Verizon likely to implement tiered data plans later this year

[Shadez]

Verizon likely to implement tiered data plans later this year

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The days of unlimited data plans may soon be coming to an end. New comments from Verizon indicate the carrier will introduce tiered data pricing (similar to the moves made by AT&T earlier this month) when they move to 4G LTE later this year.


Verizon has been testing LTE in Boston plus several other markets and hopes to have 100 million people covered by the end of 2010. The carrier should offer several LTE modems this year and launch a LTE handset in 2011. Verizon maintains that their LTE network will be able to produce average download speeds of 5-12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2-5 Mbps.


The carrier expects an “explosions in data traffic” over wireless networks as more customers move to smartphones. Only 17 percent of Verizon customers currently use a smartphone, but that number is expected to increase to 70 to 80 percent “over time”.



Current Verizon smartphone customers are using up 600 to 800 megabytes of data per month and that is expected to grow with the increased bandwidth that LTE offers and new smartphone hardware features like front-facing cameras.

“We will probably need to change the design of our pricing where it will not be totally unlimited, flat rate.”

John KillianCFO Verizon​

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Sprint is the only carrier to offer truly unlimited data with the EVO 4G and its required $10 premium data add-on, while T-Mobile has eliminated overage charges for unlimited data plans and throttles speeds when customers surpass 5 GB.


Verizon likely to implement tiered data plans later this year – Android and Me

edit : thread moved to a more appropiate place

@ Shadez thanks for the post

Miami

 

[christim]

Guess you gotta take the good news with the bad. We'll wait to see if this means the average user's bill goes up, or goes down.

thanks for the heads up

 

[jntdroid]

This makes sense, especially given the tethering "problem". It will force heavy tether users to pay for what they're using. Whether we like it or not, it's really the only way for the carriers to control usage while keeping the cost structure fair for the average and heavy users.

 

[Shadez]

I wonder how it will go into effect for current users, will they set a cap on the $30 plan, or change it and offer more bandwidth at higher costs.. hmm

 

[jntdroid]

Isn't AT&T phasing it in for new users and just letting old users phase out as their plans expire? Not saying that's how VZW will do it, but seems logical...

 

[bad4u]

Im kind of looking forward to this. Just hoping they offer a $20 or even $15 plan for low bandwidth users.

 

[Shadez]

Im kind of looking forward to this. Just hoping they offer a $20 or even $15 plan for low bandwidth users.

Yea, if it replaces the $30 now ..

 

[joehmayfield]

i spoke with a area account manager that takes care of agent stores in virginia, and he said that the tiers will be SPEED BASED not usage based and will have the same existing caps for tethering on the 4G network, anything on the 3G network will be unlimited and still the same price.

 

[wuyanks]

i spoke with a area account manager that takes care of agent stores in virginia, and he said that the tiers will be SPEED BASED not usage based and will have the same existing caps for tethering on the 4G network, anything on the 3G network will be unlimited and still the same price.

interesting... first time hearing of this...

 

[Mojo]

See... I do not agree with this at all! I think data caps are a bunch of bull, this is why.

First customers do not understand what a megabyte or megabit or a kilobyte is, at least as far as billing is concerned. People understand if they use 1000 minutes or send a 1000 text messages. But how many times can I get on the internet with my bucket of megabytes concept? The answer is the same,it depends on what sites you go to, are you streaming audio and video, how many documents or files you download, how your apps connect to the web. Are they always on apps? Then there are adds they add to the bandwidth. See data is muti-functional. Its not practical to have a limit on total ammounts data. You create people that are afraid of huge bills created by overage and they do not by as many smartphone devices.
It is practical to bill for buckets of minutes or text because it single functions. You talk or text.

 

[Stretch2m]

See... I do not agree with this at all! I think data caps are a bunch of bull, this is why.

First customers do not understand what a megabyte or megabit or a kilobyte is, at least as far as billing is concerned. People understand if they use 1000 minutes or send a 1000 text messages. But how many times can I get on the internet with my bucket of megabytes concept? The answer is the same,it depends on what sites you go to, are you streaming audio and video, how many documents or files you download, how your apps connect to the web. Are they always on apps? Then there are adds they add to the bandwidth. See data is muti-functional. Its not practical to have a limit on total ammounts data. You create people that are afraid of huge bills created by overage and they do not by as many smartphone devices.
It is practical to bill for buckets of minutes or text because it single functions. You talk or text.

I agree with you. While I would be happy to pay less than $30 for my data (because I use very little data), I am certainly not looking forward to having to "police" my megabytes constantly in fear of exceeding my cap and then paying exorbitantly by the megabyte.

I suppose a system that would work for me would be a tiered system with specific limits, and you simply pay for the tier you used that month. Like if they have a 1GB, 5GB and 10GB tier: say I use 800MB one month, I pay the 1GB price that month; but if I happen to use 3GB the next month, I pay for the 5GB tier, etc. This gives me a definite incentive not to abuse my data usage (which is their goal, obviously), but doesn't gouge my wallet in periods of heavy data usage.

Imagine if you signed up for a 1GB data plan and ended up using 5GB - that's 4000MB paid for by the MB. I'm not sure what a MB costs these days but even if it was only $0.05, 4000MB comes out to be $200 freakin dollars! Whereas a 5GB tier might only have cost $30 - $40. There are going to be a lot of very unhappy smartphone users if the tier system is a fixed cap with pay-for-usage above that!

 

[wuyanks]

stretch2m, if VZW follows the ATT model, pricing won't get extravagant if you go over.

$25 for 2gb data if i recall, then if you go over that, $10 per gb ($35 for 3gb, $45 for 4gb, etc), if i recall correctly...

 

[christim]

The My Verizon app lets me monitor my usage. If it warned me when I thought I was getting close that might do the trick. Now, if I'm tethering a bunch of X-Boxes and not paying attention to my phone...well, I guess I'll pay more attention next month, won't I ?

Better yet, data traffic stops and I have an option to upgrade my plan for the rest of the month, leave data off until the end of the month, or pay the higher rate. All speculation at this stage of how they will implement it. I'm sure we'll be hearing more in the days to come.

 

[Mojo]

I agree there should be smaller packages available for users. I think it would be reasonable to have say 2 gigs for 20$ 5 gigs for 25$ and unlimited plus wifi hotspot tethering for 50$. If you transmit x ammount of data say a gig in 12hours. Have the speeds throttled down to 3g. To protect the network from overload.

 

[Stretch2m]

stretch2m, if VZW follows the ATT model, pricing won't get extravagant if you go over.

$25 for 2gb data if i recall, then if you go over that, $10 per gb ($35 for 3gb, $45 for 4gb, etc), if i recall correctly...

If that's what they end up doing (or something like that) I would be happy.