we?

None of the actual Verizon literature has suggested there will be ONLY a family share plan for all users.

*looks at own words quoted above*

Never said there was, dink. Calm down before you give yourself a coronary.

Re:Hyperbole much?

[thatseattleguy]

That $70 is for "Basic Phones" and so doesn't apply to anything Verizon deems a "smartphone". Which is pretty much everything that can deal with mobile data in a non-trivial way. Not a valid comparison unless you're my grandma.

Re:Hyperbole much?

[Anonymous Coward]

As others have pointed out, jeffmeden, you seem to be very worked up about this and have commented here over and over and over,,,,insisting your view of things (one shared by no other commentatory, here or in the media) is correct. And provided nothing to back up your assertions other than some vague assurance that some other fantasy plans will appear and give Verizon customers some kind of real choice. Again....evidence for this?

I'm hope you're doing this on your VZW work time, since that way you get paid for the shilling!

Re:Hyperbole much?

[MHolmesIV]

Not much of a shared plan. For $30 a month ($10 less than the $40 "access fee" Verizon charges to a smartphone) I get 5GB of high speed, unlimited low speed, and the ability to share my data connection over wifi from T-Mobile.

My plan is $60 (for minutes) and $30 for each smartphone + $10 for the third, so for $160, I get 15GB of data over 3 phones. For Verizon, 1GB and 3 smartphones would cost me $170, and for 10GB it would be $220. How exactly is this saving anyone any money?

Sure, you get unlimited minutes and text, but it's a suckers bet, I used less than 20 minutes last month total over 3 phones. They're not actually giving you _anything_ with unlimited minutes.

How about $40 for unlimited

[Galestar]

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.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[CastrTroy]

Yeah, I'm using them too. One small caveat. They only work in the city, and are only available in a few cities, although their network is growing. For the number of times I travel in a year, it makes much more sense to have a phone that only works in the city. I'll buy a disposable SIM card from Walmart for the two weeks a year that I might happen to be out of town. Unlimited data and long distance for $40 a month is much easier to stomach. Oh, and I signed up during the back to school rush, so I only pay $29 a month for that plan. Watch out next august/september. They charged me $10-15 for setting me up on that plan because I was an existing customer, but I saved that much in the first month.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[busyqth]

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.

But then again, you have to live in Canada.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Anonymous Coward]

The key phrase here is "major cities only". If you were in the US and you were only going to use your phone in major cities, you wouldn't have signed up for Verizon, which has always had the highest prices in exchange for deep penetration into rural areas. Instead, you would sign up for Cricket, Boost, MetroPCS, or a similar carrier that only has coverage in major cities.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Mister Liberty]

Corporate [pun intended -- ouch!] screwage is the YouAssOfAces middle name.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Anonymous Coward]

Yup. I have a lot of friends and family in rural areas. For most of them, it's Verizon or nothing. They put a lot of effort into remote areas; I've even heard of them doing things like airlifting towers into forests and on top of mountains.

I live near a major city and have Virgin Mobile, which uses Sprint's network. I'm paying $45/mo for 1200 minutes and unlimited text/data (4G even, although it's crappy WiMAX), no contract. The coverage in my neighborhood is actually better than Verizon, and I have no problems in smallish cities and along interstates that go through the middle of nowhere. It is annoying to go without service when I visit my family, but not enough to justify spending twice as much for one lousy gig of data and a 2-year contract.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[evilviper]

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.

People who don't shop-around get screwed, wherever they are in the world...

Down here in the US, Boost Mobile is $50/month for unlimited everything, and shrinks by $5 every 6th month until you bottom out at $35 (add $5 to that for Android phones, $10 for Blackberry). Virgin Mobile is $35 for unlimited data, text, and about 300 minutes of talk time. Both are on Sprint's network so they've got nation-wide coverage (just not quite as exhaustive as Verizon), and they're both pre-paid (no contract).

And if you're somewhere that you really need Verizon's level of coverage, you can get off a hell of a lot cheaper with a contract on Sprint, which will allow subscribers to roam to Verizon's towers as needed...

And if you want something really impressive, Republic Wireless is beta-testing their $19/mo unlimited everything service, which merges VoIP service on Android smartphones with transparent fall-over to cell service (again, on Sprint's network).

For other inexpensive services in the US, see T-Mobile, cricKet (now has the iPhone), MetroPCS, net10, etc, etc.

Those who have a $100+ monthly cell phone bill have more money than brains, or at least more money than free time...

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[maztuhblastah]

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.

Yeah, the US is horrible, etc. Got it.

Of course we have less-abusive providers too. Virgin Mobile provides unlimited everything for 55 USD/month. Boost Mobile offers unlimited everything for 50 USD/month scaling down to 40/month after 18 months. Page Plus Cellular provides unlimited talk and text and 2 GB of data -- on Verizon's network, no less -- for 40 USD/month.

Those are just three random MVNOs -- there's plenty more with similar or better pricing (such as Simple Talk, a T-Mobile MVNO, one of a few pushed by WalMart). There's also Cricket, iWireless, and plenty of other regional carriers (most of which have roaming agreements with at least one of the big three). All with no yearly contract.

The smart of us aren't getting "screwed up the ass". It's the ones silly enough to lock themselves into a contract with one of the big three that get screwed.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[bogie]

Compared with Verizon's new bend you over and screw you dry plans, there are a ton of prepaid wireless company's that offer what Verizon is offering at half the price PLUS double the data. Boost, Virgin Mobile, just to name a few.

Their pricing may go up depending on their relationships with Verizon but they will all now clearly represent a better value than Verizon especially when you consider phone costs.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Obfuscant]

Down here in the US, Boost Mobile is $50/month for unlimited everything, and shrinks by $5 every 6th month until you bottom out at $35 (add $5 to that for Android phones, $10 for Blackberry).

Watch out. I waited a long time for them to get the latest smart phone (can't remember which brand) and bought one immediately. It worked long enough to sign up for service and then started rebooting itself every ten minutes or so. Getting through the phone tree to talk to someone about the problem was a nightmare until I found the "dealer shortcut" of dialing '88' immediately after getting the voice prompts.

I decided that keeping this service wasn't worth the hassle, which then created a second nightmare of trying to cancel and get my money back. It took a long time to get past the stock "just let your service run out in a month" answer and actually find someone who would authorize a refund of all money paid on an account that had never been used. They were also uncooperative enough on the phone that I decided to pay for registered mail to return the handset, which I was glad I did. I could prove they actually got it when they tried to claim I hadn't sent it.

If this company works for you, fine. For me, it was an education that T-Mobile customer service really wasn't the worst on the planet, and far from it.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Suddenly_Dead]

Or, if you want coverage outside the city on Rogers network, get the 7-11 Speakout for $25 per month ($10 for unlimited data). Voice calls are flat .25 per minute, vs. Wind's few unlimited eves and weekends, but if you're an occasional caller it's tolerable.

(Speakout claims data plans only work with their cheapo feature phones, but google 'Speakout data plan Android') and you can find the APM setup parameters for using any smartphone with the Rogers proxy server.)

That's not better at all. Wind's prepaid plan is a flat $0.20 per minute on Wind's network, on Rogers' network, and anywhere in the United States. The same rate applies for roaming on Rogers on the monthly plans.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[cbope]

But then again, you have to live in Canada.

But then again, some might see that as an upgrade.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Waccoon]

You guys in the U.S. are getting screwed up the ass.

I believe that's, "we're screwing ourselves up the ass, and enjoying every minute of it."

I can't even justify buying a smart phone in this market. I can afford it, but I don't want to pay. Alas, every blue-collar guy I work with seems thrilled to fork over $1500/yr. for a damn toy so they can check baseball scores every 5 minutes.

I don't see the situation getting better any time soon, unless some genius hacker blacks out the entire cell grid for 6 months and people are actually forced to talk to each other again.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[CastrTroy]

I live in Ottawa, whenever my phone roams over to the Rogers network. I can never seem to place a call.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Galestar]

7-11 Speakout is garbage (I was on it previously). Their "unlimited data" is actually a proxy server that you need to jump through hoops to configure your phone (and their support will not help you). Even if you get it working it is so frakking slow it's not worth the $10.

Also the $25/mth is for 200 mins - not unlimited. For you to leave that off it just deceitful.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Galestar]

I think the lesson you should take away from his is that you should not buy your phone from your carrier. Ever.

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[Galestar]

Also, you don't have to live in the U.S.

FTFY

Re:How about $40 for unlimited

[evilviper]

Watch out. I waited a long time for them to get the latest smart phone (can't remember which brand) and bought one immediately. It worked long enough to sign up for service and then started rebooting itself every ten minutes or so.

If this company works for you, fine. For me, it was an education that T-Mobile customer service really wasn't the worst on the planet, and far from it.

Last time I dealt with Boost customer service was about 5 years ago, when calls weren't coming through to the phone number I signed-up with... The call to support was free despite the per-minute plan I was on, and it only took about 30 minutes to get them to change the phone number, and everything worked fine for years since then.

When they finally came out with a decent Android Slider (Samsung Transform Ultra) I bought it immediately, and found that the touch-screen was a twitchy, buggy nightmare (search youtube for "Transform Ultra screen problems"). I took it back to Best Buy and exchanged it for another unit, found it had the same problem, and took it back in for a refund. No trouble at all...

Of course I was unhappy because there was really no other way I could see to get cheap cell service with a halfway decent smartphone... Virgin mobile's Optimus Slider has an ancient ARMv6 CPU that can't run MANY important programs, such as Adobe Flash for one, and the lack of a light-level sensor was an unexpectedly HUGE hassle I wouldn't tolerate either.

My savior was Amazon... A couple months later I checked out their product page for the Transform Ultra and found almost entirely great reviews... I took a chance, and sure enough, Samsung had quietly fixed the massive bug with their device. I'm now a happy Boost Mobile customer. Their CDMA coverage is unfortunately considerably poorer than their iDEN (Nextel) coverage, but the fringe coverage problems certainly haven't been serious enough for me to consider canceling, with prices these low.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[Hardhead_7]

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!

Grandfathered unlimited plans stay.

[Kenja]

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.

Re:Grandfathered unlimited plans stay.

[Kenja]

It comes down to the contract. What I signed when I first setup my account granted me unlimited data at a fixed price with no expiration date. So legally they cant force me to change my data plan till it comes time to sign another contract. So long as I never sign another one (meaning that I keep my current phone or pay full price for my next when my contract is up for renewal) I will continue to have unlimited data for the 30$ a month my original contract granted me. In my case, I just renewed my contract, extending my unlimited plan for another two years. So its a non issue till 2014.

Re:Grandfathered unlimited plans stay.

[Svartalf]

Save up for a new phone at full retail price. You'll be 200-600 dollars better off in the long run by doing that. Moreover, the pricing you have will be pinned at the old pricing for anything and everything on the line. They're going to jack things up a while it seems until they realize that they may well have priced themselves out poorly.

Re:Grandfathered unlimited plans stay.

[Keen Anthony]

I agree with you in spirit, but when the customer signs the contract with the weasel words that allowed the provider to change terms of the contract, then that freedom is part of the contract itself.

I'm one of those grandfathered unlimited out of contract customers. I'm not entirely confident that I won't be forced into a new contract type even if my next phone isn't subsidized. Verizon has done away with unlimited. It's been gone a while now as I understand it. So, I wonder if Verizon would require me to pick a new plan even if I'm out of contract were I to buy a new phone at full price. I don't see where they couldn't do that. After all, I'm not bound by a contract to remain, and they are not bound by a contract to keep me.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[amRadioHed]

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.

yeah T-Mobile!

[wierd_w]

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.

Re:yeah T-Mobile!

[Daetrin]

I agree! I'm not sure exactly which plans those are that you're listing, but after getting an unlocked phone i'm paying $65 for 500 minutes, unlimited text and "5 gb of data." (Perhaps the plans vary by area? Or is there a surcharge for 4g? I'm only at 3g.)

I am _so_ glad that AT&T didn't manage to buy them out!

Re:yeah T-Mobile!

[Macrat]

T-Mobile 100min/5GB no-contract plan for $30. Sweet.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[demonlapin]

With free unlimited talk and text. Don't forget that; it's what makes this pricing feasible.

Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[Anonymous Coward]

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...

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Go look at mobile phone plans in Austria if you really feel like getting your envy on. Drei.at: 1000 minutes, 1000 SMS, unlimited data (full speed up to 2GB, then 64kbps), 10€.

How about France? mobile.free.fr: 20€ for unlimited calls to France, USA and Canada, unlimited calls to landlines in 40 countries, unlimited SMS within France, unlimited data (full speed up to 3GB, then throttled).

If Americans traveled outside their own country more then they wouldn't accept the prices they pay.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[Anonymous Coward]

By "keep my own money", you mean "give all my money to the corporations that price gouge me", right?

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[d4nowar]

If Americans traveled outside their own country more then they wouldn't accept the prices they pay.

I hear this all the time, but the reason for this is the size of the country and the lack of nearby countries that aren't named Canada or Mexico. To get anywhere out of the country other than that is out of the budget of most Americans.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Check your sources and pay attention to what you're comparing. Read the source data of that chart to understand what you're looking at. For a little more detailed information about taxes in Germany see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Germany

It isn't nearly that bad, not even absolutely. It's a wash when you consider that our countries don't eat the money but use it to provide services for free or cheaply which individuals must pay for in the US.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[batkiwi]

That's only income taxes. The US has absurdly high property taxes in most areas, plus state income taxes in most states.

You can also add medical insurance on top of that as for most countries it comes out of taxes.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[LordLimecat]

Fair enough, and I agree its a gradual thing.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[LordLimecat]

That graph includes all of those taxes and averages them together. Hence why its so high in Germany after the VAT and whatnot.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[Delwin]

People are complaining over the $50 for the first GB but don't bother to look at the $100/10GB and $10/2GB block after that. That's $10/GB for the first 10 and then $5/GB after that. Once you're into that tier it's cheaper than the europian plans. The ones getting screwed are the ones who only use 2-3 GB/month.

Re:Germany here. 1GB = 9.90€. Prepaid.

[cc_pirate]

Granted your point about the taxes, but who else you gonna go to for phone service? They ALL SCREW YOU. In Europe the governments don't let the corporations EVERYONE has to use screw the people. In the US the government ACTIVELY CONSPIRES TO help the corporations SCREW US.

You only really have 3 other phone options. T-mobile (best of the worst IMO), AT&T (god help you) and Sprint (CDMA crap).

Virgin Mobile is basically a non-starter in most of the country since their network is shit for coverage (especially 4G, which is only in a very few cities)

I guess there is Cricket also, but they have a lot of the same problems as Virgin Mobile.

I'd rather pay a few the same taxes AND have a government that stops corporations from screwing their captive markets.

Cheaper to rent a video

[vlm]

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.

Re:Cheaper to rent a video

[jschottm]

Please note that I disapprove of the new pricing plan, so don't take this as an endorsement of it.

It's not a truly terrible thing to be discouraging users from doing heavy duty video on cellular connections. 3/4G data connections can push a lot of data but the tower's network connection can easily get swamped. Encouraging users to load movie rentals at home from their broadband connection is a good thing - other than the spur of the moment aspect, there's no reason that users have to transfer those files over the air.

Re:Cheaper to rent a video

[blueg3]

Not that I agree with it, but it's not $50 per gigabyte. It's $50 for the first gigabyte. It's much less than $100 for 2, and much less than $200 for 4.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[Caratted]

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?

Incentive to get hitched!

[thatseattleguy]

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.

Re:Incentive to get hitched!

[Delarth799]

This plan is for those with multiple phones. They will still have plans for those with single lines which are not discussed in this article and will be cheaper.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[synapse7]

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?

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[Baloroth]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[DigitalNate]

If by free you mean $40 each.

make sure you know what's included here...

[Tumbleweed]

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.

Re:make sure you know what's included here...

[Tumbleweed]

No, it doesn't include unlimited texting. It does include tethering. However, most people don't pay for tethering, because it's a complete assinine notion that you need to pay extra to have a Wi-Fi capable hardware platform transmit Wi-Fi because the carrier said so.

From the original article: "but include unlimited voice minutes and text"

Re:make sure you know what's included here...

[Overzeetop]

Which is great if you use a lot of text or voice or tethering on your non-iPad devices (since tethering is free on iPads already). Adding a $20 texting or $40 unlimited minutes plan is like adding tits on a boar - it's just a useless waste of money.

Now, if you are an unlimited kind of person and you have a hotspot or want to tether your phone (and don't want to cheat), this is fantastic. It's like they've offered you lube after raping you dry for so many years. You're still getting fucked, and now it's mostly just humiliating instead of being both humiliating AND painful.

Re:make sure you know what's included here...

[blueg3]

It includes unlimited text and voice.

Re:make sure you know what's included here...

[Svartalf]

Here's a bit of a reality check: With unlimited voice, text, AND data, I am paying $120/mo for something that has 6Gb of data and the same feature set otherwise- it's not an improvement other than you can now share data. If I did that...heh...I'd end up spending more along the lines of what I do now for the 10Gb tier on the USB dongle plus the phone plan- and only have 6Gb of usage as opposed to 12-15 per month.

Re:make sure you know what's included here...

[Tumbleweed]

Here's a bit of a reality check: With unlimited voice, text, AND data, I am paying $120/mo for something that has 6Gb of data and the same feature set otherwise- it's not an improvement other than you can now share data. If I did that...heh...I'd end up spending more along the lines of what I do now for the 10Gb tier on the USB dongle plus the phone plan- and only have 6Gb of usage as opposed to 12-15 per month.

Is this an older Verizon plan you're grandfathered in on?

So how do I switch?

[Spiked_Three]

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.

Who gobbled whom?

[gstovall]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[h4rr4r]

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?

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[h4rr4r]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[kwark]

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.

Real plan name

[byteherder]

Shouldn't they be calling the the 'Screw Everyone' plan instead of 'Share Everything' plan.

"whole paycheck" plan

[peter303]

"can you pay me now?"

Re:Does jeffmeden work for Verizon?

[Anonymous Coward]

How many comments have you made for this story? Wtf is wrong with you?

IT LIVES!!

[identity0]

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...

Cheaper with Friends

[Prien715]

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.

Wallet Rape

[epp_b]

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?

Re:Wallet Rape

[blueg3]

More? Yes. Wireless access is difficult to predict and properly engineer, has highly nonuniform demand (huge per square mile in cities, low per square mile rurally), suffers from nonuniform demand because of its design, and is fundamentally limited by its licensed bandwidth. Wired access pretty much works when you run wire and install appropriate networking equipment. Providing high-bandwidth wireless data access is a reasonably challenging and expensive problem.

Can I justify why it should cost such obscene prices? No.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[bongey]

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 ?"

Charging overages and financial sodomy

[bleh-of-the-huns]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[LordLimecat]

Also, what the shit is with your illogical, all-caps emphases?

I believe that is whats known as "parody".

Re:less minutes and less text

[TaoPhoenix]

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.

USA Today is retarded.

[pavon]

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.

Re:USA Today is retarded.

[David Jao]

The Verizon site that you linked states pretty clearly that only existing customers are allowed to keep their tiered plans. New customers will have no option other than the shared plans. It's unclear from the site whether adding an extra line to an existing tiered plan will trigger a mandatory change to a shared plan -- does this count as a new customer? If so, that's a huge issue for the fairly large proportion of the population that gets married, has kids, moves in with their parents, etc.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[idontgno]

I believe that is whats known as "parody".

But can you ever really be sure?

AOL Returns

[BigSlowTarget]

So time for wireless cellphone dial up then? It sounds like this is AOL's big chance to return to profitability.

Best Verizon Quote Yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Want to get data plan for both phones & comput

[antdude]

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? :(

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[Mister Transistor]

BECAUSE...

It's MOST LIKELY....

WILLIAM SHATNER...

That you're TALKING to!

Important Pricing Question...

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

Are they going to charge extra for lube, or is it included?

Re:Important Pricing Question...

[Svartalf]

No, they're providing 50-grit for that...and then apparently charging you for it...

$50/GB? That's nothing!

[epp_b]

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

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[demonlapin]

Yeah. It's a base price you can't escape.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[demonlapin]

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.

bye bye Verizon

[Is0m0rph]

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.

Nice move Verizon...

[TavisJohn]

Just the dick move that will give Sprint more customers.
Sprint the only big name that has unlimited data on most of their plans.

So let's see...

[Grimbleton]

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.

Re:So let's see...

[Svartalf]

Pay full price for the phone. Save up for it. It's actually cheaper in the long run to do that and it reminds Verizon that we're their Customers, not "Consumers".

Are those typical mobile plans in the US?

[Cow Jones]

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).

Re:Are those typical mobile plans in the US?

[blueg3]

usually everything is cheaper over there (except getting sick)

Also Internet. Despite inventing the Internet, it's pretty expensive here.

Re:less minutes and less text

[LurkerXXX]

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.

Or just not use a smartphone

[bryan1945]

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!

Re:Or just not use a smartphone

[Svartalf]

Well... How do you access the Internet? Some of us don't have the luxury of having a usable Landline link to it. I use my smartphone and the USB dongle I have for those purposes.

Re:Or just not use a smartphone

[bryan1945]

OK, I did forget that some/few/many(?) don't have landlines. I apologize for that.
I keep forgetting that the user case situation variables keep growing on a yearly basis, and obviously I forgot at least one here. I think what set me on this comment was that I've seen people, in front of a networked computer, go to their smartphone and look something up on Google. It kinda blew my mind.
Once again, I apologize Svartalf.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[bill_mcgonigle]

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.

Re:So...

[MachDelta]

What carrier, and who's dick did you have to suck for that deal? $50/mo on a regular plan usually gets you a 2-300 minutes, ul. text, and (way) under a gig of data. Which is a nice ripoff once you add in the $5-10 extra for shit like caller ID, voice mail, etc...

Fuck You Verizon!

[bogie]

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.

Re:Fuck You Verizon!

[CodeHxr]

Damn me and my quick-post to condemn Verizon. I would've modded you up.... imaginary +1 Insightful for you anyway! :)

Re:Cell phones / mobile devices

[EmagGeek]

Being in a recession doesn't mean everyone's poor. Hell, I not only changed jobs, but got a huge raise, during this recession.

In any case, this plan is insane. I don't think they did their math correctly in their "let's stick it to the consumer" focus group meetings.

My wife and I would have to spend $50/month more to switch from our current AT&T plan, AND give up simultaneous voice and data since CDMA sucks balls...

get back to us when you get your first bill.

[way2trivial]

they may fix their mistake

Data Addicts

[shoemakc]

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

old alltel customers

[sdnoob]

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

Re:$50/GB? That's nothing!

[Overzeetop]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[sprior]

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

Re:So...

[Fjandr]

Caller ID and voice mail aren't included in the basic cost of Canadian cell service?

Re:So...

[MachDelta]

Nope. Although a quick check of the big three (Rogers/Bell/Telus) reveals that Telus has "caller ID and voicemail included!" on their promotional plans right now, but I doubt that will last.

Up here $50 basically gets you 200 minutes, 100mb (Telus/Rogers) or 500mb (Bell) data, unlimited sms/mms, call waiting/conference calling, unlimited evenings/weekends (6pm on Rogers/Telus, 9pm on Bell), 5 (Bell) or 10 (Rogers/Telus) "favorite" (unlimited) numbers, and a leather strap* to bite down on.

Of course there are better deals from some of the smaller carriers**, but their coverage tends to be craptastic anywhere outside of a major metro core. If you live in a suburb (like I do), then you have to beware of "home sweet roam".

*Leather strap optionally supplied by customer only
**Smaller carriers only include those not bought out by the major carriers and turned into soulless husks of their former selves. I'm looking at you Fido.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[Svartalf]

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.

Re:So...

[Fjandr]

That is pretty crappy. I thought the options in the US sucked...

Heh... I've a pet name for Verizon now...

[Svartalf]

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.

The European Lock In

[SuperKendall]

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?

Here's a fun comparison

[WML MUNSON]

1GB data plan from Verizon: $50
1GB data plan from Uganda Telecom: $17

Are they fucking serious?

[cbope]

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.

Re:So...

[tzanger]

No. I live in Canada and pay $45 CAD for _truly and fully_ unlimited phone, text and data.

Sounds like WIND mobile. Great if you're in an urban area, useless everywhere else. You could get similarly good deals with PCS or some other regional carrier in the US. Not much of a comparison.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[tzanger]

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.

Or Ting

[wytcld]

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.

Way too expensive

[NeoXon]

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.

Ting would price that at

[wytcld]

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.

Re:Ting would price that at

[h4rr4r]

They will not let me bring any phone, nor do they sell any high end devices.

I will just be getting the current GSM nexus when my Verizon plan ends.

See ya!

[CodeHxr]

When my current contract expires, I'll not be renewing through Verizon.

Re:less minutes and less text

[GNU(slash)Nickname]

Some of us have jobs and can't hang out at McDonald's all day.

I work at McDonald's, you insensitive clod!

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[cc_pirate]

It helps Verizon RAPE their customers for more money, which is the only point of this whole thing.

Looks like Telcos & ISPs could learn a thing o

[mgcarley]

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[SydShamino]

Thanks. I don't think the OP got it.