[Update] Verizon's New Family Data Plans Begin: It's Called the Share Everything Plan

[nikecar]

10GB for $100 = $10 per GB.
1GB for $50 = $50 per GB

Call me crazy, but apparently Verizon thinks we are idiots. Who is going to pay FIVE TIMES more for 1/10 the data? Absolute bananas.

Say You go to the supermarket and get cereal in a 17oz box for $3.50, instead of the 40oz for $1 more because you don,t think you need such a large box. You just paid more for less, on a per oz basis.

We all do it at times.

 

[neoterixx64]

I think I figured Verizon's logic out! 4g has ushered in more smartphones than expected so current bandwidth is limited. What to do? Double the cost and lose half the customers. No more bandwidth problems. Fewer customers to complain. Same cash coming in. In 2 years when the people who left are ready to renew their current carriers will have copied the idea so Verizon looks good once again due to better network. By this time 4g is finally able to handle the new heavier traffic - so the old customers come back. Great plan actually...

I disagree no one wants to lose customers. That's just bad business.

 

[Jmoore1701]

Say You go to the supermarket and get cereal in a 17oz box for $3.50, instead of the 40oz for $1 more because you don,t think you need such a large box. You just paid more for less, on a per oz basis.
We all do it at times.

nikecar, I see both your point and darrick04's...but these prices seem like Verizon wants to drive sales towards larger data packages, and punish those who choose smaller ones. From a sales/revenue point of view, that's logical, but they're moving people off unlimited because they themselves don't have "unlimited" data. So from an infrastructure point of view, they should discourage the bigger data packages, right? I dunno, I don't think I'll ever understand: why not just do a straight, per-gigabyte price structure, say $10 or $15? After all, they're going to charge $15 per gb for overages, right? Why not just take actual usage each month and multiply by $15? Simple, fair, and they make their money.

Let's say you take the price per gigabyte for each level (50, 30, 17.5, 13.33, 11.25, and 10)...the average of those is around $22. Why not just charge a flat $20 per gigabyte? Of course, I'm sure they considered that, and have a good business reason for not charging a flat rate. Who knows?

 

[nikecar]

nikecar, I see both your point and darrick04's...but these prices seem like Verizon wants to drive sales towards larger data packages, and punish those who choose smaller ones. From a sales/revenue point of view, that's logical, but they're moving people off unlimited because they themselves don't have "unlimited" data. So from an infrastructure point of view, they should discourage the bigger data packages, right? I dunno, I don't think I'll ever understand: why not just do a straight, per-gigabyte price structure, say $10 or $15? After all, they're going to charge $15 per gb for overages, right? Why not just take actual usage each month and multiply by $15? Simple, fair, and they make their money.

Let's say you take the price per gigabyte for each level (50, 30, 17.5, 13.33, 11.25, and 10)...the average of those is around $22. Why not just charge a flat $20 per gigabyte? Of course, I'm sure they considered that, and have a good business reason for not charging a flat rate. Who knows?

Let me say I'm not a fan of the new plans.

That said, making it a per gb rate that is consistent would be too logical, and vzw wasn't thinking as such. However a discounted rate is fairly common in the industry. How does sams club and Costco survive.

They know no one will pay $50 for 1gb but when you perceive value at $100 for 10gb as you show, there is more incentive to get that plan . It's like saying I can get cereal more than twice as much for one a dollar more? I'll take it.


Same applies here. That plan makes it more attractive to larger families. Vzw knows no one will do 1gb, but they want you to perceive the value and thus justification to get a higher plan.

 

[Jmoore1701]

Let me say I'm not a fan of the new plans.
That said, making it a per gb rate that is consistent would be too logical, and vzw wasn't thinking as such. However a discounted rate is fairly common in the industry. How does sams club and Costco survive.
They know no one will pay $50 for 1gb but when you perceive value at $100 for 10gb as you show, there is more incentive to get that plan . It's like saying I can get cereal more than twice as much for one a dollar more? I'll take it.
Same applies here. That plan makes it more attractive to larger families. Vzw knows no one will do 1gb, but they want you to perceive the value and thus justification to get a higher plan.

You make sense, as usual, nikecar...I didn't think about "perceived value" and such. Customers aren't always logical, either, so businesses offer discount rates as incentives. Oh, well.

 

[sonixmon]

You guys are crazy and should stop bickering. I love the idea of having limited, shared data so I can't watch any movies on my phone outside of WiFi for more than 10minutes, nor download any big files to my phone.





/s

We will become a much more productive society too with less data to keep us distracted


Someone made an interesting point too, to ease the pain or stop the negative feedback keep your eyes peeled for a double your data scheme coming soon LOL.

Double your data would be more inline, but still not great.

I think the $40 per phone is too high too, I know people like to compare the $10 a line to the $40, but it is unlimited. Why they didnt come out with different minute options IDK.

Say $60 Family share 800, $10 add a line and $50 2GB this would be $120 for 2 people @ 2GB and 800 mins, heck make it 800 texts too.

Then tier the other plans up to $80 unlimited, $10 add a line and pick your data. This would be $140-$180 depending on data package, then keep adding lines $10-20. It would have brought customers over for sure!

O' well, I am just glad my contract is up in Sept. so I can explore other options...

 

[donnie5336]

Ok I called VZW yesterday and was told this... as long as you do not make any changes to your service, you will not be forced to go with a new share everything plan. That is only an OPTION. This includes a phone upgrade. He explained that phone/hardware upgrades are on a "line-level" and everything else is considered "account-level." Line-level changes will not force you out of a plan you are currently in even if that plan is no longer available. Account-level changes include adding data services or text packages to an existing line, adding a line, etc.

I have 3 lines currently. My wife and I both have smartphones with unlimited data. My son has a feature phone with shared minutes and pay as you go text. I told the rep I will be adding a line probably in the next 2 years for my daughter, and soon will probably add text to my sons line. I asked if I should do this before June 28th and he said that is exactly what he would do because after that, this type of change will force me into a new contract but as long as all lines and services stay the same, a phone upgrade will not.

 

[TheOldFart]

10GB for $100 = $10 per GB.
1GB for $50 = $50 per GB

Call me crazy, but apparently Verizon thinks we are idiots. Who is going to pay FIVE TIMES more for 1/10 the data? Absolute bananas.

So somebody who never uses over 1GB a month is going to pay $100 for 10GB because his 1GB will only cost $10??????????????? Hmmm, let me think about how that makes him smart.

 

[Caesars]

The minimum for a family plan should NEVER be 1gb, I'm not sure this will ever fly the first time someone gets an overage charge and calls the legal department lol. I understand it's a contract but this is going to spawn such bad PR. If they think people will use 1gb with multiple lines they should force you onto a higher data plan and SAME month credit you if you stay under 1gb. I can see it now "my kids will leave wifi on everywhere, us 5 will never go over 1gb". Am I missing something? I don't want to look like a fool if I am :/)

 

[mountainbikermark]

The minimum for a family plan should NEVER be 1gb, I'm not sure this will ever fly the first time someone gets an overage charge and calls the legal department lol. I understand it's a contract but this is going to spawn such bad PR. If they think people will use 1gb with multiple lines they should force you onto a higher data plan and SAME month credit you if you stay under 1gb. I can see it now "my kids will leave wifi on everywhere, us 5 will never go over 1gb". Am I missing something? I don't want to look like a fool if I am :/)

Looking at my actual usage, as a family, over the last 7 months and the new plan to pay the same amount as I pay now I'd have to get the 4gb plan but since between the 2 smartphones I now have rarely go over 1gb between them, I could safely drop to a 2gb plan. 1 thing parents can do is look at their families overall usage and determine from there. My family may or may not be the norm, but my daughters smartphone has been relegated to basically a fancy dumbphone that I'm paying a data plan on. She is well aware of her phones capabilities, just doesn't use them often.
That being said, families whose kids watch a lot of YouTube over LTE could potentially have a big problem once they go to the new plan.
I love the box of cereal analogy above. Fits my situation perfectly.

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[Caesars]

Definitely in the minority lol, most parents don't have enough control over the kids to do that. Impressive for sure, but to the parents who don't have perfect children, this is going to be a cluster mess .

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[nikecar]

Ok I called VZW yesterday and was told this... as long as you do not make any changes to your service, you will not be forced to go with a new share everything plan. That is only an OPTION. This includes a phone upgrade. He explained that phone/hardware upgrades are on a "line-level" and everything else is considered "account-level." Line-level changes will not force you out of a plan you are currently in even if that plan is no longer available. Account-level changes include adding data services or text packages to an existing line, adding a line, etc.

I think we all know this, and has been said many many times already. thanks though.

 

[fetchman]

Okay, I think that I have decided upon my strategy regarding this new plan but I need a little help from some of you that use a whole lot of data. I currently have a shared 550minute, 250 text plan with unlimited data. If it is a busy month, I use 100 minutes, 10 texts and less than 1gb of data. I have just about a year left on my contract and no upgrades available so upgrading my D3 at this time doesn’tmake any sense to me. I’m sure Verizon loves me.
Now for the strategy. I’m going to try to use as much data as I possibly can so maybe Verizon will eventually see all this data usage and make me some kind of offer “that I can’t refuse” in order to get me off unlimited. I’m fine with the phone that I have and if it breaks, gets lost or I just get tired of it, I can afford to replace it at full retail if necessary – I blow that much monthly at the casinos. So I can probably stay on my current plan indefinitely. My problem is that I don’t know how people use the 10, 20,30gb’s a month that I see being used on these forums. What are some data hogs that don’t require a lot of intervention? I guess I could just keep Netflix going all the time but streaming music maybe would be easier. I have and do tether to my laptop and tablet periodically but for this strategy I want to stay within the TOS. If it wasn’t for that, I would just tether to my laptop and forget that I have high speed internet at home – where I always am.

 

[tech_head]

Okay, I think that I have decided upon my strategy regarding this new plan but I need a little help from some of you that use a whole lot of data. I currently have a shared 550minute, 250 text plan with unlimited data. If it is a busy month, I use 100 minutes, 10 texts and less than 1gb of data. I have just about a year left on my contract and no upgrades available so upgrading my D3 at this time doesn’tmake any sense to me. I’m sure Verizon loves me.
Now for the strategy. I’m going to try to use as much data as I possibly can so maybe Verizon will eventually see all this data usage and make me some kind of offer “that I can’t refuse” in order to get me off unlimited. I’m fine with the phone that I have and if it breaks, gets lost or I just get tired of it, I can afford to replace it at full retail if necessary – I blow that much monthly at the casinos. So I can probably stay on my current plan indefinitely. My problem is that I don’t know how people use the 10, 20,30gb’s a month that I see being used on these forums. What are some data hogs that don’t require a lot of intervention? I guess I could just keep Netflix going all the time but streaming music maybe would be easier. I have and do tether to my laptop and tablet periodically but for this strategy I want to stay within the TOS. If it wasn’t for that, I would just tether to my laptop and forget that I have high speed internet at home – where I always am.

Funny.

I don't see how that will work. They aren't going to offer you anything to get off the plan.
They do that at upgrade time.

I stream HBO GO, Dish@Home, Pandora and never connect to WiFi.
I use anywhere from 2.5-5GB a month.
My wife consistently uses in the 4GB/month range.

10GB, not sure how you can get there unless you stream constantly.

 

[fetchman]

Oh well. It made me feel good writing it.