$30 Dollar/Month Unlimited 4G LTE Data Plan Available with Thunderbolt - For Now

[dgstorm]

Today, you can officially purchase the HTC Thunderbolt, and late yesterday, Verizon issued their press release making sure we knew. Contrary to Verizon's previously stated stance that they will eventually do away with unlimited data plans, they are offering exactly that with the new HTC Thunderbolt. For $29.99 per month you can get an unlimited 4G LTE data plan when you purchase the TBolt on contract. This is especially enticing since the TBolt can be used as its own mobile WiFi hotspot. Their own USB 4G home internet modems seem obsolete in comparison, since their plans are about $80 bucks a month for only a 10GB data plan. The TBolt suddenly becomes your more affordable home internet for some users.

It's doubtful that you will be able to "grandfather" this unlimited 4G plan in the future since Verizon still plans on getting rid of that, but we don't know for sure. Below is a link to the full press release.

Source: Verizon - HTC Thunderbolt Full Press Release

 

[TheOldFart]

I thought that free wifi hotspot was only until sometime in May and then it will incur the listed hotspot monthly charge of something like $20 for 1GB.

 

[ojohnny]

You are right TheOldFart the hotspot is only until May 15.

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

I predict that the carrier that keeps unlimited data plans will eventually become the biggest wireless carrier in the nation. Whether it is Sprint or T-Mobile or whomever. At a minimum it will head that direction and AT&T and Verizon will bring them back in order to preempt it.

 

[pandabear]

Don't know if it's been addressed anywhere else in the forum, but I talked to a customer service rep on the phone to ask about the status of the talk/text/+data promotion status with upgrading to the thunderbolt (called number from flyer). I was informed there should be no change to the promotion and had one ordered. So far there has been no change to my promotion on the verizon website, but he gave me his number in case anything should change. Looks promising, if those of us with the promotion can get grandfathered into unlimited 4G data with the promo... dancedroid

 

[Beardface]

Ugh... I have unlimited 3G, but am not due for an early upgrade until September. Hearing this, and knowing that Verizon is likely going to phase out unlimited plans this summer makes me seriously consider trying to upgrade early and re-up right now. Especially since 4G might be the norm for at least another 2 years, and if I can lock myself into an unlimited 4G plan right now...

Ugh... Maybe this will stay around for another 6 months... *sigh*

 

[SkullOne]

Well I'm locked into unlimited 4G now. Muhahaha. My D1 served me faithfully but this TB is pretty damned impressive.

 

[shoot2scre]

I want unlimited 4g... but I also want a more powerful phone... what to do... what to do...

 

[Detonation]

I want unlimited 4g... but I also want a more powerful phone... what to do... what to do...

Wait until just before the switch to the tiered option. Given the amount of public attention this is getting, there is no way they'll just make the switch overnight without anyone knowing. My plan is to buy the best phone available at that time.

 

[Sal]

You are right TheOldFart the hotspot is only until May 15.

Oddly, not that we always believe them, but...The manager at my Verizon Wireless corp store, where I just bought the TB, said we would NOT have to start to pay for hotspot if activated before May 15th.

 

[kodiak799]

Wait until just before the switch to the tiered option. Given the amount of public attention this is getting, there is no way they'll just make the switch overnight without anyone knowing. My plan is to buy the best phone available at that time.

That's my plan as well, although I'm kind of needing LTE as my 3G speeds (could be the GB roms on D1) have become so slow and inconsistent as to be frequently unusable.

If I do a TBolt thru Best Buy retail, I could sell it back for 50% in 6 months, at which time I'm due for my last NE2 upgrade. But if you go with that plan you'd get a new phone every 6 months for the price of 1 retail annually. There is, of course, absolutely no guarantee that you can just activate a new phone whenever and keep the same data plan.

The other question is whether you can keep unlimited LTE on a contract upgrade. I say that's unlikely, and it may not matter regardless. At best, even if they only throttle you then what's unlimited LTE really worth if you get 3G speeds after just 2gigs of data?

Maybe the rooted tethers aren't enough of a problem/issue for VZW to bother with. However, I find it hard to believe they will continue to practice that with LTE. Although I would think throttling would be sufficient.

 

[TheOldFart]

Wait until just before the switch to the tiered option. Given the amount of public attention this is getting, there is no way they'll just make the switch overnight without anyone knowing. My plan is to buy the best phone available at that time.

That's my plan as well, although I'm kind of needing LTE as my 3G speeds (could be the GB roms on D1) have become so slow and inconsistent as to be frequently unusable.

If I do a TBolt thru Best Buy retail, I could sell it back for 50% in 6 months, at which time I'm due for my last NE2 upgrade. But if you go with that plan you'd get a new phone every 6 months for the price of 1 retail annually. There is, of course, absolutely no guarantee that you can just activate a new phone whenever and keep the same data plan.

The other question is whether you can keep unlimited LTE on a contract upgrade. I say that's unlikely, and it may not matter regardless. At best, even if they only throttle you then what's unlimited LTE really worth if you get 3G speeds after just 2gigs of data?

Maybe the rooted tethers aren't enough of a problem/issue for VZW to bother with. However, I find it hard to believe they will continue to practice that with LTE. Although I would think throttling would be sufficient.

I wonder if they ever considered throttling in stages and just keeping unlimited data. Something like throttle to 50% or 3G speed after 2GB, 30% after 5GB, 20% after 10GB or whatever. That would seem like a good business decision to conserve bandwidth and still advertise unlimited data. For the user, it would give 95%+ high speed the entire month and give everybody data without having to worry about overcharges.

 

[kodiak799]

I wonder if they ever considered throttling in stages and just keeping unlimited data. Something like throttle to 50% or 3G speed after 2GB, 30% after 5GB, 20% after 10GB or whatever. That would seem like a good business decision to conserve bandwidth and still advertise unlimited data. For the user, it would give 95%+ high speed the entire month and give everybody data without having to worry about overcharges.

That aligns with the "cap" philosophy. But LTE has at least, what, 10-12X the bandwidth? They don't have to throttle percentages, 3G as the bottom would probably be sufficient.

Put another way, if you want top LTE speeds (@12mbps?) for 10 gigs, my guess is you might be looking at $80 a month. If you need 10 gigs of data, for $30 you'll be lucky to get 2mbps on average. And because of throttling it's effectively the same thing, unlimited or not. That's basically how TMo does it, and it makes perfect sense to me.

For a time, early adopters will get a "freebie", but once throttling starts en mass they can just as easily slot you into whatever speed tier $30 would get you according to your usage requirements.

 

[TheOldFart]

That aligns with the "cap" philosophy. But LTE has at least, what, 10-12X the bandwidth? They don't have to throttle percentages, 3G as the bottom would probably be sufficient.

Put another way, if you want top LTE speeds (@12mbps?) for 10 gigs, my guess is you might be looking at $80 a month. If you need 10 gigs of data, for $30 you'll be lucky to get 2mbps on average. And because of throttling it's effectively the same thing, unlimited or not. That's basically how TMo does it, and it makes perfect sense to me.

For a time, early adopters will get a "freebie", but once throttling starts en mass they can just as easily slot you into whatever speed tier $30 would get you according to your usage requirements.

Right. If you sign a new contract now, you will have unlimited for at least the duration of the contract. However, I don't think that Verizon has guaranteed that the unlimited data will be at full speed no matter what amount you use. Unless the contract specifically says that all data will be full speed, they would not violate the contract by throttling at whatever point they choose.

However, since I have never used more than 600MB in a month, I would love to see tiered pricing where I can get 1GB for $20, but I doubt they would make it that cheap. It would more likely be 250MB for $20 and perhaps 1GB for $30. I guess we'll just have to wait until summer. I hope that they announce the pricing before they sneak the new plan on us.

 

[nimblejester]

unlimited data

Its 5 Gigs after you hit that they send a cease and desist order well letter.