UPDATE: Verizon Cutting OFF Unlimited Data Users Using More Than 100GB Per Month

[FoxKat]

Look at the numbers....Sure, they CAN do that with the highest quality video, but in fact you can't see that on a tiny cellphone. On a practical setting, 100GB is 300+ hours of video a month. And longhaul truckers might have half that time available on the road if they were watching video on their cellphone 8 hours a day.

Maybe they can "easily" use 100GB...they can just as easily use a lot less.

I will agree completely with the last line there as a minimum, but will also mostly agree with the rest. Where I don't necessarily agree is that people who watch video on their phones are going to opt for 720P or 480P video when they have available 1080P or higher. It's only natural to want to start with the highest quality image and audio, given that what you watch and listen it to will often bring the quality down.

Yes, self-control is a big part of this, moderation is the key. Still, they have what they at least perceive is a "unlimited data plan", and so like almost anything (except elephants, apparently), if you take a leash off it, it will roam out farther and farther as it realizes the leash is no longer there.

 

[kodiak799]

...society will definitely increase its consumption of data faster than the carriers upgrade their plans to meet them, and in the process subscribers will pay penalties and the carriers will anger their customers along the way to the eventual solution - succumb to the demand.

This is the part I really don't get. UDP are less than 1% of users now, and the "100GB+" is a small percentage of that.

Presumably, when 5G gets here and we get 10-100X increase in bandwidth then this is even less of an issue. That's essentially the logic I've always held as to why VZW wouldn't end UDP (and I've been mostly right).

They got their $20 increase. There's another motivation behind this. They never had to roll us over to 4G if they didn't care.

Seriously why?!? This is a blip on profits. It's probably not impacting their business. The only explanation I can come up with is UDP is a lab experiment for VZW in terms of pricing.

 

[FoxKat]

I never said they are completely sane in all the decisions they make, just that they are putting in place (and have already), the necessary exit clauses to dissolve them from their miscalculations.

 

[FoxKat]

This is the part I really don't get. UDP are less than 1% of users now, and the "100GB+" is a small percentage of that.

Yes, apparently according to a Verizon spokesperson these 'offenders' are only 5% of that 1% you mention. Still, at over 141 million subscribers it amounts to something like 70,500 subscribers. It's not really a small number of subscribers, given that they could represent $100/month or more each, or over $7,000,000 of monthly revenue.

 

[kodiak799]

Yes, apparently according to a Verizon spokesperson these 'offenders' are only 5% of that 1% you mention. Still, at over 141 million subscribers it amounts to something like 70,500 subscribers. It's not really a small number of subscribers, given that they could represent $100/month or more each, or over $7,000,000 of monthly revenue.

Ehh, my "1%" comes from a number a year or two ago....call it roughly 750k. So 5% of that is closer to 40k. $5M or $10M a month or whatever.

Not trivial, I agree. But for a company making $4B+ in profits a quarter, that's not even a rounding error. The bad press is a bigger deal than the profit potential.

And what's so amazing about all this....is they could just say "no more UDP - choose a plan". The strategy here is fascinating...and puzzling. That's why I get sucked into these debates.

 

[FoxKat]

Ehh, my "1%" comes from a number a year or two ago....call it roughly 750k. So 5% of that is closer to 40k. $5M or $10M a month or whatever.

Not trivial, I agree. But for a company making $4B+ in profits a quarter, that's not even a rounding error. The bad press is a bigger deal than the profit potential.

And what's so amazing about all this....is they could just say "no more UDP - choose a plan". The strategy here is fascinating...and puzzling. That's why I get sucked into these debates.

I agree, fascinating and puzzling. I also enjoy this type of debate. And I love to hear all the differing perspectives, speculations, facts and figures, and even the outright errors and misrepresentations, since it shows us all that at the end of the day, what matters to us is how it affects us individually, even if what we believe to be true is completely wrong. When it all boils down, if it doesn't affect you directly you will probably watch and maybe even interject opinion or observation but it won't change your life.

 

[kodiak799]

When it all boils down, if it doesn't affect you directly you will probably watch and maybe even interject opinion or observation but it won't change your life.

Ha! I occasionally look at the latest plans. Wouldn't mind having my tablet on a plan, but actually I rarely use my tablet. And will happily tether when I do. Problem is, if I had my tablet on plan then my base data would necessarily double.

Honestly with tether why do I need a shared plan? MAYBE if I want a 4G smartwatch and leave the home at phone (but only when I'm working out).

I could easily manage with a 10-15GB plan....but that would be significantly more than I'm paying. If I really had to scrape, I could get by on a 2GB plan. I just tether because I can.

 

[FoxKat]

I agree, and for me as I indicated, a 24GB plan would actually be about 3X more than I need and more than I currently average as a family. Still, once I bring my son onto the family plan (he's on a 2GB plan by himself now), my usage monthly is BOUND to go up and probably by a significant margin. If I ever went over 24GB in a month while on that plan, I would shut him down for the rest of the month, increase the plan to get my wife and I by till the billing cycle changes and then put a "governor" on his phone for the next cycle. Eventually he would fall in line.

 

[droidprincess]

Data usage is easy to manage with kids... I do it every month. We have WIFI at home and I manage my kids data with the Verizon Family Base app. So @FoxKat, I can't see how ANY of your arguments regarding data hungry millinals and kids are valid.
If my child was watching enough video (Netflix, YouTube, whatever) to go over even 4 gigs (which is their monthly limit) I would be a parent and take their phones and kick them outside....but hey that's just me and my kids.

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[FoxKat]

Data usage is easy to manage with kids... I do it every month. We have WIFI at home and I manage my kids data with the Verizon Family Base app. So @FoxKat, I can't see how ANY of your arguments regarding data hungry millinals and kids are valid.
If my child was watching enough video (Netflix, YouTube, whatever) to go over even 4 gigs (which is their monthly limit) I would be a parent and take their phones and kick them outside....but hey that's just me and my kids.

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Did you even read my post immediately above yours? I'm not saying that they should get away with it but I know that data hungry millennials and kids are real and can't be ignored. This is why I agree that both Safety Mode and the Family Base limiting feature are a good thing. Personally I don't pay for Family Base and instead use the one built into the phone.

My son is on his own 2GB plan currently and we have WIFI as well, so if he were increased to 4 GB it would be a 100% increase in the restricted data usage. Still, I have a governor on him now and I'd have to run one on him for sure if he were on an unrestricted shared plan because he would almost certainly use more than his share of a 24GB family limit (assuming 8GB). Kids don't generally have the self-control to manage such a responsibility as to stay under their limit when there are no checksums in place. You may disagree with that but I'm sure there are plenty of parents out there who are good parents and yet would still agree with me.

Also, my son is diagnosed with Asperger's, so he is more prone to zoning out and during his zoning out he loses touch with things such as time and self-control. By their very nature children, especially early teens are testing boundaries and will push past them either deliberately or without caring either way. This is a part of the learning process and growing up, and it happens. If it weren't true then age limits for things which require adult-like responsibility would be much lower. If someone chooses to ignore that as a possibility then they deserve the overage charges as the parent. As far as whether they are good parents or should be parents at all, those are different subjects for a different thread.

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[jstafford1]

Did you even read my post immediately above yours? I'm not saying that they should get away with it but I know that data hungry millennials and kids are real and can't be ignored. This is why I agree that both Safety Mode and the Family Base limiting feature are a good thing. Personally I don't pay for Family Base and instead use the one built into the phone.

My son is on his own 2GB plan currently and we have WIFI as well, so if he were increased to 4 GB it would be a 100% increase in the restricted data usage. Still, I have a governor on him now and I'd have to run one on him for sure if he were on an unrestricted shared plan because he would almost certainly use more than his share of a 24GB family limit (assuming 8GB). Kids don't generally have the self-control to manage such a responsibility as to stay under their limit when there are no checksums in place. You may disagree with that but I'm sure there are plenty of parents out there who are good parents and yet would still agree with me.

Also, my son is diagnosed with Asperger's, so he is more prone to zoning out and during his zoning out he loses touch with things such as time and self-control. By their very nature children, especially early teens are testing boundaries and will push past them either deliberately or without caring either way. This is a part of the learning process and growing up, and it happens. If it weren't true then age limits for things which require adult-like responsibility would be much lower. If someone chooses to ignore that as a possibility then they deserve the overage charges as the parent. As far as whether they are good parents or should be parents at all, those are different subjects for a different thread.

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All she was saying is that you don't ignore those data hungry kids... You limit them. Then they can learn not to waste.
There are plenty of ways to limit children's data usage so that shouldn't even factor into someone's decision here. If they aren't paying the bill they have to deal with their limit. It's not hard.
The real issue here is why are so many people using their phone as the only access to the internet? Get a regular ISP... Once again that solves so much of this data usage.
Verizon is not an ISP... That's what they are trying to stop with all this.

Like the old saying goes... You have to pay to play.

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[FoxKat]

All she was saying is that you don't ignore those data hungry kids... You limit them. Then they can learn not to waste.
There are plenty of ways to limit children's data usage so that shouldn't even factor into someone's decision here. If they aren't paying the bill they have to deal with their limit. It's not hard.
The real issue here is why are so many people using their phone as the only access to the internet? Get a regular ISP... Once again that solves so much of this data usage.
Verizon is not an ISP... That's what they are trying to stop with all this.

Like the old saying goes... You have to pay to play.

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Can you tell me what part of my post you think she was disagreeing with? Here's a copy of the post speaking of the millennials and younger kids, just in case you missed it...

But you're forgetting a new demographic in the Millennials and then the next one right behind. Many don't even watch TV. For many, their cell phone screen is their "big screen" since a 5.5" screen held at 12-14" away or closer from the eyes "looks" like a 40" or larger big screen TV, and the phones have a MUCH higher pixel density so they look even sharper.

The young also spend much more of their time outside the home than their preceding generations, they take MUCH more video and photos, share it on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, etc., and so the phone becomes their single most important social connection.

Is there anything in that post that is either blatantly wrong or even an embellishment of the truth? Was I speaking of only juveniles? No, I was also spelling of millennials.

"Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation[1] or Generation Y, abbreviated toGen Y) are the demographic cohort betweenGeneration X and Generation Z. There are no precise dates for when the generation starts and ends. Demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and use the mid-1990s to the early 2000s as final birth years for the Millennial Generation."

Source; Millennials - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So millennials are between maybe 16 (c. 2002), and 34 years old (c. 1982). Given that the greatest portion are 18 or older they're not kids anymore. Tell me what college aged adults don't tap their parents for everything they can get and then take more? How about those who are out of college but can't support themselves and so are back with their parents (assuming they ever left or went to college at all)? So even some of the best parents are subjected to having their adult sons and daughters as quasi dependents.

I do understand that she is confident she has 100% control of her boys. And I'm proud of her as that means she is a good parent. I only hope that she is able to maintain that control as they get older.

As for the rest of us, having 100% control of your youngsters or young adult sons and daughters is more than a full-time job, and in many ways regarding the older ones virtually impossible. The truth is they have mind of their own so they will do what they think they can get away with most of the time. To many of them, the internet is almost more important that food. And they're being taught that it is, both in grade school (K-12), and college.

So to ignore those things you don't have complete control of as a factor in deciding a plan and limits would be foolish and a recipe for disaster.

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[jstafford1]

Ok.. Well for starters I'm not going to argue with you... There's to much nonsense in that post for me to go through. It's not about dependants getting away with things. If you're paying the bill you can put a hard limit on them and leave it up to them to manage that. In this day and age it's not hard to only use less than 5 gigs a month. Anyone saying otherwise is really not looking into options. It doesn't matter the age... If you're paying the bill you set a limit for them and that's it... That's what she was saying. Nothing can get out of control. Its simple...
There is an app that gives you 100% control over kids data usage... So it's not that hard to do. It's not a full time job to manage data...
But... If your kids are being taught the internet is so important then I guess that's bad on you... Don't blame school and college. Mine prefers to go outside or play games... She knows the value of the internet but isn't obsessed with it.
Parenting isn't controlling your kids... It's teaching them... Guiding them... Then they won't "do what they think they can get away with."


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[FoxKat]

Nonsense, if you say so.

I never said that school was to blame for youngsters and young adults being strong minded and pushing the limits. You've taken that out of context.

There are enough examples in history of juveniles and young adults of otherwise great parents being terribly irresponsible to disprove that it's all about the parents. Some will be responsible, some won't. One of the single greatest influences in middle and older teens and young adults is peer pressure, so parenting can only do so much.

My point again was that I wasn't giving them a free pass, just saying that it needs to be considered as part of the planning. Most people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan for the possibilities of the unknown and what's beyond their control.



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[jstafford1]

Yeah...a Wikipedia definition of what a millennial is is nonsense. I was taught Wikipedia isn't a valid source.

And yes you made it seem like all these irresponsible kids would make it hard to live with data limits, when in actuality it's not.

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