can verizon handle the congestion?

[Romple]

Felt the same way when I bought a new car a couple of years ago. It was TOTALLY unfair that the dealer didn't sell me the car for the same price I had paid eight years before.

You purchase a contact for one or two years, not a lifetime. VZW may allow you to keep the provisions of a previous contract if they feel it's in their interest to do so, but they are certainly not obligated to do so.

I completely understand what you're saying. But the difference between the cost of a car 8 years ago compared to today is a lot different than changing pricing structures that dictate how we use a device. If they just said "data's expensive we're raising unlimited to $35" I'd be completely behind your analogy.

I remember when I paid per minute on AOL. Didn't use the internet all that often. When they went to unlimited I was online all the time (sigh, someone get me out of the house!!!!). A pricing structure change resulted in a dramatic behavioral change.

But this is going backwards. Bandwidth is becoming cheaper and more available but pricing is becoming more expensive and restrictive. Having unlimited access to the internet is just an accepted way of life for most people. It's standard behavior that is threatened by tiered plans.

VZW is a business and will make decisions based on increasing their profits. A whole lot of people are going to end up paying more for using less than they do now. All the while the infrastructure is being improved to handle more capacity anyway. Just doesn't make sense from any perspective other than cold business. Which sucks for consumers.

 

[ytwokc5]

never mind, it says current users will be able to keep their existing plans while being able to upgrade to a new phone. so only new att customers will deal with this.

Don't bet on it. They will probably play the same game that Verizon does, "the phone you have selected is not compatable with your current plan". They will be able to upgrade to different phones, just none of the phones that everyone wants.

 

[jroc]

Felt the same way when I bought a new car a couple of years ago. It was TOTALLY unfair that the dealer didn't sell me the car for the same price I had paid eight years before.

You purchase a contact for one or two years, not a lifetime. VZW may allow you to keep the provisions of a previous contract if they feel it's in their interest to do so, but they are certainly not obligated to do so.

I completely understand what you're saying. But the difference between the cost of a car 8 years ago compared to today is a lot different than changing pricing structures that dictate how we use a device. If they just said "data's expensive we're raising unlimited to $35" I'd be completely behind your analogy.

I remember when I paid per minute on AOL. Didn't use the internet all that often. When they went to unlimited I was online all the time (sigh, someone get me out of the house!!!!). A pricing structure change resulted in a dramatic behavioral change.

But this is going backwards. Bandwidth is becoming cheaper and more available but pricing is becoming more expensive and restrictive. Having unlimited access to the internet is just an accepted way of life for most people. It's standard behavior that is threatened by tiered plans.

VZW is a business and will make decisions based on increasing their profits. A whole lot of people are going to end up paying more for using less than they do now. All the while the infrastructure is being improved to handle more capacity anyway. Just doesn't make sense from any perspective other than cold business. Which sucks for consumers.

Also, the CEO of Verizon (if I'm not mistaken with his title) said with the upcomng LTE it would cost Verizon less to transmit data vs. using the existing network. So, if thats the case, a tiered data plan on LTE should be priced waay better, have waay better 'data buckets'. That could make ppl wanna upgrade to LTE phones: better priced tiered data plans.

I cant wait til Verizon announces their plans......

 

[thatguy]

i for one will not be happy if verizon does this same thing. i will be happy to pay a significant amount less but a five dollar savings to go from unlimited (worry free) to 2GB limit (oh know am i going to go over) is ridiculous. 10 to 15 dollars a month for a 5 GB limit would be satisfactory in my opinion

 

[jsh1120]

i for one will not be happy if verizon does this same thing. i will be happy to pay a significant amount less but a five dollar savings to go from unlimited (worry free) to 2GB limit (oh know am i going to go over) is ridiculous. 10 to 15 dollars a month for a 5 GB limit would be satisfactory in my opinion

Unfortunately, you don't get to vote on what is "satisfactory," especially as all carriers go down the same road.

 

[jimnutt]

What I want is a family data plan. I have 4 phones with data plans right now (3 $30 and 1 $20) and it gets expensive. I'd like to be able to buy a bucket of gigabytes that I can share amongst all the phones on my plan. Unlimited isn't really necessary as long as I get a warning when I'm about 10mb from my limit and overages are priced reasonably.

 

[sroach23]

i wonder if they would ever do a wifi only phone to appeal to people that are around wifis most of the day. like college students that cant afford a data plan.

 

[jsh1120]

What I want is a family data plan. I have 4 phones with data plans right now (3 $30 and 1 $20) and it gets expensive. I'd like to be able to buy a bucket of gigabytes that I can share amongst all the phones on my plan. Unlimited isn't really necessary as long as I get a warning when I'm about 10mb from my limit and overages are priced reasonably.

The good news is that I suspect you may see that sort of plan coming along in the near future. As the line between "feature" phones and "smart" phones becomes increasingly blurred and as the line between use of the "voice" network and the "data" network is similarly blurred, I suspect that VZW and other carriers will shift their competitive offerings to the sort of plan you're outlining.

Such a plan would also benefit the carrier by encouraging users to shift to tiered pricing rather than hold onto their grandfathered "unlimited" plans that are, in fact, limited to a single device.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I've seen wifi phones with info how to set up gizmo5 and google voice on Ebay. But I bet they're cr*p. Still, that would be really attractive to me since I'm always covered under wifi unless I'm driving.

 

[pyro6128]

I strongly disagree with some of you guys. It is no way acceptable. Not at all. When you sign up for something that says "unlimited", I expect it to be exactly that. Unlimited. Thats what I pay for.

You signed up for an unlimited plan and you got one. They're not not giving you something you payed for. And the new people who don't get unlimited will be getting what they pay for. I use a lot of data, but I don't want to be paying for those jerks that abuse it. You shouldn't be using a phone to replace your home internet. Hopefully though verizon will create a pricing plan that won't cripple us. Going to the other extreme to prevent data hogs would be terrible. A nice middle ground would make most users happy and force the hogs to pay extra for slowing things down for the rest of us.
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[BigMcGuire]

AT&T Dials Up Limits on Web Data - WSJ.com

For those of you without a WSJ subscription - some highlights:

"The carrier says two-thirds of its smartphone customers use less than 200 megabytes a month and 98% use less than the 2 gigabytes of data offered under the bigger plan. Sanford C. Bernstein estimates the average iPhone customer uses 250 megabytes of data each month."

"The company is hoping customers will shift their data use to more-robust Wi-Fi networks, where unlimited use will be free under the plans."

"AT&T is scrambling to improve its network in New York and San Francisco, two cities where the crush of data use from the iPhone has hurt call quality. The company believes 3% of its subscribers account for 40% of its data traffic."

Nuff said.

 

[jsh1120]

i wonder if they would ever do a wifi only phone to appeal to people that are around wifis most of the day. like college students that cant afford a data plan.

In effect, that's the "plan" for the iPad/iTouch Wifi devices. No 3G support at all. But it's unclear why VZW (or any carrier) would have an incentive to market such a plan.

 

[pyro6128]

I guess with wifi only devices, they would have to charge full retail or something

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[JonDenver'sCopilot]

My guess is the grandfathering plan will include your current phone and contract. This means when someone decides to upgrade to a new model their data plan will change because they are signing a new contract. This means that current users will be fine, but when they want the new iphone 4 or whatever they decide to go with their contract will change as well, forcing them onto the new data bucket plan. Verizon will be doing the same thing (they have as much said so), the only catch will be how much cash they plan on charging for their buckets. A smart VZW would price better than ATT, but a greedy one would follow the market prices set by their competition. Any bets on whether they will be smart.... or greedy?

 

[nlinecomputers]

In effect, that's the "plan" for the iPad/iTouch Wifi devices. No 3G support at all. But it's unclear why VZW (or any carrier) would have an incentive to market such a plan.

The cell phone companies will not sell that version. You'll buy that at Walmart and Best Buy.