Better Upgrade Soon, Verizon killing Grandfathering Unlimited LTE

[the DRIZZLE]

It's inevitable that all carriers will move to tiered data. The only question is how crappy the pricing will be.

 

[shortylickens]

Verizon has good coverage and speed because they spend more money upgrading their infrastructure instead of mostly paying off regulators like AT&T does.

Well, I didnt wanna get political, but, yeah.

 

[dagamer34]

You basically need to buy your phone off-contract until the end of time if you want to stick with unlimited data on Verizon. Oh, and no official tethering on phones either.

Unless you're using more than 5GB of data a month and are using an Android phone where you can get a custom ROM to disable the official tethering check, I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[kaerflog]

You basically need to buy your phone off-contract until the end of time if you want to stick with unlimited data on Verizon. Oh, and no official tethering on phones either.

Unless you're using more than 5GB of data a month and are using an Android phone where you can get a custom ROM to disable the official tethering check, I'm not sure it's worth it.

I don't know if this will even work.
They know when you change to a LTE phone.
They might just change your data plan anyway.

 

[gotsmack]

Apparently at&t is planning to do the same thing if you can believe bloomberg, and I do. collusion?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...faceoff-with-at-t-over-family-plans-tech.html

its hard to make a call on this yet without knowing the pricing and data tiers, but I dont think it will be good for consumers

I just wish cable, phone, and wireless companies would just die and become the dumb data pipes they are destined for.

It's not too clear from the article if AT&T will end unlimited. They already have data caps for unlimited so it is not that big of an issue for them.

I just don't want to get hit by data overages. I am fine with much slower browsing speed
when I go over my allotment.

 

[IGemini]

Ditto. Their $30 unlimited text+data w/ 100 voice minutes is very, very tempting.

I didn't believe this when I first read it, but then I found the plan...had to dig through their site a bit. I pitch almost that much monthly to VZW for data itself. I hope they still have that offer when my contract is up in a year. I'm not too concerned about unlimited, but the current plan rate doesn't justify anything less than a 5GB cap with Verizon's change in data offers.

All the carriers moving from unlimited is likely reflexive. Even a single big carrier doesn't want to be the odd-man-out still with unlimited data and absorbing all the switchers. Unless Sprint can keep up with that demand, they'll probably follow suit in the next couple years.

 

[wirednuts]

i dont have a problem with caps but my god they have got to figure out a way to cap just the extremist users and not the advanced users who actually want to use their data service for things like streaming and tethering. i think a 50gb would be reasonable on phones, but 5gb? 2gb? seriously, that is an effin joke

 

[the DRIZZLE]

i dont have a problem with caps but my god they have got to figure out a way to cap just the extremist users and not the advanced users who actually want to use their data service for things like streaming and tethering. i think a 50gb would be reasonable on phones, but 5gb? 2gb? seriously, that is an effin joke

50gb is at least 50x the median user. If you need that much you should pay significantly more than someone who just uses the phone for email. If everyone used that much the prices would be much much higher.

 

[notposting]

50gb is at least 50x the median user. If you need that much you should pay significantly more than someone who just uses the phone for email. If everyone used that much the prices would be much much higher.

Well, they should only be charging $5 for the person who just uses email in that case.

Plus (and this is something you see even with the land line ISP's) the commercials don't tout the ability to check your email once a day. They are pushing you to WATCH STREAMING HD VIDEOOOOOS!!! PLAY GRAPHICS HEAVY GAMES ONLINE!!! WITH HUGE DOWNLOADS!!! USE THE CLOOOOOOUD FOR ALL YOUR NEEEDS!!! YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!*


* to do any of this we need one testicle and your first born as a deposit, along with direct access to your checking account on payday. Speeds may vary from blazing to the more likely, crawling along. Coverage areas may not include residential, commercial or industrial buildings, motor vehicles, the outdoors, and anywhere within sight of trees, water, land, or sky. Restrictions may apply, such as only using your phone on Wednesday afternoons during Standard Time. Everything we just said may or not be a lie and is subject to change whenever we want.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

10 gb on turntable.FM and downloading roms and downloading large files onto my desktop because sometimes the internet crashes

 

[lothar]

Verizon’s e-mailed statement, in full:

– Customers will not be automatically moved to new shared data plans. If a 3G or 4G smartphone customer is on an unlimited plan now and they do not want to change their plan, they will not have to do so.
– When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing.
– Customers who purchase phones at full retail price and are on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan.
– The same pricing and policies will be applied to all 3G and 4GLTE smartphones.

Verizon can keep calling it "unlimited" if they wish.
Sooner or later they will start throttling those "unlimited" 4G customers like AT&T does at 5GB for their "unlimited" customers.
Sorry folks, there's no way to run completely away from this. Even paying for a phone out of pocket won't help you should they start throttling their "unlimited" 4G customers like AT&T already does now at 5GB.

Staying on Verizon's "unlimited" 4G plan now doesn't mean they can't throttle you down in the future.

 

[shortylickens]

That would suck to burn up all your 4g on videos and music then have to use navigation or hotspots on a lower speed. It sucks trying to find something in an unfamiliar town and your phone sucks. Thats why I gave up on Blackberry after a week. You need the processing power, software, and data speed to get it all efficiently.

 

[zerocool84]

50gb is at least 50x the median user. If you need that much you should pay significantly more than someone who just uses the phone for email. If everyone used that much the prices would be much much higher.

But the problem is that pricing even for the lowest tier. They're only out to rape us, nothing more. They are not here to give us good pricing on anything.

 

[dagamer34]

I just want them to hurry up and get to the point where they realize that voice minutes aren't all that important and data is where the money is at. Then stop charging me a silly $40 for 450 minutes when I might use 100.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

But the problem is that pricing even for the lowest tier. They're only out to rape us, nothing more. They are not here to give us good pricing on anything.

How do you define rape? VZ wireless operating margin was around 24% last quarter. Admittedly that's a bit higher than most other industries, but not off the charts. What do you think a "fair" amount of profit is?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

That would suck to burn up all your 4g on videos and music then have to use navigation or hotspots on a lower speed. It sucks trying to find something in an unfamiliar town and your phone sucks. Thats why I gave up on Blackberry after a week. You need the processing power, software, and data speed to get it all efficiently.

That's why you have a GPS

 

[RockinZ28]

I just want them to hurry up and get to the point where they realize that voice minutes aren't all that important and data is where the money is at. Then stop charging me a silly $40 for 450 minutes when I might use 100.

I think they have realized this. Why offer lower minute plans that cost less, when you can force people to pay for more minutes they won't even use. Same goes for the text plans, notice how they dropped the $5/250 text plan and force you to pay $10 minimum.

Right now $30 for 2GB or 4GB, is far more than most use. Yet they force you to pay $30. There's no $10/1GB plan, they'd lose a ton of money for nothing.

It also remains to be seen what will happen in the future. Remember when a 1GB hdd was amazing? Downloading a 10mb file was excruciating?

Yea lol, today our phones will dl 10mb in seconds, and have gigs and gigs of storage. Now that most carriers have people locked in to limited plans, what will happen in 2/5/10 years as games, movies, youtube, apps etc. become larger and use more data?

Will they up everyone's data limits free of charge, or will they force you to pay to play?

 

[notposting]

Heck I've got an old 500 minute family plan, the lowest they offer now is 700 minutes (for $10 more).
I have the unlimited data for $29.99 (of course the lowest they have now is 2GB for $30).
And I have the 250 messages for $5, lowest now is 1000 for $10.

And I actually get 18% off on the voice and data so the disparity is even greater. They don't care about the people using small amounts of the services...they just want to redefine those levels of use to the inflated pricing they have now and then adjust upwards.

 

[gorcorps]

Ditto. Their $30 unlimited text+data w/ 100 voice minutes is very, very tempting.

It's a good deal if you're lucky enough to live in an area with proper coverage. In my experience T-mobile is not worth the cost savings. I'd rather pay extra for the coverage I get on ATT compared to what I'd get here with T-mobile.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I doubt switching is really going to help. I was with Sprint for a long time and finally decided to go to VZW. Wow, what a difference in quality. T-Mobile may be an option but I've heard they are hit or miss depending on market.

 

[MDE]

I just want them to hurry up and get to the point where they realize that voice minutes aren't all that important and data is where the money is at. Then stop charging me a silly $40 for 450 minutes when I might use 100.

Call customer service and ask to be lowered to 300 minutes. I did that a couple years back and saved a few bucks.

 

[Bateluer]

Their CFO plainly stated that they'd charge more for higher tiers, as people become accustomed to the speed of LTE.