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Ask Slashdot: Is It Worth Being Grandfathered On Verizon's Unlimited Data Plan?
An anonymous reader writes I understand a lot of people dislike Verizon in general, but assuming for a moment that they were your only option for a cellular service provider, is staying on their grandfathered unlimited data plan still worth it? Their recent announcement to not throttle traffic is inpiring, but I just don't know the long-term benefits of staying on this plan. I fear there is a tipping point where enough people will swap over to a metered plan and Verizon will ultimately abandon the unlimited altogether and assume the risk of losing a percentage of those remaining folks, at which point all of us who bought unsubsidized phones will have wasted the money doing so. Does anyone have any insight on this? Useful answers to this should take into account the problem with the question of "How long is a piece of string?" Give some context about how much you pay, and how much you use -- and how much that would change if the price were different.
$45 unlimited. nuff said.
Kids + tablets + streaming videos = Massive GBs used per month
Because they extend it to the latest device you own -- unless -- unless you purchase that device at full price. They are going to go all capitalist on you somehow...
Disclaimer: very recent Verizon customer that got smart and went Virgin Mobile for $35 month, unlimited data, unlimited texting, 300 minutes talk (5 hours) and very satisfied.
$39.99/mo for unlimited talk, text, and data. I used ~16GB last month through hotspot usage (circumvents the firewall at work) and streaming podcasts and radio on long road trips (I drive from Buffalo, NY to Asbury Park, NJ and back 3 times a week). Completely worth it.
I switched from an unlimited VZW plan to Cricket back in June. I haven't noticed much of a service degradation at all, although I'm not a heavy user (~2GB per month).
I'm more mad at myself for all those years I was paying an extra $50/mo for keeping my VZW plan than letting Big Red go. If you don't use your phone heavily, there's no reason to stay - you're just burning $.
You could definitely get cheaper UNLIMITED DATA elsewhere. But would you be happy with the COVERAGE? At some point you may want new EQUIPMENT, to which Verizon will tell you that your new phone isn't compatible with the "grandfathered" rate plans. The real questions to ask are "am I happy with the coverage" and "Will I be happy with this phone forever?" If the unlimited data works for you now, keep it for now. But at some point, you'll be forced to make a decision. All the other arguments about "unlimited" data are irrelevant. There are much better UNLIMITED deals elsewhere for the money.
Let's make like a bird... and get the flock outta here.
I don't know about Verizon, but AT&T takes care of its long-term customers. There has not been any indication that they will end the grandfathered plans.
The N900 is GSM, so no Verizon or Sprint (thank $DIETY).
$40 unlimited. nuff said.
Unlimited data, first 2GB unthrottled, rest at edge speeds. Unlimited text. 100 voice minutes (add a voip provider, and unlimited voice for pennies more).
$30 "Walmart plan" Have to sign up online with t-mobile directly, or via Walmart store only.
Prepaid plan, so $30 is it per month, no weird fees / taxes.
Now, if Verizon is the *only* provider in your area, then maybe you are stuck.
metroPCS $40 unlimited everything, its no joke.
I would be lost without my unlimited plan. I VPN to the office and tether everywhere I travel. In most places tethering on 4g is faster than whatever free internet is nearby. I'm not sure what the OP was talking about with unsubsidized phones... I happily renew my unlimited contract and get my subsidized phone. I am also one of the 1% who uses an average of 80GB/month.
Not unlimited, but I pay ~$33/month for service on two phones. Can't imagine using enough minutes/texts/data to actually make it up to unlimited plan prices.
for $70 (with my corporate discount, comes to be $59) I get 4g and LTE unlimited with unlimited voice calling as well. i also get 2.5gb tethering, but that is moot because i use a samsung with tetherfix.zip. so i am getting a better deal than you but you, jmcbain, are being stubborn for reasons that are unknown to the rest of us.
I'm on AT&T unlimited as well, I'm paying more than $65 though. I'm getting throttled like crazy also...
The final straw for me was when i wanted to add a data hotspot to my iphone 4s while i was on the train to San Diego. I didnt want to pay the extra $20/month just to internet connection share but i needed it. The guy told me that they werent allowed to make any changes to 3g plans at all any more. It was upgrade to a 4g plan and new phones or fuck you. I ordered a Moto G LTE the next day and went to T-mobile and am very happy with my service so far. I save almost $70/mo in the switch. (3 lines total, 2 [1GB] lines and an unlimited line +5G hotspot for $160/mo.)
Good-bye
I was a hold out. I purchased at full price my Samsung S4 ($700 with taxes) and my wife's iPhone 5S ($800 with taxes). I calculated that the break even point was about 2.5 years. Then my wife wanted text messaging that we had turned off to save money. Then Verizon reduced the cost of their data plans. I looked at my data usage and saw that it was low. I turned on wifi on both phones and my data usage dropped. I called one night and asked if there were any promotions to get me to switch. After promotions of $10 month/line for paying full price for the phones and choosing a low data usage plan, I saved $60 a month. The few months I go over, will still be cheaper than keeping the unlimited plan. Did I make a mistake? Only time will tell.
Cricket (AT&T Prepaid) does unlimited voice + 3G of data for $45, 10G of data for $55. So they're happy to have you at $65 with a contract...
I bought an iPhone 3G back in 2008 with the AT&T unlimited data plan along and a dirt cheap voice plan. I don't have to worry about going over my data limit, and voice calling time is a non-issue. I am NEVER going to give up this combination. With a corporate discount, I pay $65 with tax each month.
I don't know about Verizon, but AT&T takes care of its long-term customers. There has not been any indication that they will end the grandfathered plans.
You're being ripped off, royally reamed, and so forth. An unlimited data connection here in Finland costs less than eur20 per month (I pay about eur15). That's for "up to" 20Mbps, with no capacity/usage limits. Even in the boonies, I generally get better than 5 Mbps, and you have to go deep in the woods to get less than that.
Stupid analogy, that.
Useful answers to this should take into account the problem with the question of "How long is a piece of string?" Give some context about how much you pay, and how much you use -- and how much that would change if the price were different.
The second half of the commentary in the summary is a bit easier to digest. Yes, it all boils down to math. The key is, Verizon has probably calculated how the math will benefit them in the long run, and customers effectively can't, so the game is rigged from the start.
Let's give an example. Verizon bases their "limited" usage caps based on the average usage of their aggregate customer base (plus a little wiggle room, I guess). So on average, the data usage of a given customer won't go over the limit. However, the usage of a particular customer might exceed the cap at particular times. Travel/vacation time is a good time for this. You use more data while running the GPS-based turn-by-turn navigation while driving to your destination. Once there, you want some entertainment during the evenings, but you're not at home where you can use your home-based internet via wi-fi, so you stream some Netflix via 4G. Since your phone can output 1080p via HDMI, you use that cable you bought to plug into the HDMI port of the television at the place you are staying. Depending on the length of your stay, that's a significant spike in your data usage.
Under the unlimited plan, you either get throttled at some point (but now you don't) or you just don't notice the fact that you wandered above the average usage for the week or two you were traveling, because unlimited. Under capped, metered data plans, you are subject to overage fees based on a cap that has been fine tuned to be just above the threshold of "normal" usage, so your bill is higher. It may be only for those few weeks, so easy to absorb, but add that up across the entire customer base and Verizon has made more money than they would have with the unlimited data plans in place.
*That* is what it's all about. So unless you absolutely have to, you might as well stick to your grandfathered unlimited plan, because once you give it up, you will be fleeced, even if just a little bit.
It isn't really unlimited though, After 5Gb they have the option of terminating your contract, throttling you, or cutting you off. It is there in your contract. Nothing is unlimited, most of the services that claim to be unlimited have break-over points where they shunt you onto 3g or severely limit your speeds. I would claim collusion, but they have way more resources and lawyers than I do.
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VZW's coverage is the best in the areas where I travel. I have an unlimited plan, with hotspot, through my employer. I use it for work and for play (kids watching videos on Amazon Prime in the car, mostly). If money were no object, I would do this with the other three smartphones and one feature (read: dumb) phone my family uses. However, money is a consideration, so I don't. They are not big users of either voice or data; even a 2 GB plan per device is more than they need. I use Ting (note: referral link) because the usage is pooled across phones and I pay only for what I use. My most recent bill: 1600 minutes of talk, 240 texts, 290 MB of data across the four devices. Total bill $84.35 including everything. The bad news about Ting? Well, phones are full price. The network is Sprint but roaming to Verizon for voice (not data).
Until recently, I used to think that I needed the unlimited plan because I never wanted to hit the limit on data. After reviewing our bill, 2 of the 3 phones we had still had unlimited plans along with purchased minutes costing us about $320 a month for all 3 phones. After using the online tool to see how much data we use monthly, combined we all used less than 10gb so, I switched us over to the shared family plan for $145 instead of $320, and then got us all on the AT&T Next plan for annual phone upgrades and I'm still saving $70 a month! Milage varies depending on if you jailbreak/tether your current phone a lot. VZ has the same kind of plans which could save you some money if you have multiple phones. If not, then it might not save you much money and not be worth loosing that unlimited plan
Straight talk too...same price, $45 unlimited. In fact, I don't know why anyone would stay with Verizon, except possibly due to network coverage issues. I was paying $120 a month on Verizon for two feature phones for my wife and I a few years ago...that was for shared minutes and limited txts for me. Now we have unlimited calling/txt/mms/web for $30 less a month (!?!?). The only downside is that I have to buy my phones, but the savings pays for that easily.
Between wifi at work/home/parents, I use maybe 1.5gb in an extreme month. lots of travel with maps/radio apps. Otherwise it's barely over 500mb per month.
You could try finding a mnvo for Verizon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
The two big catches with the unlimited plan are
(a) you can't buy a discounted phone (which someone above has already mentioned)
but the big one is
(b) you can't hotspot or share the account with other devices
(a) is less of a problem these days: There really aren't discounted phones, just installment payment plans. And I got my latest phone from a relative who's an exec at Verizon (no, I can't get you one too)
(b) is nearly a dealbreaker. I don't like touchscreen typing, so any message more than two lines long I want to use my laptop or tablet keyboard for... but I can't if I'm not in a free wifi zone. Is it worth losing unlimited to be able to occasionally tether? Maybe. At one point there were apps that would let you tether without rooting the phone, outside of the provider's knowledge, then they stopped working, maybe they work again.
Anyone have experience with non-root tether apps on Android?
Design for Use, not Construction!
Letting customers continue to feel like they are "getting away with something" by NOT doing something to them and hence locking them into a relationship with the vendor, keeping them from looking into other possibilities.
Seems like genius.
...and the day they take it from me is the day I leave Verizon. I have somehow managed to get subsidized phones and keep my unlimited data plan. Most recently was with the October '13 glitch that let me get a LG G2 and keep my data plan. I travel extensively to rural areas and use the hell out of my data plan. Verizon's network coverage is still untouchable, as is their ability to nickel and dime their customers.
I've been limited for 15 months now, and I haven't changed my habits. I only use about 0.5 GB per month because I'm always on WiFi at work and at home and I rarely play videos while I'm out. I haven't missed unlimited, and I haven't felt restricted.
My wife's usage was basically the same as mine until the past few months, when she started using Spotify and YouTube to entertain our toddler on the go. If she's careful not to use YouTube much while she's out, she now uses 1.5-1.8 GB per month. This weekend she forgot she had disabled WiFi and used YouTube for an extend period. Now she's at 1.5GB with 2 weeks to go.
Check out T-Mobile. I live in Chicago, and they're great. Yes, almost everyone I know uses either Verizon or AT&T. But they complain about overage charges and dropped calls. I don't have that problem.
Seemingly every year or two T-Mobile actually lowers their price. I used to pay about $150 for two lines. Now I pay $80 total for both lines, with completely unlimited voice, text, and data. They include 1GB of 4G LTE data per line per month, and then I pay an extra $10 per line per month to bump both of them up to 3GB of LTE each. But even if I used 15GB per month, I still wouldn't be charged more than the $100 ($80 + $10 + $10) that I normally pay. After I go beyond 3GB, my data speed gets dropped down to 3G. But I can continue to use as much data as I want. I just switch to wifi for data when I get home, and I have never had a problem with going over 3GB.
I traveled to another country over the summer, and I was even able to use my phone for free over there. It was awesome!
There's no downside to T-Mobile. There's no contract, no overage fees, no nonsense. If they have LTE coverage in your city, check them out.
http://www.t-mobile.com/covera...
I use the $45 Straight Talk (Walmart) plan...I did use the $30 plan, which was funny, because if you used that plan on a Straight talk branded "feature phone" you were on the Verizon network! (may be different now, but not sure). We went from paying ~$120 for Verizon, and cut that in half by switching to, well...Verizon! Of course we had to buy the phones outright, but they were $60-70 each, so paid for themselves after two months.
The only downside to ST is the customer service...the call center is clearly in Mexico, and I've had some language barrier issues, but they have resolved several technical issues given enough time and call transfers.
We have 4 lines (3 rooted androids, 1 dumb phone). I've continued with my verizon unlimited for all 3, for, I think $160ish, and plan to contineu for the near future. We have replaced phones twice with ebay'd used phones for $50-60 each. We do email, surf, stream pandora and some videos, and sometimes tether. We intermittently use near the limited plan GB but not often, so I've considered switching to a limited plan, but it did not seem to save much $$$ while adding risk of an overage and less future flexibility. I've looked at other carriers, which could save some money, but I predict I'd be annoyed by coverage in some areas I travel and when doing the great outdoors. Will probably reassess one of these days, as the price of plans goes down and the limited cap goes up. But for now ...
I'd say only you can answer that question for yourself. For me the idea of unlimited on VZW sounded awesome, but the reality after I started looking at my actual usage was between 2-3gb average with only 1 month where I hit 5gb when we got stuck at an airport with no free wifi and watching Netflix. If you're gobbling data then keep it, but if you're an average Joe I'd move on to save money. My cellular bill is 1/3 what it used to be now that I've switched to someone else with a 10gb cap... and even if I go over I have the option to either crawl at 2G speeds for the remainder of the billing cycle or cough up $10 for each additional gb I need.
He should totally move to Finland, uprooting this family and life, in order to save $40 a month on his cell phone bill.
Your input has been less than worthless. It had negative value.
As someone on the grandfathered Verizon unlimited plan, I'm seriously considering buying an unsubsidized phone.
My wife traded it for a 5GB plan, and has gone over her data plan with only limited youtube usage. Once XLTE gets implemented, that means you can burn through your data even faster.
It's either that or go to Sprint, which I understand in recent years has turned down the "suck" lately, and actually has decent speeds, coverage, and unlimited data.
The best part of being grandfathered onto the unlimited data plan with Verizon is unlimited tethering!
I pay $29.99 for Unlimited Email & Web, and $30.00 for "4G Smartphone Hotspot" - which is also unlimited. So I get unlimited LTE tethering, which is great - I work from home so I use this to go work from the park, etc.. for a change of scenery. Use about 20GB of data per month that way.
Downside was paying full price for an iPhone 5s.. I am thinking about buying iPhone 6 - with VoLTE I could be on the phone and tether at the same time! That was only thing keeping me from using LTE full time and getting rid of my cable modem connection.
I am grandfathered in with unlimited data with 450 minutes of talk and 1000 text messages a month for ~$78 a month. For me it is woth it. I NEVER go over minutes or texts. I only use ~1GB a month of data so I don't NEED to unlimited. The main reason I don't resign then? 1) To stick it to the man, Yeah! 2) It will cost me MORE ($90+) to go to 2GB a month b/c now unlimited voice and text are included. No thanks! I would resign if I could keep at the same cost but it is not worth it to me. I have an old Motorola 4 that needs replacing but I plan on just buying a Galaxy 4 sometime in the future. I don't need the newest phone and I really don't use my phone too much anyway. I just need Strava and a way to check email. I think it's crazy that cell providers keep charging more for the same tech (Texting). I guess I'm just turning into an old fart who dosen't care about the bling bling and just needs something that works.
Luckily enough, your question has already been asked and answered: http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/09/16/iphone_6_what_unlimited_data_looks_like_on_verizon_at_t_and_t_mobile_plans.html
they dont want americans
Those on corporate plans (including those of use through combined purchasing partners via professional/industry organizations) can still upgrade and keep unlimited. It's not an option for new subscribers, but I upgraded last summer and my wife last spring and both kept our $20 unlimited data plans. (I know, crazy - definitely legacy. $27 for 400 pooled minutes, and 250 texts/phone, plus $20 for the unlim data). Tethering isn't allowed, but violations aren't rigorously enforced, so I tether with my rooted handset on occasion.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
For me, it's been great. I've been on a year long road trip and I kept my unlimited account to use as a backup. Turns out the internet service provided at rv parks/resorts has sucked fetid donkey balls at nearly every stop. If I hadn't kept my unlimited Verizon account, this trip would have had some really annoying stretches. Instead of being my backup, it's been my primary access most of the time and I've moved hundred of gigs during some billing periods. I'm [almost] embarrassed by the amount of data I've moved the last two billing periods because I was giving Verizon a big "F you!" in anticipation of being throttled. :) I'm about a week from closing on a house so I'll be going back to cable. With the threat of throttling hanging over my account, I was planning to switch to one of those $40-50 deals. But, since Verizon's flinched on throttling people like me, I'll keep my unlimited account as a backup for as long as they let the data flow.
On a more philosophical tangent, I don't see how people put up with metered service on cell phones these days. I've got half a dozen apps that all want to sync all my pics and video automatically. I'd be paranoid that I missed a setting on some new app and it's going to eat up a gig of data before I catch it.
40 minutes already and no comment with a score over 2!
I'm on AT&T, the data portion of my bill is $30/month (grandfathered on the old Unlimited plan), and I have an iPhone 5S.
My last billing cycle I used 4.5GB of data. This billing cycle (which just started today) I've already used 300MB.
the 2GB data plans from AT&T start at $40/month and $15 for every 250MB over that. 4GB plans seem to start at $70/month.
With my usage it's pretty clear that there is NO advantage to dropping my unlimited data plan. I use far more data than I do talk time or text messages, and I would be paying AT&T more than twice what I currently pay for my average level of usage.
/~mikeg
So my wife and I both switched from Verizon Unlimited to Republic Wireless this past January and I've already saved enough money to cover the cost of the two Moto X's I had to buy. I can see Republic Wireless not working well for everyone though. I happen to live in the Chicago Area where coverage from every major provider is basically the same. I actually get better service in the loop with my Republic Wireless phone than I did with Verizon because Sprint's towers are less congested.
However, I wouldn't ever tell my Mother-In-Law to switch to Republic since she lives so far north in Michigan that they deliver the mail by snow mobile and talk with Canadian accents. Sprint basically has zero coverage up there and when my wife and I visit we have to put our phones on airplane mode with only WiFi so the battery doesn't die really fast. Verizon has full coverage with 4G LTE there so the choice is obvious.
So, it's come to this.... Massive random cell division and mutations
rewriting history since 2109
Ultimately, it comes down to cost. Back when I started with VZW, my costly monthly contract allowed me to upgrade my phone every two years because they just built that cost into my plan. They forgot about that. Then, we got smart phones, and another $30/month for data. Then I got married, so I had another $30/month for data. The non-unlimited plans advertise unlimited text (which I already pay $5/month for per line) and unlimited calling (I have 700 minutes currently, and have never used more than 350/month on both lines combined thanks to free nights/weekends). And they give me chunks of data in miniscule amounts.
Bottom line is, if the new plan offerings allowed me to save money, I would be all over them. However, every single time I've priced them out, the plan costs more and I get less. It is currently a better deal for me to keep the plan I'm on.
AT&T is vicious and dirty. They literally squeezed my mother out of her unlimited data plan by saying they consider 5+GB of data usage a month excessive and cut her data service every time she reached the cap or throttled her to 1G data. Randomly. Sometimes they'd cut her, sometimes they'd throttle her.
This was the ONLY internet service available in the area and it caused her to fail 2 online college courses. Recently a real broadband provider started offering service in the area because AT&T refused to roll out DSL/UVerse where we live so we went with them after a year of this insanity.
Out of spite, I realized our retail sites used AT&T phone lines for dial backup for net access. Switched to Sprint wireless for backup and axed the AT&T lines and I've refused to do new AT&T UVerse installs where ANYTHING else is available such as cable or 3rd party DSL. So..... they screw over my family.... I screw them out of several thousand a month in recurring business.
So basically, FUCK YOU AT&T, you will NEVER have a significant foothold in any business environment where I call any shots from here on out. Be careful who you piss off. Their attempted forced migrations to UVerse at some of our cable sites has not gone unnoticed either. Now my philosophy has the support of corporate brass behind it as well. And we will never switch to AT&T as a cell carrier for this and other reasons.... a big one being GSM coverage in SC is laughable.
You could definitely get cheaper UNLIMITED DATA elsewhere. But would you be happy with the COVERAGE? At some point you may want new EQUIPMENT, to which Verizon will tell you that your new phone isn't compatible with the "grandfathered" rate plans. The real questions to ask are "am I happy with the coverage" and "Will I be happy with this phone forever?" If the unlimited data works for you now, keep it for now. But at some point, you'll be forced to make a decision. All the other arguments about "unlimited" data are irrelevant. There are much better UNLIMITED deals elsewhere for the money.
I have gotten comments and run into situations where my T-mobile data and voice coverage in major metropolitan areas are better than Verizon. If you're in a big city or dense areas, it's not clear to me that Verizon is better. T-mobile has also been looking to improve their non-metro coverage [1]. And they've purchased 700Mhz spectrum from Verizon also good for non-dense coverage [2]. Finally, T-mobile "uncarrier" push is constantly striving to improve customer features and services. They are setting the pace with which other carriers follow.
I currently very rarely go outside of big metros so T-Mobile is a great choice for me - and I've had HD Voice for the past year and absolutely love it. Welcome to the club, ATT/VZ - glad you are finally rolling that out.
There is at least one carrier making it their focus to improve their coverage both voice and data significantly over the past 2 years, and T-mobile is definitely on that list.
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/...
[2] http://www.telecompetitor.com/...
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gave up my AT&T long ago and never looked back. i rarely stream music, netflix or youtube. with phones being able to store over 100GB of data you can just carry it around instead of paying money for bandwidth
$10 a month buys spotify premium with lots of features including online caching
you can download podcasts and large youtube videos to watch offline
you can't cache netflix, but any other movie can be stored locally
porn is easy to download a bunch of videos on wifi and watch later at your leisure
my 4 line AT&T plan used to run $250 a month and now it's $187 including my Note 3 on NEXT payments. if i could get an AT&T plan for like $50 a month for 4 lines and a gig or two of data i'd do it in a heartbeat. carry around a cheapo phone for emergency data and buy a tablet with lots of storage to use more often
I purchased online through BestBuy.com and just switched my SIM out of my GS3... kept my unlimited and got cheap phone... also do wifi with FoxFi...
Its a complicated question and one i am wresting with myself. No matter what you do, DO NOT GIVE UP THE CONTRACT. If you decide to switch carriers sell your contract. Its perfectly legal and relatively easy thing to do. You use a loophole call Assumption Of Liability. Just do a search for it and you can find all the info you need. I have seen people selling their contracts for hundreds of $ on eBay.
I myself still have one of these grandfathered contracts and as long as i am with Verizon i would not give it up for anything. Any cost savings i have seen with other plans is relatively minimal especially once you factor in UNLIMITED DATA and the fact Verizon has the best nation wide coverage.
Now i am considering leaving Verizon but its not because of service, or their horrible stances on political issues like net neutrality or even their issues with Netflix. Its because I don't like the phones they have anymore. I am an Android user and have been since the DROID 1 days. Verizon, like Sprint, uses CDMA cell technology but that technology is by far the second banana to GSM (ATT, TMobile and most of the world). So most OEMs spend the big bucks and time on developing GSM phones because the market is bigger, then may do a CDMA version if they feel like it. Very few phones are originally designed for CDMA from the start.
Dont get me wrong Verizon is getting perfectly fine phones, I'm looking at you Moto X, but more and more they are taking a stance against the developer community. Verizon hates phones with unlocked bootloaders and without that your options for third party ROMs is very limited if they get supported at all. I am still running a GNex (Galaxy Nexus) with CM11 on it but overall development has hit an impass for my phone, god help you if you update past M6. Few devs still work on it because it is so old and for the fact that Texas Instruments killed their mobile chips division years ago so there is no driver support. It was a miracle that CM11 was even able to be ported to this phone due to someone finding an updated drive on some obscure site. Now couple with the fact Moto is not releasing a dev edition for the 2014 Moto X on Verizon I dont know what to do (the original Moto X is nice but I dont like the chipset and its very expensive to even buy one used. I see it becoming less supported very quickly). My phone is long in the tooth and showing its age. Also given the fact that it was a fight originally to get even the GNex on Verizon and no other Nexus has been released on Verizon since I highly doubt we will see another.
I hate ATT as much as Verizon and the contracts are bad in my opinion. TMobile has good contracts and phones but unless you live in a urban area or one of their other good area's that are few and far between you will have bad service, my area is mediocre at best for TMobile. I'm not even going to discuss Sprint.
Right now i am holding on to hope that an acceptable phone comes to Verizon or TMobile's current massive network investment will improve service/coverage enough to make them a viable option.
Hope...
Im on an old at&t unlimited plan I use on average 22 gigs a month and pay 91 dollars it wouldn't make any sense for me to drop it for example if I go to discount data 20 gigs is $180 I believe plus $20 a month for the next plan im unsure how it all works at Verizon but its definitely not worth it to leave at at&t.. of course they still let us renew our contracts with a unlimited plan
I'm not the original anonymous questioner, but I'm in the same boat. I live in a rural area where Verizon has the only coverage, and I've been on an unlimited plan for years. My phone is a Galaxy S (that's S #1) that's getting a bit old; it chokes on a lot of modern websites and apps. I never go above 2 GB/month. I don't even think it's possible, as my old phone is 3G and barely handles Youtube.
I would have switched plans before, but Verizon didn't give me any incentive other than a new phone. My monthly rate would have stayed the same (or even went up, depending on the store personnel I had) while I got less bandwidth. That's unacceptable. If they cut my monthly rate by $20 then I'd leap at the new contract. Any phone I get from them under a new contract would also be stocked with their worthless software; I'd have to root it to clean it out. It's worth it to me to pay full price for a new phone just to avoid the bloatware, let alone the loss of bandwidth that I may or may not use.
TLDR: A new contract means they're going to restrict my bandwidth, make me pay the same amount, and pile bloat on top of any phone I get. I think it's still worth it to me to buy a new phone at full price and keep the unlimited plan.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
when i upgraded from the iphone 4 to the iphone 5c, verizon made me abandon my unlimited data plan. BASTARDS!
I use mine for just about everything. My data usage is usually about 5G a month which is right at most company's largest caps. I could downgrade if I were by myself but then I would have to be careful. Screw that! But.. my phone shares the plan with my wife. She uses 3 or 4 times what I use. How? She watches Netflix at work all day. they don't mind her doing that but she keeps it off of their network just to keep it that way.
Don't want to pay full price for a phone? Go used. Big deal if you are a generation or two behind. A generation in phones is what? 6 months? Yesterday's shiny is still awesome so long as you aren't even considering today's shiny! You can have that stuff next year! My Droid Bionic still runs every app I chose to install just fine. The lapdock is great! I get stuck in hospital waiting rooms A LOT due to a family member's health issues. The lapdock let's me get shit done so when I finally get home I can enjoy my time. I use VNC and RDP apps to get into my home and work computers. ...and that would be one reasom I am NOT interested in a limited data plan. Pandora during the daily comute is good too. The radio mostly sucks these days.
Well.. your life is your own, what you will use your phone for is different from me but I really believe that if you aren't using a TON of data you probably just aren't taking advantage of everything your phone should be doing for you.
I was on the grand fathered plan until corporate made me switch. I rarely use more than the data cap, but when I travel I prefer to use my cell phone instead of hotel wifi. I have already run into problems with forced disconnects and throttling. They say that they do not do it but my experience tells me otherwise.
I am still waiting for the call from the accounting drone about overage charges. Of course I saved the email where I told them that when I go over, I tend to go WAY over and that by forcing me off of the plan they are going to end up paying more.
Doesn't that require starting a new 2 year contract...?
Twice I have let Microsoft do a pretty big update via my phone just because I didn't have to be concerned about an over limit. Do I even use 5G? No. So it's more about peace of mind. There, you got a piece of my mind.
I was trying to stick with my HTC Rezound as long as I could because of the unlimited data. I ended up breaking the screen so I went in to see what my options were. Since they had the MOTO X for $50 I decided it might be worth it. The salesman I talked to ended up giving me a 6GB plan for the same price as the 2GB because I had the unlimited plan. With the unlimited plan I was about at that 2GB per month mark.
You can't beat that price with anyone else.
O woe is me. Bridled by the constant anxiety that my high end data plan that I have been "grandfathered" into might someday go away, and I may have to join the poor unwashed downtrodden masses who missed the boat and pay the market rate for their data plan. O Noez, the uncertainty. Let me air my faux-grievances on /. And see if others will reaffirm my belief that I'm a Fortunate One. That should help for now.
Yesterday I just changed me & my wife from our AT&T legacy unlimited plans to a shared 10gb plan (think it's doubled to 20gb due to some promo). I think we'll end up saving over $30 a month and going from 1400 minutes to unlimited. I looked at the stats & combined in the past year our biggest usage month was about 5gb.
Not sure if you can look up the data usage on Verizon, but you can find it for AT&T. If your not using much compared to a capped pan & there is a savings, your probably better off changing.
I noticed the AT&T app now permits tethering to boot (not that it mattered, I'm rooted & running Cyanogen, so could tether natively, although in theory they could still detect that & do something about it, I never abused it though).
I also have a grandfathered unlimited plan with AT&T, even got it with the iPhone 3G as well...anytime I've approached 5gb of usage I get a 'We are going to slow you down if you keep using data' message from AT&T.
There are a number of articles online.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/02/technology/mobile/verizon-throttle/
This is not advertised anywhere and you can only get it in a real Verizon store. I had four phones on Verizon unlimited data. Three of the phones have since been replaced with new subsidized phones: an IPhone 5S, IPhone 6 and a Galaxy S4. Those phones are now on Verizon Max Loyalty at 6 GB per month EACH at the same price as we paid for unlimited data. Mine is the primary on the line and still unlimited but I'm replacing it soon. As of Sunday when we got the IPhone 6, the sales rep said termination date for Verizon Max was "indefinite".
I use Page Plus, which uses Verizon's network, for $12 a month (250 texts, 250 minutes, 10MB data). Selectell is another Verizon MVNO with similar pricing, but also has Verizon's roming coverage. I don't need data or texts, since I have WiFi at home and work, and I don't talk on the phone that much. YMMV, but you should take a look at MVNOs to see if you can pay less for identical coverage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators).
P.S. Fuck Beta.
Others have addressed Android. For any looking for iOS, if you have a developer license you can compile the open source app iProxy.
Last month on eBay I sold my Verizon Wireless plan providing 2 lines with unlimited data for close to a thousand dollars.
or maybe insightful! Or just plain terrific.
Really can't use T-mobile through combination of LTE, Wi-Fi calling and limited free data roaming? Your highest data use to date would be prohibitively expensive on best limited plan? Then stay on your current plan while it lasts and look at your options then. I definitely wouldn't pay month after month to just preserve what you might need some day.
I noticed that my unlimited plan device is much slower on the same app and network than the other devices on our other plan, also with Verizon. I think the unlimited users go to the bottom of the bandwidth queue.
The real question is not about unlimited data, but about speed and unlimited data. There are numerous providers who will put you on an unlimited data plan using the Verizon network. They will do it at a cost lower than Verizon charges. HOWEVER, none of them will let you get anything but 3g. The only ones that are allowed to use Verizon's LTE network will not sell you an unlimited data plan as far as I know. Straight talk is one example. If you check phone compatibility, they'll tell you you don't need a sim card. That is a friendly way of saying 3g only since the Verizons sim card enables the LTE network and without it your CDMA(3g) only.
Useful answers to this should take into account the problem with the question of "How long is a piece of string?" Give some context about how much you pay, and how much you use -- and how much that would change if the price were different.
WTF? Are we all children now? Would you like to tell us how we should answer in other posts now, Timothy? If the OP couldn't form his question to include what details he was actually looking for, you should have either accepted his post as-is or rejected it. Your clarification is, IMHO, insulting.
What's better than being on a grandfathered unlimited data plan? When your unlimited data plan is cheaper than Verizon's lowest metered data plan!
I pay $29.99 for unlimited. Lowest metered is 2gb, which is $30.00
So I save 1cent and get more data.
Woohoo!
So, here is my experience. For me, I believe it is worth paying for. I have the old $30/month unlimited data plan with Verizon. I also pay them another $20/month for mobile hotspot with the same device (Droid DNA). I was never told that I wouldn't be able to add the hotspot to my phone because I had unlimited data, I simply called Verizon and after a minute or two they told me my hotspot was active. Simple as that. Minutes later, I was driving on the NY Thruway with navigation running, my daughter watching Netflix on her iPad via the new hotspot, and my teenage sons surfing I don't know what via the new hotspot in the back of the van. For all this, the gross cost is 50 per month, BUT, working at my company entitles me to a 22% discount on my bill, so call it more like 40/month. I originally had a Droid Bionic and purchased a Droid DNA outright in order to remain on the plan. It wasn't my experience that purchasing a new phone wouldn't be "compatible" with unlimited data, my old phone was a 4G LTE data phone and so is the new one. The salesperson was very good at offering (IMHO, PUSHING) the 10GB shared plan at the time (Sept 2013, I think), and remarked that my family usage was nowhere near 10GB and wouldn't get overage charges based on current usage. I steadfastly clung to my unlimited data, because as Inigo Montoya would say, I know something you don't know.... As these phones advance and new ways to use our always on data connections are invented, data usage is not static. It is only going to increase over time. You might not be a Netflix user now, but get caught up in The Walking Dead while on the road, and unlimited data beckons. I thought I was a little out of control using 10-15GB a month now but there's an article on here where people were boasting about using a TB! I've never experienced throttling and Verizon's description of its old policy was actually fair - they claimed they would only throttle IF the node you were on was crowded, and you were an above average data user. Otherwise they left you alone to use the network as you pleased. Overall, considering the subsidies for a phone amounts to $450/24 or $18.75 per month, I feel like I'm paying $57.75 a month for the privilege of unlimited data on a premium network (my perception as of now), and I can tether up to 5 devices to it at any time. It's worth it to me.
Then you're an idiot because you can get cheaper plans right now that offer the same.
You want slashdot to run statistics and spreadsheets for you on the off change that a better or worse deal is around the corner? I know this isn't 4chan but #notyourpersonalarmy.
Easy, I'd go without a cell phone. And no I am not kidding. Verizon has to be the most despicable bunch of scumbags I've ever dealt with.
It's not worth being on Verizon at all.
$30/month unlimited data with vzw and paid $600 for my G2 a year ago. I average 30-35gb of days a month. I'd say yes, worth it to me. I live in rural 'Murica and my wireless gone internet is only 3mb down. Couldn't afford to pay for that kind of data plan.
'If you have coverage' is the key. Here in Phoenix Verizon is pretty much king coverage wise but you pay for the privilege.
I was a die hard AT&T user until the iPhone cameout as an AT&T exclusive and skull-fscked their network.
I moved to Sprint and was generally content. $80/line was steep way back when but unlimited everything was nice. The catch was it was slow as could be so unlimited data didn't really matter when you were getting dial up speed at best.
I migrated some of my Sprint phone to Ting (for the low use phones) and saved a ton. For the heavy data / txt users I stayed with Sprint until I changed jobs and once again had to pay for the phone I'd be using. I know I'm a heavy user and since i wasn't getting a corporate sponsored Verizon phone I did some shopping and ended up on T-Mobile.
The coverage isn't as good as Verizon (most noticeable in out data center that has Verizon repeaters) but it's really 'good enough'. The real win is the 'unlimited' data (really throttled after X amount of use, but no overage charges) which is the only way I'd do any kind of smartphone for the kids. I have the $100 4 line family plan with 2.5G of LTE per device right now and I'm happy.
The Speed is comparable to Verizon, at least until I get in very rural areas. In these areas I pretty much lose data all together where Verizon just works.
Sprint's WiMAx was good in New York but it would just mow through batteries. Here in Phoneix there is one intersection I could see Wimax coverage on which was all but useless. Right about the time I moved the Sprint phones to T-Mo I started seeing LTE near my house. Too little too late Sprint.
If it's on your dime, your bang for the buck is Sprint or T-Mobile depending which gives you better coverage. Keep in mind with T-mo you aren't subsidizing devices so you either need to buy outright (some decent $100 options, or Nexus 5 direct from Google) or make phone payments.
Addendum to what I said here -- http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
My main beef is that Verizon won't bring FiOS to my neighborhood. No amount of little people money (i.e., short of offering to bribe them with several million dollars) is going to convince them to bring FiOS to my suburban neighborhood. There's FiOS 1/8th of a mile down the road; in fact, my community is surrounded by people who have FiOS. But Verizon stopped expanding FiOS, and Comcast hasn't installed replacement copper cables in our area despite us being their customer for a decade and complaining about it on a bi-weekly basis.
So the copper sucks (it's unreliable); the ADSL sucks (the speeds are just too slow, AND it's unreliable); and the amount of money it would take to move Verizon to install FiOS simply isn't available.
Sprint in my area is extremely marginal. I'd have to find a Yagi LTE antenna and point it exactly in the direction of the tower -- and then I'd only have LTE through the house's wifi, but if I were out and about in town, I probably wouldn't have any data. The tower is several miles away and just barely registers as a signal at all, but usually we get no data. So I returned my Sprint device after trying this for several days.
What's left? Well, either live in the 20th century without access to the global economy; or use Verizon Wireless LTE. Verizon's refusal to expand FiOS has left me with no options.
Moving is not an option due to the immense cost of housing. Our house is paid off, and we spend the money we'd be paying on a mortgage, on other things. We would have to severely curtail online spending, luxury spending, penny pinch on utility use, etc. if we were to move. Having a paid-off house in a world where everything is expensive and everyone is living beyond their means, is the difference between being able to afford stuff and always being broke.
Unlimited data on LTE is really a lifesaver. But it's ultimately Verizon Wireless' parent company, Verizon, that is to blame for any undue congestion we may cause by using a combined 200 GB or so per month of LTE data. It's their greedy refusal to expand FiOS to neighborhoods that might take more than a few years to make ROI, despite receiving vast amounts of public funding that were earmarked for FiOS, then turning around and spending that money on LTE instead.
Hey. If they want to offer me a great service, at a great price, and live within the restrictions the FCC has placed on the airwaves, they can kindly shut up. Verizon Wireless has no right to complain about my usage of their service. I am acting entirely within the ToS and the law. I value that service and will continue to use it as long as they offer it. If they ever stop offering it, I'll have to see about bribing Comcast to replace the damaged copper that gives us about 50% uptime on a modern cable modem.
I am hopeful that, in the future, the spectral efficiency and tower density improvements can converge together sufficiently that Verizon will be able to offer a legitimate unlimited data plan to NEW customers, eliminating the fear that us grandfathered folks might soon be put out to pasture. If that's a pipe dream, then they better show up at the end of my street with a reel of fiber, or I'm going to see about taking public action to get my neighborhood some actually decent access to the 21st century economy.
The greatest tragedy of a capitalistic society is when nobody's selling what you're buying. Such wasted potential. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
oh allquixotic 200GB comes out to $1,730 at current rates just fyi
a verizon unlimited plan plan is worth $300 to $400 on ebay partly because you can use the sim in a hotspot or aircard even though
you can't get unlimited tethering i find it hard to believe that in all these comments not one person has mentioned this
Useful answers to this should take into account the problem with the question of "How long is a piece of string?" Give some context about how much you pay, and how much you use -- and how much that would change if the price were different.
we pay $60/mo for unlimted 4g data 100GB+ (family of 4) on average monthly (151GB last month) every now and then i check to see what it would cost me to convert to a metered plan here is todays math
$730 for 100gb and then $10 per GB brings me to a monthly cost (for last month) of $1,240
If verizon ever drops me i would probably have to raise $15,000 to get a tower tall enough to get a signal to the local wisp over the hill but i really don't have any plans of using less
i am in a similar boat as allquixotic however my only wired option is dialup cable does not come out this far nor dsl the only other option here is a local wisp thats on the other side of a hill that is reselling a single oc3 to about 500 people i hear awful things about them...
we were on wildblue sat for about 3 years until verizon 3g evdo rev a came along and put the 1.5mbps 22GB $80 per month service to shame with 1.2Mbps service that was more reliable and faster on average did i mention it was only $60 a month for unlimted service??