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?

[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?

[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?

[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?

[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?

[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?

[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.

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???

[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???

[chromas]

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

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???

[LordLimecat]

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

Oh wait.

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???

[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???

[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???

[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???

[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.

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]

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: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?

[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.

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

[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

[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.

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: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?

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: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.

Real plan name

[byteherder]

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

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: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 ?"

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?

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.

Re:Ugh. Worst summary ever?

[Mister Transistor]

BECAUSE...

It's MOST LIKELY....

WILLIAM SHATNER...

That you're TALKING to!

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: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.

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.

get back to us when you get your first bill.

[way2trivial]

they may fix their mistake

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: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.