Shamed In Super Bowl Ads, Verizon Introduces Unlimited Data Plans (theverge.com)

A surprise announcement Sunday revealed that tomorrow Verizon will begin offering introductory plans with unlimited data.*

* Customers "will get full LTE speeds until they reach 22GB of usage," reports The Verge, "after which they'll be subject to reduced data speeds and de-prioritization."

An anonymous reader writes: Other carriers have similar limits. "For Sprint it's 23GB. T-Mobile has a slightly higher threshold of 26GB... AT&T matches Verizon at 22GB," reports The Verge. Verizon says their cap is "to ensure a quality experience for all customers... While we don't expect to do that very often, network management is a crucial tool that benefits all Verizon customers." The $80-a-month plan also includes hotspot tethering -- up to 10 gigabytes -- and "includes 'HD' video as opposed to the 480p/DVD-quality video that T-Mobile One customers get by default."

In a Sunday YouTube video, the head of Verizon's wireless effort says customer interviews found "Some of the heavier users of data -- the power users -- had data anxiety." But it's still a surprising move. Engadget reports that in the past Verizon "frequently tried its hardest to discourage unlimited data users," but today is "facing stiff competition from T-Mobile, which engineered a dramatic comeback in recent years and upped the ante by making unlimited data standard through the One plan."
Verizon's pricing was also targeted heavily last week in a barrage of Super Bowl ads by both Sprint and T-Mobile just last Sunday. T-Mobile showed a masochistic woman calling Verizon just to enjoying hearing about the overages, taxes and fees she incurred by exceeding her data limit, while Sprint showed a man who was trying to escape his Verizon contract by faking his own death.

Comments

Theoretically

[rmdingler]

Competition in the free market is supposed to lead to better products and deals for customers.

Of course, this is only the case when absent government-created market distortions such as subsidies and ridiculous regulations.

Re:Theoretically

[Anonymous Coward]

And absent cartels and monopolies as well - the free market is essentially a prisoner's dilemma between corporations, where 'defecting' is 'cutting your price'. That means that the Nash equilbrium is low, but collusion and cooperation means the corporations can routinely get a better profit by agreeing to keep their prices high (at the expense of consumers).

Diamonds and oil are well known examples of large organizations being quite capable of agreeing to keep prices high, to avoid a competitive spiral.

AD shaming

[_xanthus_47]

I always thought it was interesting that you can mention another product by name in a TV spot here in America. It is actually illegal in some other countries. You can't name a competitor directly. So most of the time you are left with references to a white box with a generic label like"Product X" or similar. The way they talk about it though, usually makes it clear which other company they are referring to. American advertisers do not have to go through such a loophole.

Who is using the bandwidth anyway?

[uaru.pl]

Out of these 22GB, I suspect most of the traffic would be unwanted advertisement. Not very long ago I read seven articles in a newspaper, and watched 5 minute poor quality video on youtube. 330MB. That means, out of 330 MB 300 had to be commercials. Unbelievable. This is just circumstantial evidence, of course. However, long gone are days when it was expected from people to care about others, not to send large attachments. Netiquette is dead. BTW that is why the ad blockers are essential.