If the new Shared Data plan will save you money or is better for you, please post here

[OfTheDamned]

We made the switch today. I've been using wifi in just about any and every location that I can over the past few weeks and I've only used about .8 gigs of data. I ended up getting the 6 GB of data, which we will probably use most months. Overall, the unlimited talk and text will be used quite a bit so it works out better for us.

 

[AntimonyER]

Glad to hear it is the right plan for you OTD. I will be 100% honest, I think these plans would have gotten a lot more praise if it hadn't been for the unlimited data thing. New choices for plans is never a bad thing.

 

[dirkbonn]

Glad to hear it is the right plan for you OTD. I will be 100% honest, I think these plans would have gotten a lot more praise if it hadn't been for the unlimited data thing. New choices for plans is never a bad thing.

Yes, I think you're right.

The unlimited data plans are a carryover from the old 1X days when you probably couldn't use 2GBs of data in a month if you tried. With the advent of 3G, data started to be consumed in much larger quantities. Now with 4G speeds getting to be used by more and more customers, I think Verizon had almost no choice but to back off the unlimited plans.

Of course many people were used to consuming larger amounts (5GB+) of data and they, understandably, aren't happy with the disappearance of unlimited data. But I guess with data being a commodity, it's inevitable that prices will rise when the law of supply and demand rears its head.

Best of luck to all of us during the transition, :smokingsomb:

 

[Nick The Great]

I think VZW could have handled things better, to say the least.

 

[Old Man]

It apparently can vary quite a bit. The basic cost for our current plan with two smartphones with unlimited data and two dumbphones is $165/month. Under the new share plans with 4GB of shared data our basic cost would be $210/month, more than our current bill with all insurance, surcharges, fees, taxes, etc. included. We'd be gaining unlimited talk and texts but we have never reached the limits on either with our current plan it seems that we'd be paying $45/month more with no real benefit.

Coincidentally, this afternoon I received a call from a VZW rep wanting to 'help' review our plan. She kept trying to talk me into making changes we did not want, in particular trying to get me to agree to a subsidized upgrade of the two dumbphones when I was clear that I had no interest. She went as far as to say "So I can send those out" on some phones she was pushing even though I had not only expressed no desire for them but had very clearly stated that we did not want to upgrade those lines. I felt that I had to be very clear to say that we did not want to make any changes and then end the call. For that call to come so soon after the new plans going into effect and for her to be that pushy in trying to get us to make a change that we clearly did not want, but that would require us to change plans, suggests that they may be targeting people where Verizon would benefit from them accepting any changes.

 

[AntimonyER]

Yeah Verizon is pushing these plans hard, you aren't the only one who has recieved a call from VZW.

 

[octoberdana]

I was hoping that these plan would allow us to increase our data for two of our lines but these new plans are not a good value for us.

Current plan:

4 lines 700 minutes with 5 friends & family and unlimited texting
1 smartphone with 150 MB of data
1 smartphone with unlimited data
1 smartphone with 200 MB of data
1 dumbphone
TOTAL COST $154 before taxes and fees

New plans
3 smartphones
1 feature phone
already at $150 just for access fees BEFORE adding data
if I went with 1GB to share which isn't enough it would cost me $50 more per month than what I'm paying now to get LESS DATA. If I went to 3 or 4GB it would be $60-$70 more per month for roughly the same data usage.

 

[cmybliss]

Glad to hear it is the right plan for you OTD. I will be 100% honest, I think these plans would have gotten a lot more praise if it hadn't been for the unlimited data thing. New choices for plans is never a bad thing.

I would agree, that they could have been a good thing. But the data prices are outrageous! $50 for 1 gig to share is not a good value imo. $50 for 5gigs would be o.k. I just added a dumb phone line to our plan for my 11 y.o. daughter. It would be nice to at some point upgrade her to a smart phone (a year or two down the line) but if these prices remain the same, not sure that will happen.

 

[damewolf13]

I would agree, that they could have been a good thing. But the data prices are outrageous! $50 for 1 gig to share is not a good value imo. $50 for 5gigs would be o.k. I just added a dumb phone line to our plan for my 11 y.o. daughter. It would be nice to at some point upgrade her to a smart phone (a year or two down the line) but if these prices remain the same, not sure that will happen.

Unfortunately, the prices will not remain the same. They will go up.

 

[cmybliss]

Unfortunately, the prices will not remain the same. They will go up.

Sad to say I agree with you.

 

[Rachel A]

Sad to say I agree with you.

I think that eventually we'll get rid of these limitations but not for several years yet and before then we may well see price increases. However there's going to be a tipping point at some time in the future that online data access requirements are going to be so common place (and vast) that the concept of limiting users to 1GB will become ridiculous.

After all, 10 years ago you would pay through the nose for 100 daytime minutes and now Big Red are joining the rest of the civilized world by not putting a limit on the voice calls (and yes, one can argue that VOIP has contributed to that so what Big Red giveth away with one hand, they snatch back with the other).

 

[OfTheDamned]

Is anyone expecting unlimited night and weekend data?

 

[Old Man]

Yeah Verizon is pushing these plans hard, you aren't the only one who has recieved a call from VZW.

Pushing the new plans I can understand, however trying to cajole and trick people into making changes that they don't want but that would result in their having to switch to the new plans, and doing so under the auspices of 'helping' them, seems deceptive practices.

In this case, their idea of 'help' was apparently trying to get us to to agree to spend at least $200 for phones that we did not want that would then also require our paying $45 per month or so more for service that would offer no apparent benefit to us. I don't need or want that kind of help.

It's amazing how an experience like that call can so change your view of a company and in this case it was not a positive change.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I actually saw a commercial for the new plans last night. I have to say, their marketing is getting a lot like Apple's.

 

[xmr405o]

Is anyone expecting unlimited night and weekend data?

I am or some sort of off peak and peak hours set up. That would make the shared plans more attractive.

 

[AntimonyER]

Is anyone expecting unlimited night and weekend data?

Interesting. A lot of people are on wi-fi at home, so I can see usage way down in that regard...

 

[euph_22]

Is anyone expecting unlimited night and weekend data?

I am, but I'm not expecting it for a couple years. Somebody is going to realize that they can give away off peak data without harming their network bandwidth. It won't be unlimited, but you will get a seperate pool of data for off peak use.

 

[OfTheDamned]

I am, but I'm not expecting it for a couple years. Somebody is going to realize that they can give away off peak data without harming their network bandwidth. It won't be unlimited, but you will get a seperate pool of data for off peak use.

I was thinking the same thing. It took a few years for night and weekend calls to become unlimited and I assume it will end up being the same with data.

 

[Nick The Great]

I was thinking the same thing. It took a few years for night and weekend calls to become unlimited and I assume it will end up being the same with data.

That's just great. I'm usually near my router on nights and weekends

 

[AntimonyER]

That's just great. I'm usually near my router on nights and weekends

Exactly the point same reason nights and weekends first came around for voice, low network usage at those times (combination drop in enterprise usage and availability of land lines)

 

[xTye]

Right now I have an unlimited everything plan with 2GB of data per line. All smartphones. It's about $400 a month or so before taxes.

With the new one, we'll have 10GB of data that's shared instead, which gives us all more data, I'll drop to $260 before taxes. Pretty good drop for me.

 

[Satires]

For obvious reasons of me being a so called data hog, the plan will not benefit me. My phones is unlimited and my wife's phone is grandfathered in at 10 gigs a month for 50 bucks.

I use anywhere from 10 to 25 gigs a month. She may use 5 gigs a month. I don't care about voice and texts personally.

 

[damewolf13]

For obvious reasons of me being a so called data hog, the plan will not benefit me. My phones is unlimited and my wife's phone is grandfathered in at 10 gigs a month for 50 bucks.

I use anywhere from 10 to 25 gigs a month. She may use 5 gigs a month. I don't care about voice and texts personally.

I know what you mean. I use about 50 texts a month, and about 50 voice minutes a month also, but can easily go through 10 to 15 gb a month in data, so I guess I will be paying full price for my next phone to keep unlimited data.

 

[AntimonyER]

Right now I have an unlimited everything plan with 2GB of data per line. All smartphones. It's about $400 a month or so before taxes.

With the new one, we'll have 10GB of data that's shared instead, which gives us all more data, I'll drop to $260 before taxes. Pretty good drop for me.

Yeah, people on the existing unlimited plans, this was always going to be a fantastic deal. The truth is they drastically reduced the price of unlimited voice and text with the new plan, but for those of us who don't need it, we are still paying extra for something we don't want if we switch, because there are no other choices.

 

[dirkbonn]

Yeah, people on the existing unlimited plans, this was always going to be a fantastic deal. The truth is they drastically reduced the price of unlimited voice and text with the new plan, but for those of us who don't need it, we are still paying extra for something we don't want if we switch, because there are no other choices.

In my case my family all have smartphones (3) and the unlimited data we had to purchase (which we didn't really need, because between the 3 of us we only use about 2-3 GBs of total data/month) and it cost us $86. $86 because we get a 20% discount ($6) on the primary data line only. With the shared data we can get by with the 4GB plan, which is $70, but we get the 20% discount ($14) on the whole data pack. So our data now costs us only $56 where it used to cost us $86, a $30 savings.

Granted, we all have 3G phones now and when we all upgrade to 4G phones we may buy the 6GB data plan which will cost us $64, (a $8 increase) but we will still have a net savings of $22.

So heavy phone call users and light data users can most likely save a little, but I think Verizons ultimate goal was to make the heavy users of data pay for what they use, rather than have the light data users subsidise them, because all smartphones users were required to buy the $30 unlimited plans whether they needed that much data or not. (at least until they came out with the tiered data plans)

I remember back before the breakup of Ma Bell, I used to bellyache about the phone bill, which was about $35 a month. Now my bill is over $200 a month. However, back then long distance cost an arm and a leg and you could only make phone calls from home. Now we each have our own phone, long distance is included, we each have our personal voice mail, and the convenience of having our phones with us at all times. Personally, I think I liked being able to get away from the phone. Especially when driving in the car. I could listen to music or talk radio, or just be alone with my thoughts.

Anyway, I wish us all the best of luck, whatever we're doing. :smokingsomb: