Shared Data Plans & ISIS on Verizon Could Come Next Year According to VZW CEO

[dgstorm]

Lowell McAdam, the CEO of Verizon Communications, recently shared some interesting info at a UBS conference in New York City. He indicated that shared data plans on Verizon Wireless could come early next year. With shared data plans, a family of five would share a pool of data, in the same way that current family calling plans share voice minutes. The same plan would also work for an individual customer that owned several different devices, like a tablet, phone and USB Modem. McAdam said,

“I think in 2012 we will see it. We have been working on this for a couple of years. Getting to one bill and getting to account-level pricing is our goal.”

Additionally, Verizon plans to roll-out their mobile payment plan, called ISIS, created in a joint venture between VZW, AT&T and T-Mobile. They expect to roll-out this service by the end of 2012, and generate revenue with it by 2013.

Source: BGR

 

[Str8Aro]

Man, I wish this was available now. I am upgrading to the GN (when it finally launches) and my wife could go on my unlimited data. She has a "feature" phone now but is due for an upgrade, also. Of course, they may not let us keep the unlimited data if one switches to this new streamlined plan, eh? Anyone know if any details are out about that?

 

[soulpatch]

almost guarentee you that changing to a data share plan woudl constitute as a plan change and thus you woudl lose your grandfathered unlimited data. You are better off for her line to have whatever she uses and you maintain the unlimited...

 

[mrmark27]

This would be awesome if they allowed the sharing of unlimited data across multiple devices, however i dont see that happening. I pay $20 a month now for my unlimited data and had thought about picking up a tablet or hotspot for my parents but the thought of spending another $30+ a month for tiered data really turned me off. if they did something like $50 a month for unlimited data across all devices on the plan, that could be a winner imho

 

[soulpatch]

So glad I got in on that promo a bit over a year ago for 20 bucks off unlimited data per line. If I hadnt then this would be something up my alley. The wife and I would have been able to share say 5-10GB a month and been fine...

 

[Gillyanne]

almost guarentee you that changing to a data share plan would constitute as a plan change and thus you woudl lose your grandfathered unlimited data. You are better off for her line to have whatever she uses and you maintain the unlimited...

I'm thinking the same thing. My step father and I are on the grandfathered unlimited currently and are the only 2 with smartphones which use it currently. I did inquire about using the hotspot and was told that on our unlimited plans, the hotspot would be limited to the extra 2gb they give us; however if we had had a tiered data plan (which I now have on my new xoom) the two allowances would be grouped together and be able to used in any formation (eg: 2GB tiered plan + 2GB hotspot = 4GB to use anyway between the two). And what I'm getting at with this is given that the hotspot doesn't use the grandfathered, I don't think they would use it for the new shared plan either....

 

[tjk629]

I like the idea of shared data. I think a lot of people would get smart phone if they could just share data.