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Verizon's New Phone Plan Proves It Has No Idea What 'Unlimited' Actually Means (gizmodo.com)
Verizon has unveiled its third "unlimited" smartphone plan that goes to show just how meaningless the term has become in the U.S. wireless industry. "In addition to its Go Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited plans, Verizon is now adding a premium Above Unlimited plan to the mix, which offers 75GB of 'unlimited' data per month (as opposed to the 22GB of 'unlimited' data you get on less expensive plans), along with 20GB of 'unlimited' data when using your phone as a hotspot, 500GB of Verizon cloud storage, and five monthly international Travel Passes, which are daily vouchers that let you use your phone's wireless service abroad the same as if you were in the U.S.," reports Gizmodo. Are you confused yet? From the report: And as if that wasn't bad enough, Verizon has also updated its convoluted sliding pricing scheme that adjusts based on how many phones are on a single bill. For families with four lines of service, the Above Unlimited cost $60 per person, but if you're a single user the same service costs $95, which really seems like bullshit because if everything is supposed to be unlimited, it shouldn't really make a difference how many people are on the same bill. As a small concession to flexibility, Verizon says families with multiple lines can now mix and match plans instead of having to choose a single plan for every line, which should allow families to choose the right service for an individual person's needs and help keep costs down. The new Above Unlimited plan and the company's mix-and-match feature arrives next week on June 18th.
FWIW, I have verizon unlimited and constantly go over 22 GB and don't think I've ever been throttled. I think it depends on how clogged the network is, 22GB is guaranteed.
According to folks who know a lot more about math than I, there are numbers greater than infinity. So maybe "unlimited" is simply a concept instead of an absolute . We need a Richard Feynman type to explain this to laymen. Or, at least, explain it to me.
It was clear then Verizon had no intention of honoring it so I switched to a set data plan. While dumping Verizon was an option I have family members who think it's a "must have". We'll see about that...
and they are wording it to exclude the few people who want to use their smartphone as their home internet or have some continuous download on it 24x7 cause they want to feel special at using a lot of data
75GB of "unlimited" data? Verizon must have gone to the Anchorman School of Marketing!
why would i care if at&t throttles my kids' youtube if they watch too much during the month on cellular? Same for myself, some of us have better things to do than stare into a phone all day long and "stream"
And this is exactly why I'm grateful I decided to switch to Google's Project Fi. None of this fake bullshit "unlimited", plus no international "only some days" restrictions. One shared data pool for the whole family. Once we hit our max, we can keep using data as much as we want, without getting charged more. Plus, no cost other than data sim cards that are data-only (no voice/text) are fucking AMAZING. Just keep adding devices like tablets, old cell phones, laptops, hotspots, whatever. Its all just on one shared data pool, and no fuss, no bullshit.
I had no idea that UNLIMITED could be so...well...limiting!
Back in the days of dial-up, "unlimited" meant "unlimited minutes of being connected", as there were places like Compuserve that would charge you $2/minute or something just to connect to their service. So back when small ISPs were still a thing, "unlimited" was clear to all as "unlimited minutes", which with dial-up was, amusingly, about the same amount of monthly data as today's "unlimited" plans.
Obviously the commonly-understood meaning of "unlimited" for data plans had changed, but there's no talking reason to marketroids.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Unlimited" is the amount of money that Verizon hopes to make from their customers.
In business, "commodity" is a dirty word. Nobody wants to be in a commodity business, because it's really, really hard to compete in a commodity business because there's only one number that matters to the consumer: price. If your customers see the commodity you're selling for a penny less, they're not your customers anymore.
Telecommunication bandwith is a commodity. Access to a MB/s is the same (except for perhaps minor differences in latency), so it should be the easiest thing in the world for consumers to buy. Consequently telecom vendors want to make pricing as confusing as possible. This is coming to ISP service too, with the end of net neutrality. Comcast and Verizon will make it impossible to tell whether Xfinity or Fios is a better deal.
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Not only does 'logic' mean something totally different to marketing people, they're not even using the same dictionary as everyone else, as we can all clearly see here.
I wish people would stop buying plans that say there are unlimited but really are limited.
Show me a plan that meets the "unlimited in every way" criteria. I'll wait.
T-Mo has for quite a while now been a lot more upfront about how the term "unlimited" includes a certain amount being your "prioritization point" after which you get throttled.
At some point, the appropriate response is for the neighborhood to get together and close down the lemonade stand.
No matter how libertarian the society - companies only exist at the allowance of the society.
infinity, infinity + 1, infinity + 2,
Some small network should try a new "Unlimited 1MB plan", charging $0.10 per megabyte.
When the bill comes and someone calls them, they'll be able to say "our plan specifically said unlimited 1MB, so we're charging you for as many MB as you used, there was no limit on the number of MB you could use. It's unlimited."
#DeleteFacebook
My Sprint plan is "unlimited in every way". I'm not going to look online for it because I have had it for a few years and don't know if their current plans are the same.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Everyone seems to harp on the fact that Hotspot/jetpack is limited to 15gb of data per device. The issue you run into is what happened during the early days of the Feb unlimited plan when this wasn't enforced. We had a ton of people eliminating their home wifi networks and running their entire home/connected world (home security cameras, tablets, televisions, game consoles, media servers or purely cord cutting) off of a jetpack. This crippled the network. Then there were post everywhere about how someone couldn't send a snapchat of their dog farting and looking shocked. Much less the issue of businesses trying to oporate off of Verizon that couldn't send out invoices or ambulances that use verizon to get medical information out to the truck due to network congestion.
Under the current network restraints, it's just not possible to run things as fully unlimited the way people want. Much less for a lesser price and still have the money to build out a network that will be able to support your unlimited dog fart snapchats in the future.
We got the whole extended family on board ( I think we are up to 8 people on this plan) so extra lines are something like $10 a month for unlimited plans, may just get an extra phone just to stick in the car so I can be lazy and not even take my regular phone out of my pocket.
A 150/150MBit fiber connection backstops the service at home.
Cable, monthly contracts, phone leases, and other silly shit from the major players, thanks but no thanks.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, Verizon has also updated its convoluted sliding pricing scheme that adjusts based on how many phones are on a single bill.
This is called volume pricing. In this case it is used to entice households to use the same carrier rather than shop around based on different needs. It may be bad, but it makes plenty of sense.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Let's not forget; this is the same company that failed to grasp the difference between $.02 and $.0002
https://consumerist.com/2006/1...
(if anyone has the original audio, please post it)
This sig contains repetition and redundancy.
Everyone I know who used Verizon has regretted it. Much slower to use with many more deadspots.
If the USofA had English as official language you'd have a chance of suing them, but alas, without legal standing for English the word unlimited is just a random collection of letters.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
No idea what anyone puts up with Verizon / ATT. I'll just continue enjoying my no bullshit Walmart plan.
ATT sucks. My wife swore she would do without a phone before ever using them again and it has been 8 years and she is still saying that.
I live in Israel, and I have the 100GB plan of 012mobile. And it's just 30 ILS (around 9$).
Yay for me!
Verizon are annoying.. like if you want to sell a device that connects to Verizon, you must get a Verizon certificate for that...
hemi
In addition to its Go Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited plans, Verizon is now adding a premium Above Unlimited plan to the mix, ...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
and there are idiots willing to pay these asshole companies too.
I don't need unlimited. I would prefer a faster pipe than a higher data cap.
Noone can afford to give everyone 1G/sec for $100/month if you saturate it all the time so it's a game of limiting speed or having caps to stop abuse. My kids and I are on the internet constantly. We use around 300gb per month on our fiber line.
I think we get 1TB. That is plenty for us.
Sure, but that doesn't really work with the other three lemonade stands in town are running the same "unlimited" lemonade scam.
Gresham's law is a monetary principle stating that "bad money drives out good". Humpty Dumpty's law is a linguistic principle stating that someone can can make words mean whatever they want... "which is to be master-that's all."
davecb@spamcop.net
I guess there are not very many of us left who still have the original (grandfathered) Unlimited plan that doesn't have any data caps.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
Unlimited approximates my frustration with such deceptive marketing puffing. Many companies use such descriptions Which is indicative of the company's attitudes towards their customers. PT Barnum quotes. Most people disregard, read the details and make an informed decision so seems ok but it shouldn't be taken so lightly. Industries like The telecoms have an oligopoly and need to be held to higher standards. The telecoms argue scale critical in providing services, which there is merit, but then they need to compensate by being more transparent in their terms of service.
You won't be, after this week's episode of Soap!
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
No, I'm afraid YOU'RE the one confused. You just expect it to be the common English language definition of the word. In this case Marketing has gotten involved, and it's not English anymore, even though the glyphs would appear to be so. Just think of it as Advanced Emoji.
After all, they FEEL "unlimited" actually has a value of like 28GB, and who are YOU to completely invalidate their feelings? Corporations have people too -- you HORRIBLE person you!
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A decade ago, I used to work for Verizon Wireless in IT support. One of the things they told us (meaning sales and customer support, although we heard it too) was that Every Customer Was Supposed to Incur at least a $50 a month charge on their account. If not, you were to "make it so" by helping the customer make the correct decision if at ALL possible.
Don't know, but I bet that amount as gone up instead of being rescinded.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Nobody is forcing the companies to call it unlimited when it isn't. That's their choice.
People should expect to get what they paid for, it's the companies' fault if they can't provide what they sold.
In the US bribes are legally protected as free speech, so the end result isn't exactly a surprise.
Without net neutrality you'll be buying packages of content and bandwith -- it'll be just like the old cable TV industry.
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Except that didn't happen in the decade and more before net neutrality came into play. The idea that ISPs will be able to turn the Internet into cable TV is absurd. You would quickly lose your customers.
People didn't stream isochronous data in 2004.
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I don't know what you mean by that. Perhaps you could put it in layman's terms. If you mean something as simple as watching a video in realtime, YouTube came out in 2005.
Dude, we had video webcam chats back in 1998. We were streaming multiple isochronous streams back then (Yahoo! Chat, anyone? Paltalk? Camfrog later on in 2003?)
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yes, your plan is "unlimited"... But it only works in half the areas of Verizon or AT&T, you're on Edge or 3G connectivity for big chunks, and the 4G speeds are insanely low. But you get all the data you can (when you cannect, that is). My company had Sprint, and when I moved to SoCal (Ventura) I convinced them to let me switch to Verizon because, even though it was more expensive, it actually worked. I could get data and phone service everywhere instead of big dead zones or marginal zones like Sprint...
First things first - be able to at least connect to the network, before complaining about "muh data caps"...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Sounds great in a commercial. But in the real world, I see no difference. I can connect everywhere I go. While people on AT&T have no connection even in places I get one. To me, they are all the same. It is just marketing speak. And if you believe what they say on TV, I have a bridge to sell you. Cheap too!
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
> All I can say is: ... IEE754? ... Was that meant as a joke?
I'll even document: exception handling: indications of exceptional conditions (such as division by zero, overflow, etc.), and call it NaN
Nah, that will never catch on.
This ridiculous nonsense is exactly why I switched to Ting a few years ago, where you can simply pay for what you use. I don't want to support a company that is living in the past and obviously trying to make things so complicated for its customers in order to take advantage of them. Boo! I now have 5 lines with Ting and most months pay less than what I used to for 1 unlimited line on one of the old school providers. Simple website, simple billing, simple app, no nonsense. If you're interested, here's a $25 credit for you :-D https://z0hn6l4dk7d.ting.com/
I've not found a place that I go to (all over the US) where I don't get a Verizon signal. However, there are several Sprint (and quite a few T-Mobile) holes in the Ventura/Oxnard/Camarillo area. Maybe it's just where I live - but the first issue with cell phone service and "unlimited" offers is to actually CONNECT to a cell phone network. Saving $40 a month is irrelevant if I can't even connect...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
One thing that surprised me about Sprint service was the unlimited service and data included international roaming in Canada. I certainly did not expect to have free roaming in a forein country and unlimited data included.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Here in Sweden I enjoy a proper unlimited plan. Sure it's about $60 a month, but I regularly use 100-200 GB monthly with no issues at good speeds (10-20 mbit). I can also purchase additional data sim cards for ~$3 / piece monthly that connect to the same plan, which is a reasonable price. I have one for the wife, one for a 4g router in the summer house, one for an overnight apartment I stay at for work sometimes. It's sooo worth it not having to worry about usage at all.
https://www.tele2.nl/mobiel/si...
In order to guarantee the quality of the network, we ask you to activate a BundleBooster in MijnTele2 or the Tele2 app when using more than 5GB per day . If you do not request an additional bundle booster, your data will be closed for one day and you will no longer be able to use the internet.
Granted, the "BundleBoosters" appear to be free, so you may have me there. We'll let the Slashdot gods decide if "unlimited, as long as you request a variance each day" is "unlimited in every way" =)
It's a bit of a stretch, but "roaming" data within the EU is limited to 8GB/month. I forget what it said for non-EU, it was significantly limited, but I'd expect to pay when roaming outside of my country.
Net neutrality is a buzz word, it means different things to different people. It's like 'middle class'. Meaningless as a designation because people on the right and people on the left mean different things.
Let's talk about the real problem. Pipe owners should not be allowed to own content creators. We use to not allow movie companies to own movie theaters. (I don't know if that still true.) We shouldn't allow ISP's to own content creation companies, but we do. Likewise about wireless companies. they should not be allowed to own content creation companies. Moreover exclusive contracts in this space should not be permitted.
Absolutely this kind of thing should not be the province of an executive body that flips parties with the occupant of the White House. It should be determined through the legislature through legislation.
That won't happen because our government is broken. It is broken because of the Democrats and Republicans. And they have no incentive to fix it.