Verizon Now Offers 'Unlimited' Data On All Plans, Without $5 Fee (dslreports.com)

In July, Verizon announced some big changes coming to its data plans that will make them more expensive, but will add more data. They include some new features like "Carryover Data," which is Verizon slang for rollover data, and "Safety mode," which eliminates the prospect of an overage fee and reduces the speed of the service until the end of the month. Originally, the "feature" was $5 per month for some shared data plans and was included free for Verizon's XL and XXL plan customers. However, this week Verizon announced it's now including safety mode for "free" on all plans, according to DSL Reports. "Responding to ATT's own new plans and renewed pressure from T-Mobile, Verizon will no longer be charging users the $5 'safety mode' fee starting September 6th. Instead, you'll just be throttled to 128 kbps for the remainder of your billing cycle, unless you're willing to pay $15 per each additional gigabyte at LTE speeds. That's good news for users on the S (2GB), M (4GB) and L (8GB) who were shelling out an extra $5 per month, though it doesn't really help make Verizon's new plans any more interesting overall."

Comments

So that's unlimited data with limits

[wonkey_monkey]

Verizon Now Offers 'Unlimited' Data On All Plans, Without $5 Fee

Instead, you'll just be throttled to 128 kbps for the remainder of your billing cycle

Who's actually calling this "unlimited"? Is Verizon doing so? If so, where?

Or are we now just calling any limited plan "unlimited" because that we've got so used to that terminology coming from the suppliers?

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[tepples]

Dropping automatic overages in favor of throttling is more like T-Mobile falling back to EDGE once you run out of 4G data allowance for the month.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[MBGMorden]

The speed becomes limited, but the amount is not.

Personally, I don't have any issue with this. My main fear when it comes to buying a data plan is simply that I'll accidentally transfer too much and get an outrageous bill. Now if I happen to run out, I can still transfer data - albeit slowly. More importantly though, I can buy a data plan that's actually pretty close to what I use rather than buying one with 3-4GB of "padding" to make absolutely sure I never run over.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[jarablue]

I'm the AC above. Again signing in to say fuck off.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[bondsbw]

The amount is limited by speed. At 128kbps you could download close to 40GB of data in a 31 day month. Even assuming infinite bandwidth during your non-throttled period, the most you could possibly download during a month is your data plan + 40GB.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[MBGMorden]

While true, by that definition unlimited has no real meaning, because it's never possible. The speed is ALWAYS limited. Whether it's 128Kbps or the physical capability of the network, there is always a maximum speed and hence some maximum amount of data that could be transferred if you went at that speed constantly.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[bill_mcgonigle]

The speed becomes limited, but the amount is not.

"Rate-limited, uncapped" would be something most people could understand.

Re: So that's unlimited data with limits

[Malenx]

Ok, let's take your perspective then. They are offering unlimited 2g speeds with X gb of 4g premium data. Honestly though, nobody cares about marketing speech.

The reality is they are essentially giving everyone a free overage protection toggle in this announcement. It's a good thing.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[jmac_the_man]

Verizon's name for this feature is "Safety Mode" because it helps keep you safe from an unexpected charge at the end of the month. It's an accurate name.

The phrase "Unlimited Data" comes from Slashdot, not Verizon. Verizon is describing these plans as limited to however many GB of data are in the contract.

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[jmac_the_man]

Verizon isn't describing these plans as unlimited. That's something the Slashdot submitter pulled out of their ass. Verizon is calling this feature "Safety Mode."

Re: So that's unlimited data with limits

[tentenone]

free overage protection

You mean overage protection included in the price, right? Or overage protection at no additional charge. There's a difference between those things and free (I'm not even talking about the free/libre differences).

Re:So that's unlimited data with limits

[HughMayle]

I remember getting an email from Virgin Mobile (when they first started throttling users) that containerd the statement " unlimited does not mean unlimited..." These guys are now apparently allowed to make up their own definitions of words.

Arby's

[Anonymous Coward]

We have the meats.

Viewer discretion advised.

Re:In other news

[sims 2]

What!? They just went up $20 a few months ago!

$15/GB

[guruevi]

That's more expensive than my old dial up, I had 10GB for $10/mo including a POP, mail, hosting etc.

Questions...

[antdude]

How do existing members enroll to this plan, or it is automatic? Thank you in advance.

Too late.

[roc97007]

Too late. I already switched to t-mobile, which still had unlimited plans, and now it's too much trouble to switch back to Verizon. Tough luck.

Overage charges have been their business model

[localroger]

For some time I used a Verizon 3G mifi hotspot for general net access. One month I went about 1 gig over my 5 gig plan and it doubled my bill. I called customer service and they generously offered to cancel that particular charge, but I when Itold the guy (who was not in India, BTW) that if it ever happened again I'd have to drop the service, he had nothing to help me. A week later he actually called me to let me know they had added a cool feature which would send me a text when I was near the limit to warn me, but I reminded him that the mifi isn't really a phone and the only way I could use it to read SMS messages was to physically plug it into my computer's USB port, which would temporarily disable it as far as using it for internet access. Oops. Sure enough it happened again and despite my deep abiding hatred of our local provider today I have a cable modem.