Verizon To Disconnect Unlimited Data Customers Who Use Over 100GB/Month

Verizon Wireless customers who have an unlimited data plan and use significantly more than 100GB a month will soon be disconnected from the network unless they agree to move to limited data packages that require payment of overage fees. Ars Technica reports: Verizon stopped offering unlimited data to new smartphone customers a few years ago, but some customers have been able to hang on to the old plans instead of switching to ones with monthly data limits. Verizon has tried to convert the holdouts by raising the price $20 a month and occasionally throttling heavy users but stopped that practice after net neutrality rules took effect. Now Verizon is implementing a formal policy for disconnecting the heaviest users.In a statement, Verizon said: "Because our network is a shared resource and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon, we are notifying a very small group of customers on unlimited plans who use an extraordinary amount of data that they must move to one of the new Verizon Plans by August 31, 2016." a Verizon spokesperson told Ars. "These users are using data amounts well in excess of our largest plan size (100GB). While the Verizon Plan at 100GB is designed to be shared across multiple users, each line receiving notification to move to the new Verizon Plan is using well in excess of that on a single device." FYI: The 100GB plan costs $450 a month.

Comments

Glad

[Anonymous Coward]

to finally have found out the limit of unlimited!

So basically...

[dgatwood]

"Unlimited" to Verizon means "unlimited as long as you use less than 300 kilobits per second continuously". Which just happens to be almost exactly the minimum bandwidth for a Skype video call. Ponder that for a moment.

Re:So basically...

[ranton]

The important term here is not "Unlimited", it is "Out of Contract". If you haven't signed a recent contract with Verizon and are just paying month to month on a grandfathered plan, they can cut your service at any time. Well, there may be regulations on how much notice they need to give, but apparently it isn't a long notice period.

The only reason Verizon has kept these grandfathered users this long is because they were hoping regulations would allow them to throttle or otherwise limit usage. They were unsuccessful at that, so cancelling service is the natural alternative.

Re:So basically...

[kenh]

"Unlimited" to Verizon means "unlimited as long as you use less than 300 kilobits per second continuously". Which just happens to be almost exactly the minimum bandwidth for a Skype video call. Ponder that for a moment.

Sure, I'll ponder that for a moment, then point out that you seem to think there are people that literally Skype 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 12 months every year, never stopping to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, etc. I suspect many/most customers lead more balanced lives then that.

Re:So basically...

[Solandri]

No. If you have an unlimited plan and use 100+ GB in a month, Verizon will give it to you that month as their contract terms say they will deliver unlimited data. It's just that next month Verizon will opt not to renew your month-to-month plan.

People have got this really distorted view of how contracts work - where companies should not be allowed to screw you, but you're allowed to screw companies in perpetuity. When you signed up for the unlimited plan, Verizon agreed to it and you agreed to it for a x year contract (usually 2 years). When the contract was up, the plan continued as month-to-month. As the years passed, Verizon felt the plan was disadvantageous to them, but as a courtesy allowed you to keep it. They didn't have to, but in the interest of good customer relations they let you keep it. Now they've decided the drawbacks of that courtesy outweigh the benefits for them, and are adding a condition that if you use what they consider an excessive amount of data, they will not renew your outdated plan on a month-to-month basis.

Think of if the situation were reversed. Say you got a cell phone in the early days when service was $100/mo for just voice, and calls were $1/min. After your 2 year contract was up, you should be allowed to change to a better plan if you want, right? Well so can the other party in the contract. Both sides have the right to terminate a month-to-month contract at the end of the month for any reason they see fit. If you want the security of knowing the other side will not terminate your contract at the end of the month, you need to sign a year or multi-year contract with them which locks in your contract terms for that period of time. But the other party is under no obligation to give you the same contract terms (same plan) they gave you 5 years ago.

Re:So basically...

[dgatwood]

They can cut you off in the middle of a two-year contract. If you read the fine print, it isn't a guarantee of service, just a guarantee that you will keep paying them unless they choose to terminate the contract early.

Unlimited. You keep using that word.

[Anonymous Coward]

But I do not think it means what you think it means.

What does unlimited mean? And why do you get penalized if you actually use it as such?

QL'EB?

[Hognoxious]

The 100GB plan costs $450 a month.

Combifoutuien? Baise le pape!

If they didn't want unlimited use

[fox171171]

If they didn't want unlimited use, they should never have offered it. It has pretty much always been a lie from many of these companies, and they should be fined for it. Unlimited with an asterisk defining the limitations of unlimited is not acceptable.

Re:If they didn't want unlimited use

[Richard_at_work]

They no longer offer it.

And they also are under no obligation to allow out-of-contract users from continuing to use the old plan - which is exactly what they are doing here, telling the heaviest out-of-contract users to let up, move plan or Verizon will no longer do business with you.

Just as you don't have to do business with Verizon, once you are out of contract Verizon no longer have to do business with you - you aren't guaranteed or entitled to the same plan for the rest of eternity, only the duration of the contract.

Re:If they didn't want unlimited use

[Anonymous Coward]

That has always been a shortsighted argument. They've stopped offering it, and just like you can cancel your mobile phone plan, they can too, and that's what they're doing. They are not denying you the service you pay for. They honor the contract as long as you have it, and soon you won't have it.

What you should be pointing out is that this is a market failure: Their service is outrageously overpriced, and volume pricing does not solve congestion. It's a money-grab. In a working market with a sufficient number of competitors, no company could ask those prices or segment the market in a way that is so removed from the technical necessities. Three or four competitors might be enough with heavy-handed regulation, but not in the absence of it.

Re:If they didn't want unlimited use

[mrchaotica]

And they also are under no obligation to allow out-of-contract users from continuing to use the old plan - which is exactly what they are doing here, telling the heaviest out-of-contract users to let up, move plan or Verizon will no longer do business with you.

So? That doesn't change the fact that other users are still on the plan, and Verizon is still describing it as "unlimited" to them, which is false advertising.

Re:If they didn't want unlimited use

[jratcliffe]

It IS unlimited. You can use as much as you want in the period you've paid for. How much you use does affect whether they decide they want to offer you an unlimited plan next month. Separate months, separate deals.

Re:If they didn't want unlimited use

[green1]

As soon as they tied next month's usage directly to this months usage, they gave up the ability to call this month's usage unlimited.

And your car rental annalogy is exactly the same, if they can't make money on "unlimited" and don't want to sell it, then they should fix their fraudulent and deceptive marketing, not ban individuals who comply 100% with the rules as they were laid out to them.

Unlimited by definition means that there are no limits, not being able to renew if you do a certain thing is by it's very definition a limit.

Sue them for FRAUD

[UnknownSoldier]

/Oblg. You keep using this word "unlimited". It doesn't mean what you think it means

If Verizon is advertising their services as unlimited but it is not then it is fraud plain and simple.

But I guess accurately calling it Nearly Unlimited won't get as many suckers ^H^H^H customers as they want.

I hope they get sued.

--
Note to Redditards: The downvote button is NOT for disagreement but that "this post adds nothing interesting to the conversation."

Re:Sue them for FRAUD

[Zak3056]

Verizon actually are NOT advertising their plans as unlimited--that's exactly the point here, the people involved are grandfathered users from a time when Verizon DID advertise such a thing (largely before 4G deployments were of real size). What it looks like here is they are telling "unlimited" users, "if you use more than 100GB we're not going to do business with you under these terms." Given that 100% of these users are out of contract (that's how they're still on unlimited plans--they haven't signed a new contract) there's no legal problem here--Verizon will just terminate their service if the user doesn't switch plans.

I am altering the deal

[Squiffy]

Pray I don't alter it any further.
- Someone's dad

Try Upgrading

[DivineKnight]

"In a statement, Verizon said: "Because our network is a shared resource and we need to ensure all customers have a great mobile experience with Verizon, we are notifying a very small group of customers on unlimited plans who use an extraordinary amount of data that they must move to one of the new Verizon Plans by August 31, 2016.""

Try upgrading your networks. It's what every network admin worth their salt inevitably does, because it works. Traffic spike? Sure, trace it, maybe limit it if it's questionable or unwanted, block it if it's illegal, etc., etc. However, as a general rule, taxes will rise, as must network capacity -> anyone here complaining that 10/100 network is perfectly fast enough, and Gig-E is overkill, would be laughed at for eons. In a few years, 10 Gig-E, or 100 Gig-E will be the norm.

What more, if I remember correctly, Verizon has received kickbacks, tax reductions, etc. to help them finance upgrades for their networks so that this would never be an issue. I could check Verizon's financial performance over these past ten years, then look into their book-keeping (Hollywood accounting), but me thinks they have not been running at a loss. So...in the black + gifts from the US / State / Municipal governments + not upgrading their equipment = a lot of spare dosh. Has Verizon issued some dividends, or should we be looking at embezzlement charges?

At the very least, failure to use working capital correctly (maintaining / growing the business, by buying the equipment that allows them to keep / expand their dominance in their current area) is a failure of corporate duty, and a reason for someone to be fired.

Re:Try Upgrading

[SuiteSisterMary]

It really was in the space of a year or two that the average user's expectation of what 'high speed internet' should be able to do went from 'look at web pages without watching the photos load part by part, watch the occasional SD video clip on youtube or cnn.com or something, and be able to download large email attachments fairly quickly' to 'be watching four different HD video streams, simultaneously.'

Duh?

[Win0ver]

FTA: "These users are using data amounts well in excess of our largest plan size (100GB)."

Well duh, isn't that the whole point of getting an unlimited data plan? Using more data than the capped ones?

Re:I must have been mistaken about the definition.

[LVSlushdat]

Same as the US IRS's definition of voluntary... Unless you "volunteer" to pay "income tax", we will hound you/put you in jail... Thats their definition of "voluntary compliance"....

Re:100gb?

[Sax Russell 5449D29A]

Around the Nordic Countries, I'm able to get *truly* unlimited LTE for around $30/mo. Hurts to think of all the fellow nerds across the pond who have to pay themselves sick for something like this.

It is not unlimited.

[TangoMargarine]

Their unlimited plan is unlimited. But if your unlimited usage is exceedingly high

By definition, a usage "exceedingly high" implies there is a limit. If there is no limit, you cannot exceed it.

If they don't want you to have multiple users on the plan or use it for business reasons, fine--put it in the terms. There are already ways of doing that without lying.

Re:Contracts?

[EndlessNameless]

What do the contracts say?

Verizon hasn't offered unlimited plans for years, so all relevant contract terms have expired.

If they can't kick them off because the plans are obsolete, how can they kick them off with a retroactive policy?

To be clear, Verizon could disconnect everyone on an "unlimited plan" if they wanted to. The original contracts are all expired.

Technically, they would only have to wait until the end of the customer's billing cycle---since these plans are prepaid, the customer has already paid for this month's service.

I see popcorn and lawsuits.

Then you're hallucinating. Because they absolutely can do this.

Re:Reaching the limits of the unlimited

[hawguy]

Yes-- according to Verizon, "unlimited" has its limits.

"Unlimited" comes with a caveat: common sense.

Personally I'd rather have that caveat than pay extra to support the 0.01% of the people that consume 1000x more resources than everyone else.

I really do hope somebody hits them hard for false advertising [cornell.edu]

Nope. If you are a subscriber, you do have unlimited data. These people are no longer subscribers. Verizon isn't offering them a service any longer, and they aren't paying for it. Business transaction complete.

The problem with relying on common sense is that it's not that common and what seems perfectly reasonable to one person "The only reason I signed up for Verizon was because they offered an unlimited plan that I could use to stream videos to my mountain retreat", may be unreasonable to someone else.

That's why we have truth in advertising laws -- if you lease someone a car with "unlimited mileage" included, you can't charge them extra (or take back their car) when they put 300,000 miles on it in a year. Unlimited has a very clear meaning.

Deliberately misleading

[mister_playboy]

You are comparing apples to oranges.

Population density of Denmark: 130 persons per sq km.
Population density of USA: 35 persons per sq km.

He said "Nordic Countries", not "Denmark". It's not hard to understand why you would conflate those terms when we look consider the other Nordic population density numbers.

Population density of Sweden: 21.5 persons per sq km
Population density of Norway: 15.5 persons per sq km

Feel free to explain again how Manhattan's population density in not high enough to secure the sort of internet access pricing that people in Finland enjoy.

Re:Reaching the limits of the unlimited

[citylivin]

""Unlimited" should always be understood to include "but don't be a dick"."

So being "a dick" now is using a paid for service as advertised? ISPs should have no trouble delivering their advertised speeds 24x7 and if you paid for "unlimited" you should be able to max out that connection 100% of the time. Companies cant just redefine words and then shame or guilt people into their "marketing speak" basterdization of basic english words.

There are truth in advertising laws for a reason. This is straight up false advertising / fraud on the part of that ISP.

How hard is it for them to say "100gb a month plan" instead of unlimited? All ISPs give actual rates in canada that I am aware of. eg http://www.shaw.ca/internet/pl... Take a look, you can clearly see all the caps you get at every tier.
But maybe our consumer protection laws are stronger than yours, I don't know.

As they always say on the bus ads: Creativity is subjective, but the truth isn't.

http://www.adstandards.com/en/...