Verizon Wireless Revamps Voice, Text and Data Plans

[chris2112617]

Verizon Wireless today introduced sweeping changes to its voice, texting and data plans. Beginning January 18, Verizon will be offering unlimited individual talk plans for $70 per month, and unlimited talk and text for $90. Unlimited FamilyShare voice plans will cost $120 and unlimited FamilyShare talk and text will cost $150 (includes two lines of service). As for data, Verizon Wireless says that all new Verizon Wireless 3G multimedia phone activations will require a 25MB data plan for $10 per month. That includes mobile email. New phones requiring this $10 data plan include the LG Chocolate Touch, enV3, and VX8360; the Motorola Entice W766; the Nokia 7705 Twist; and the Samsung Alias 2. Simple feature phones will have the option of including the $10 data plan, but can also choose to pay $1.99 per megabyte in a la carte fashion. Last, Verizon has also retooled its prepaid options. Those wishing for voice and text service without contracts can pay $75 per monthly for unlimited voice and $95 for unlimited voice and text. Existing customers will not need to change their plans until their current contract expires.

 

[chris2112617]

MORE:
In an interview with the Washington Post, Verizon Wireless chief technology officer Dick Lynch said that metered plans are likely to be put in place eventually. He explained, "The problem we have today with flat-based usage is that you are trying to encourage customers to be efficient in use and applications but you are getting some people who are bandwidth hogs using gigabytes a month and they are paying something like megabytes a month. That isn’t long-term sustainable. Why should customers using an average amount of bandwidth be subsidizing bandwidth hogs?" Lynch indicated to the Post that it will probably charge a general data access fee once its Long Term Evolution network is up and running, and then take advantage of a usage-based model to calculate monthly bills.

 

[Muadib]

That interview is such bs.

 

[jersiq]

That interview is such bs.

No kidding. Dick Lynch is the CTO of Verizon, not Verizon Wireless.

 

[pm]

For more:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...64436.html?mod=WSJ_PersonalTechnology_LEFTTop

 

[YoungGun21]

So like I said in the other thread, once this system is in place there is almost no point to buying an enV 3 or enV Touch or the like. Before, you were getting an "almost smart phone" and it was much cheaper because you didn't have to pay smartphone prices. Now that the playing field is leveled, why pay the same per month for the enV Touch if you could spend $100 more upfront to nab the Droid? This should boost smartphone sales but will absolutely kill the middle-market between plain crappy flip phones and PDAs.

 

[Raduque]

why pay the same per month for the enV Touch if you could spend $100 more upfront to nab the Droid? This should boost smartphone sales but will absolutely kill the middle-market between plain crappy flip phones and PDAs.

This is what the carriers want. They realized they weren't getting anywhere fast with their walled gardens, so now they're trying to force people onto Smartphone devices to raise their ARPU. Just you watch, it's going to soon be $XX cost for the base plan, plus an $30 "Data Access" plan and then a surcharge per MB/GB depending on your options. Lower options will probably have a higher charge per MB/GB (much like how the 450min plan was .45c/min overage, while the 2100min plan was .25c/min).

 

[her209]

This is what the carriers want. They realized they weren't getting anywhere fast with their walled gardens, so now they're trying to force people onto Smartphone devices to raise their ARPU. Just you watch, it's going to soon be $XX cost for the base plan, plus an $30 "Data Access" plan and then a surcharge per MB/GB depending on your options. Lower options will probably have a higher charge per MB/GB (much like how the 450min plan was .45c/min overage, while the 2100min plan was .25c/min).

The average profit per unit (user) would probably be higher as well.

 

[FirNaTine]

I was looking at the Samsung Rogue for my wife. It currently requires a data plan, but beginning 1/18 that plan will include mobile email(previously a $5 add on) and a lower per/MB overage. For a phone like this, the new changes are a good thing right?

 

[BigSmooth]

I was looking at the Samsung Rogue for my wife. It currently requires a data plan, but beginning 1/18 that plan will include mobile email(previously a $5 add on) and a lower per/MB overage. For a phone like this, the new changes are a good thing right?

Yes. For the Rogue and enV Touch, this is technically a good thing since they were already forcing data plans on those two phones. For all the other phones mentioned it's a bad thing.

 

[frostedflakes]

Ugh. Current data plans don't even allow for unlimited usage, all of the big carriers have a 5GB/mo cap. If they think people who use a few GB per month on their cellular network are data hogs, well... I don't know what to say. I'd consider that to be fairly reasonable usage. Verizon's "unlimited" (5GB/mo) plan is already like $30, so that comes out to $6/GB, and their $10 data plan is a whopping $400/GB. So does this mean they plan to charge even more per GB in the future? :/

 

[her209]

AT&T rolls out unlimited text, voice, and data plans
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10436302-1.html