Verizon to drop Unlimited Data on 7/29, tiered pricing to follow?

[NeoandGeo]

In my opinion they are stealing from us by charging for texts, when they cost literally nothing to them.

I feel McDonalds is stealing from us when that $1.29 large Coke costs maybe 2 cents to put into the cup.

Fair enough, but I was making more of a point to show that one should not be called out for using their plan the way it is labeled. Unlimited is unlimited, whether you use 500MB or 100GB.

 

[kodiak799]

Fair enough, but I was making more of a point to show that one should not be called out for using their plan the way it is labeled. Unlimited is unlimited, whether you use 500MB or 100GB.

Well, it's not unrestricted unlimited data. Tethering is a violation of the ToS. VZW has a billing mechanism in place, subverting that mechanism and violating the ToS is stealing, plain and simple - either with a direct billing mechanism with 2.2 or indirectly by offering wireless cards to provide data to laptops.

It's really no different than I can watch all the cable tv I want, but it becomes stealing when I splice that to go into my neighbor's house.

 

[NeoandGeo]

Never mentioned that. But I for instance, browse the web only using full HTML, rarely the mobile sites. So I tend to use much more data than the regular user. Seems a lot of people in this thread are against this completely legit and legal use of my unlimited.

 

[DanDroidX]

The truly interesting thing, that everyone seems to be looking past, is that they can't apply these tiered data plans until after your contract is finished. Hence the name contract.

 

[NeoandGeo]

What about the fine print? My Dish Network contract says they can change the terms of the contract at any time.

 

[kodiak799]

Never mentioned that. But I for instance, browse the web only using full HTML, rarely the mobile sites. So I tend to use much more data than the regular user. Seems a lot of people in this thread are against this completely legit and legal use of my unlimited.

Well, the stealing debate was regarding tethering.

I don't care how much data someone uses UNTIL it starts to slow down the network. If one means of alleviating this is to charge heavy users more (who are likely to be taking up more bandwidth at peak times), then I have no issue with that. I pay for speed and reliability with no intention of my cell replacing my PC as my primary internet usage, so I'm unsympathetic to people who are shifting their usage patterns and bogging down the network as a result.

Throttling would be a more ideal solution, but I'm not sure anyone has done that on mobile devices or if they can - a tiered plan for different download speeds, but still unlimited, being the most equitable solution. When bandwidth becomes constrained, then people should pay for the bandwidth they use.

 

[fenriswolf039]

I wouldn't mind paying a little more for unlimited data. I use about 12gb a month.

If there is no unlimited plan, then I will simply sell my Droid and reactivate my LG Voyager.

That alone will cut my monthly bill almost in half.

 

[NeoandGeo]

Seems that ATT and Verizon should have prepared better. I have no sympathy for them since they have been collecting billions over the past 5 years on services that cost them money.

 

[kodiak799]

What about the fine print? My Dish Network contract says they can change the terms of the contract at any time.

Such loopholes are intended more to give the company ability to respond to unexpected and extraordinary issues. It would be very bad business practice to change terms midstream, otherwise, and why I doubt VZW would do so. They'll get you on the upgrade soon enough.

 

[kodiak799]

Seems that ATT and Verizon should have prepared better. I have no sympathy for them since they have been collecting billions over the past 5 years on services that cost them money.

Yeah, well they're in the business to make money and basic supply and demand says they can and will charge heavy users more than light users. This is not socialism. They are not in business to provide you free an unlimited service to your heart's content. But to your point, yeah, I guess they aren't charging enough if they are running into capacity issues.

As for the planning, the capital outlays are huge and take time, not to mention you have licensing rights and leases in place to locate your towers. Poor planning in the other direction puts them out of business and less providers is rarely a good thing for consumers.

 

[NeoandGeo]

Meant to say "no money" not money. Where is the edit? :icon_eek:

 

[Vulcan1600]

The truly interesting thing, that everyone seems to be looking past, is that they can't apply these tiered data plans until after your contract is finished. Hence the name contract.

If you look back on this thread and others, I've been saying the same thing. VZW could change in the middle of the contract, but they broke their agreement, therefore you can get out of contract. So, they will wait and within 2 years, all contracts will be over and then everyone will be tiered. I can hardly believe all the people on here thinking a big switch will be pushed and everyone will have no contract. Do you think a company with 80 million plus subscribers would do that? That would be suicide to them. Big Red is much smarter than to do that.

 

[NaterGator]

Seems that ATT and Verizon should have prepared better. I have no sympathy for them since they have been collecting billions over the past 5 years on services that cost them money.

Yeah, well they're in the business to make money and basic supply and demand says they can and will charge heavy users more than light users. This is not socialism. They are not in business to provide you free an unlimited service to your heart's content. But to your point, yeah, I guess they aren't charging enough if they are running into capacity issues.

As for the planning, the capital outlays are huge and take time, not to mention you have licensing rights and leases in place to locate your towers. Poor planning in the other direction puts them out of business and less providers is rarely a good thing for consumers.

Capacity issue... please. Verizon is a massive service provider and profits fistfuls of money. What they have is an inappropriate investment in infrastructure to pay high dividends to investors. Verizon's obviously done cost analysis and decided you won't leave them as a customer as they nickel and dime you some more because they're not investing in capacity expansion.

They don't need shiny new towers, they need to allocate more bandwidth on their (huge) fiber network and plan for the capacity in their upcoming 4G expansion.

The best thing consumers can do if it really matters to them is switch to sprint and tell Verizon and AT&T to stuff it. If enough people did it to make a difference AT&T and Verizon would drop tiered pricing in a heartbeat.

 

[ChugIt]

The best thing consumers can do if it really matters to them is switch to sprint and tell Verizon and AT&T to stuff it. If enough people did it to make a difference AT&T and Verizon would drop tiered pricing in a heartbeat.

Absolutely wrong. The fact is that Sprint will follow suit eventually too. Than all of you who switched just might be in a worse situation wishing you never left Verizon. Wait a year or 2 and you will remember reading this.

 

[drk1]

The best thing consumers can do if it really matters to them is switch to sprint and tell Verizon and AT&T to stuff it. If enough people did it to make a difference AT&T and Verizon would drop tiered pricing in a heartbeat.

The only thing to do is for everyone (me included) to learn to live without web browsing, texting, games, etc. and go back to using a cellular phone as a phone.
Where's my Nokia 638?

Seriously, the businesses have looked at all this well ahead of time and except for hurting them in their wallet (by lowering our monthly cellular bill)
not much else to do.

I was an old Alltel customer, Big V tried it darndest to make us think we would have to convert (to a V plan), the old plan would run out, etc. I only upgraded to Verizon and a data plan cuz my son's off to college soon.