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Verizon Backtracks Slightly In Plan To Kick Customers Off Network (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Verizon Wireless is giving a reprieve to some rural customers who are scheduled to be booted off their service plans, but only in cases when customers have no other options for cellular service. Verizon recently notified 8,500 customers in 13 states that they will be disconnected on October 17 because they used roaming data on another network. But these customers weren't doing anything wrong -- they are being served by rural networks that were set up for the purpose of extending Verizon's reach into rural areas. Today, Verizon said it is extending the deadline to switch providers to December 1. The company is also letting some customers stay on the network -- although they must switch to a new service plan. "If there is no alternative provider in your area, you can switch to the S (2GB), M (4GB), 5GB single-line, or L (8GB) Verizon plan, but you must do so by December 1," Verizon said in a statement released today. These plans range from $35 to $70 a month, plus $20 "line fees" for each line. The 8,500 customers who received disconnection letters have a total of 19,000 lines. Verizon sells unlimited plans in most of the country but said only those limited options would be available to these customers. Verizon also reiterated its promise that first responders will be able to keep their Verizon service even though some public safety officials received disconnection notices. "We have become aware of a very small number of affected customers who may be using their personal phones in their roles as first responders and another small group who may not have another option for wireless service," Verizon said. "After listening to these folks, we are committed to resolving these issues in the best interest of the customers and their communities. We're committed to ensuring first responders in these areas keep their Verizon service."
Verizon is skimming the cream, they're cherry picking, they're looting and pillaging.
Time the government does the same to Verizon by taking away Verizon's bandwidth or increasing the price by 10x. I'm sure Verizon's competitors would love to have this... As a consumer who's watched Verizon pillage for years I would love to see this happen to Verizon.
Not quite all of them, but yes, the vast majority of these customers should never have been allowed to sign up for branded Verizon service in the first place, as they live outside the native Verizon service area. Greed or incompetence allowed them to be erroneously signed up for service when they never should have been. So, the gravy train is over for them, they have to purchase service from the local native carrier.
There are a minute handful of customers, such as those who live in the Roaming Partners service area in Maine, where there is literally no other provider. That company was set up solely to provide roaming service to Verizon customers and there are no other options in that and couple other very small areas from what I understand. So, those customers get to stay. All in all, it looks like Verizon is doing the right thing here.
Every carrier has roaming limits, and will kick you off (or cut off your service) if you roam too much. This is nothing new, and is nothing specific to Verizon. It's easy to hate on them for a plethora of reasons, it just so happens that this isn't one of those reasons!
It's not backtracking, it's damage control.
I'm rural and I'm in the same boat many people are in. I can't get cable - it ends about 1 mile away from me. I can't get DSL - it ends 3 miles away from me. I can't get Satellite, because hills and trees block the southern horizon. Sprint barely works - we get sub megabit speeds. AT&T works intermittently, with constant voice drop outs. Verizon works - and we get 30 megabits over LTE. But we are limited to our 'unlimited' 15 GB before our speeds are cut to 600kb. The one 'broadband' company near us has an F rating at the better business bureau and is getting sued by the government for misappropriating and stealing grants meant to improve service.
Verizon is our only internet option. I pay over $200 a month for 3 'unlimited' lines. Every month we have to rotate through phones until we use them up.
High speed internet has become a necessity for modern life. Schools in my area *expect* the kids to have high speed access. Their books are on line, as are all their instructional videos for experiments and other homework. Sheduling for after-school activies is ALL done through email, remind, and mass-text.
Our government has failed us. More specifically, the FCC. The continue to ignore local monopolies and stand by while companies like Verizon shut down local internet shops and municipal broad band through lawsuits. I'm tired of it, but there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. Oh, I've called my congressmen and senators. I've commented during the FTC review period - which they ignore in its entirety.
Ajit Pai is the biggest stinking pile of shit to ever work in our government.
(Yeah I know this is roaming, not sure how much of below applies. I still suspect more than I think.)
...but ... once you egress and traverse the general internet Suddenly It's Not! Almost like the wireless part itself doesn't matter.
I'm on the old (the OLD) unlimited employee plan. I pay $75.odd final for a single line and have downloaded 96GB this month, slightly higher than usual. I hear they kill anybody at over100 so I'm leaving the remainder alone until the end of the cycle (days)
Instead, these people should watch all of go90 (free bandwidth) and use Stream Pass (a Free Sports Package for go90 That Includes Free NBA League Pass)
Kinda funny how the wireless bandwidth to the tower is free or not DEPENDING ON YOUR ENDING-SITE. If you stay within their (V's) overall network It's All Free!
For these roaming people, V should honor the contract. If the users pay an early termination fee, V should pay THEM for disconnecting. And support the lines until the end of the contract (1/2 yrs) After that though, the users need to get a new contract or (like me) they're depending on Vs good will to carry them forward.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
If cellular bandwidth is so limited in these rural areas, why not just throttle customers after a certain amount of usage, or apply QoS during periods of heavy usage on the tower? You would think Verizon would be able to figure out a solution that doesn't involve kicking off paying customers.
"It's easy to hate on them for a plethora of reasons, it just so happens that this isn't one of those reasons!"
Uhh, no. Use your brain. This was false advertising when you break it down. As you state: "the vast majority of these customers should never have been allowed to sign up for branded Verizon service in the first place, as they live outside the native Verizon service area"
Time to check into hospice, old one.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Very nastily put, but correct. They entered those addresses into their computers along with the plan type, and then they said YEP! Contract Approved! No check of location vs. cell tower location/coverage. Address to UTC coordinates is now trivial to compute, and they had UTC coordinates of every tower. To not do the math meant setting up the customers up to be dropped. Customers bought hardware to match their network, dropped other carriers, etc up networking, etc. Verizon did no due diligence where due diligence was easy.
This is not because someone outside of Verizon was greedy. This is because many people INSIDE Verizon were both greedy and incompetent.
Did the advertising promise them the same rate forever? Somehow I doubt it. Surely Verizon has honored their end of the bargain for the contracted terms, and now wants to simply not renew the contracts. I don't see why they shouldn't have that right.
If I contract to sell you my service for $X/month for the next two years, and after two years I realize I'm losing money on the deal badly, why should I have to extend your contract?
Besides, Verizon is a private company and can do whatever they want, as long as they don't violate the law or break a contract. If you want more interference in their operations, now you're talking about governmental regulation. We shouldn't have any of that here. These people are rural dwellers, which means they're all GOP voters, and a big part of the GOP party platform is to reduce or eliminate regulation wherever possible, and to let companies like Verizon do what they want for maximum profitability. Let these people be hoist by their own petard.
Sure, go ahead and chop down that tower. It won't hurt Verizon; it's not their tower. It belongs to some other (more local) company, that Verizon was working with to allow roaming.
I think they *should* chop down the tower, because that means they won't have *any* cellular service now, not even from their overpriced local company, and they may even drive that company out of business so they'll never get any service. Sounds good to me. Fuck 'em. They brought this on themselves.
Here we have a big corporation taking advantage of people with no other options so they can make more money.
Didn't you read the summary? They have other options: there's local companies they can buy service from, the companies that actually own the towers they're using. Don't give me this "no other options" bullshit. They just don't want to use the small local companies because they cost a lot more and don't have unlimited data.
Instead of kicking customers out, expand your own network. In fact, do that everywhere instead of punishing people for using it.
There's not enough density in these areas to justify the expense. If you want companies to service unprofitable areas at reasonable prices, you need strong government regulation to make that happen, the way they do in Europe where even in the rural areas like northern Finland they have good coverage, while typical cellular bills are much lower than here in the US. But the rural dwellers here in the US are staunchly opposed to government regulation, so I really don't see the problem here. They're getting exactly what they voted for.
Somehow I doubt Verizon cares who a customer voted for in the last Presidential election. Every carrier, every single one, besides Verizon has enforced roaming limits up until this point. Verizon has decided to start doing what every other cellular carrier does. The customers are unprofitable, as you said, and any company will fire unprofitable customers. It's a fact of life, no politics involved.
*It's not like customers are getting a great deal here. Roaming charges aren't cheap and I'm sure most customers would rather get Verizon native service.
Have gnu, will travel.
Yep, and these local politicians are the responsibility of the idiots living in these places. Why should they get a subsidy from all the other Verizon customers nationwide? It's amazing how red-state voters think they're always entitled to a handout, but somehow never see it as such, but then bitch about other people receiving "welfare".