Verizon Finally Confirms Usage-Based Data Plans Coming July 7th

dgstorm

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It hasn't been a very well kept secret that Verizon was planning to change their Data Plans to a new tiered platform. Not only have we had hints of it for several months, but also, over the last couple of weeks we knew all the dirty details already. Now, Verizon has come forward themselves to confirm practically everything we already know, although their "official" plans come online on the 7th of July as previously reported.

This sure seems like a backwards step for the industry, and this kind of pricing will only get worse if the AT&T/T-Mobile merger goes through. At any rate, there's only a couple days left to jump on an unlimited data plan now.

Source: Engadget and FierceWireless
 

christim

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This does indeed appear a backwards move. I guess it all depends on what each person uses their phone for. More phones seem to be coming out with HDMI connections. I guess I won't be using that to watch movies through if I was on such a plan. I don't know how big each Netflix movie is but if a HD movie adds up to a GB and you are over your limit then that is an extra 10 bucks per movie. Why sell a device that has all sorts of multimedia streaming capabilities and then put a cap on it.

While you'd have to take a 1000 1mb photos that auto-uploaded to the cloud to reach a gig that is another area to watch. I just signed up for Google+ and I've toggled on the setting to send all movies and pictures to the cloud. On a tiered plan I'd have to watch that.

Finally, for anyone really pinching their MB's, they sure wouldn't want advertisements sucking up extra bandwidth either. Making folks pay to see/watch ads makes no sense to me either.
 

freezyfreaky

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Finally, for anyone really pinching their MB's, they sure wouldn't want advertisements sucking up extra bandwidth either. Making folks pay to see/watch ads makes no sense to me either.

LOL. Maybe someone can do a cost/benefit analysis to find out at what point purchasing an ad-free app would be cheaper than paying for the bandwidth use for the ads on an ad-supported free app.
 

mwhartman

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Picking up a craigslist omnia 2 today.. to hold me till the bionic comes out

My business rep sent this to me earlier today:


Your existing smart phone plan/feature will be grandfathered.

If you need to add any phones to your account. The tiered pricing will apply to them after 7/7/11



I interpret his reply as: as long as I keep my current phone/plan (Droid/unlimited) I will not move to the new tiered structure. However, once I get a new phone I will be subject to the new tired structure.
 

christim

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Picking up a craigslist omnia 2 today.. to hold me till the bionic comes out

My business rep sent this to me earlier today:


Your existing smart phone plan/feature will be grandfathered.

If you need to add any phones to your account. The tiered pricing will apply to them after 7/7/11



I interpret his reply as: as long as I keep my current phone/plan (Droid/unlimited) I will not move to the new tiered structure. However, once I get a new phone I will be subject to the new tired structure.


It makes sense that your existing plan, the one you have a signed contract for already, would be honored. Legally it should be. "grandfathered" typically means those already there get the old benefits. I see no favor in honoring a legally signed contract. I expected no less. I've also heard the rumors that for those already on an unlimited data plan they can renew and will be grandfathered under the old plan. That is definitely a favor. Which it is...I do not know.

My renew time is after the 7th. It might turn out to be I can get a new phone under the old plan, or keep my current phone until my 2 yr contract expires in November. I suspect we will know for sure in a couple of days.

Obviously it would be nice to be able to pick up any phone before my contract is up and get the unlimited plan extended for 2 more years.
 

brad92

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That is really expensive... and terrible. Makes me want Sprint even worse, especially if I am not grandfathered into unlimited if I upgrade to a 4G phone like everybody says I will be able to do...

sent from my ApeX
 

mwhartman

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Picking up a craigslist omnia 2 today.. to hold me till the bionic comes out

My business rep sent this to me earlier today:


Your existing smart phone plan/feature will be grandfathered.

If you need to add any phones to your account. The tiered pricing will apply to them after 7/7/11



I interpret his reply as: as long as I keep my current phone/plan (Droid/unlimited) I will not move to the new tiered structure. However, once I get a new phone I will be subject to the new tired structure.


It makes sense that your existing plan, the one you have a signed contract for already, would be honored. Legally it should be. "grandfathered" typically means those already there get the old benefits. I see no favor in honoring a legally signed contract. I expected no less. I've also heard the rumors that for those already on an unlimited data plan they can renew and will be grandfathered under the old plan. That is definitely a favor. Which it is...I do not know.

My renew time is after the 7th. It might turn out to be I can get a new phone under the old plan, or keep my current phone until my 2 yr contract expires in November. I suspect we will know for sure in a couple of days.

Obviously it would be nice to be able to pick up any phone before my contract is up and get the unlimited plan extended for 2 more years.

And that is my dilemma! Do I go tonight or tomorrow and get a new phone?

UGH!!!!!!!!!! Sometime change is not good!
 

Abadus

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Adding phones would be like my wife upgrading to a smart phone. Which sucks big time. I would be grandfathered with my droid but she would not.

ATM not to worry for me, I don't stream anything but Pandora. Work just put the kibosh on headphones so I can't even do that anymore.

Sprint needs to get a better network before I think about switching.
 

TayDee

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Ever since i got my router my data usage has gone down significantly. One month I had about 30gb of data, right now im 13 days into my cycle and I only used 60.31 mb so far.

With that said, I hate the fact that verizon is doing this, but when or if i get the droid 3 I guess I'll go with the 2gb package for only $30
 

christim

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Adding phones would be like my wife upgrading to a smart phone. Which sucks big time. I would be grandfathered with my droid but she would not.

ATM not to worry for me, I don't stream anything but Pandora. Work just put the kibosh on headphones so I can't even do that anymore.

Sprint needs to get a better network before I think about switching.

Remember too that wifi connections won't count. If you streamed Pandora at the local coffee shop that doesn't apply to the limited-bandwidth counter.

On the flip side...If I only get 2GB I should be able to suck down half of that via tethering without paying even more for that privilege.

And...are there rollover bytes? :)

And that is my dilemma! Do I go tonight or tomorrow and get a new phone?

UGH!!!!!!!!!! Sometime change is not good!

Go today or tomorrow, see what the store says, and then get it in writing if they say you are allowed at least one additional renew of your existing contact under its original pricing scheme.

And then send me a copy
icon_%20banana.gif
 

cirtbrethren

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Picking up a craigslist omnia 2 today.. to hold me till the bionic comes out

My business rep sent this to me earlier today:


Your existing smart phone plan/feature will be grandfathered.

If you need to add any phones to your account. The tiered pricing will apply to them after 7/7/11



I interpret his reply as: as long as I keep my current phone/plan (Droid/unlimited) I will not move to the new tiered structure. However, once I get a new phone I will be subject to the new tired structure.


It makes sense that your existing plan, the one you have a signed contract for already, would be honored. Legally it should be. "grandfathered" typically means those already there get the old benefits. I see no favor in honoring a legally signed contract. I expected no less. I've also heard the rumors that for those already on an unlimited data plan they can renew and will be grandfathered under the old plan. That is definitely a favor. Which it is...I do not know.

My renew time is after the 7th. It might turn out to be I can get a new phone under the old plan, or keep my current phone until my 2 yr contract expires in November. I suspect we will know for sure in a couple of days.

Obviously it would be nice to be able to pick up any phone before my contract is up and get the unlimited plan extended for 2 more years.

I'm in this exact same boat. We'll wait and see what happens.
 

bplewis24

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Okay, so everything we already knew is confirmed. Cool.

But here's the real question now: at what point does Verizon start throttling for unlimited users?

Since the vast majority of their customer base will be grandfathered users for the short/mid-term future, I can see many of them going buck wild on 4G data where accessible. Are they going to start throttling at any point? Top 5%? >10GBs?

Brandon
 
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