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Verizon Ending Unlimited Data for Grandfathered Users

Eryl Flynn said:
BUZZ, wrong. As of yesterday when I checked I was at 641mb for the month with my cycle ending the 21st. I only pushed over a gig when I first got my phone long ago.

I don't like being metered, I don't like being forced from what I was told I could have because they find some people abuse it. Instead of dealing with the abusers they abuse us all.
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I didn't say everybody that was threatening to switch was a data "hog" I said most. You just happen to be one of the exceptions, which is cool. But like I also said, I could be way off base.

You seam to be a data user about like me, and as such you could end up paying less for your data plan with shared data. So if you do pay less they won't be abusing you, they will abuse the data hogs and they will be required to pay for the data they use, not you. Of course that remains to be seen. We won't know until Verizon releases details and pricing of the new plans.

So best of luck to you and just wait and see what developes before doing something you may regret.

I just reread your post where you said you don't like being metered. Just curious but how does you electric company bill you? Do you pay a set amount for unlimited electricity, or do they only charge you for what you use?

Obviously having a little fun there because I know the answer but you see the similarity. But we're all on the same side here. We all only want to pay our fair share. We don't want to overpay for what we use which we kinda do with the unlimited data plan. You and I are subsidizing the data "Hogs" with unlimited plans.

Anyway, again, best of luck to all of us,
 
regarding sprints 4G are you guys talking about sprint's "4G" like speeds...not real 4G which is their new LTE network set to roll out this summer. just wondering. In my area Sprint is not that great. But give it time. Sprint too will eventually do away with unlimited. Once they see that all the other companies can do it then what will stop them from doing it?
 
Every article I read makes is more cryptic and confusing. My wife and I have 4G unlimted phones, but my 12 year old has my old 3G phone. Not sure how this will work out for us.

I would love to see the pricing structure, but my guess is that it will not be a benefit for folks like me and the current plan.

If it is the "pooch screw" that I anticipate it will be, pefect time to head over to Sprint (at least until they limit the usage of those plans as well). One more reason to hate Verizon
 
ylexot said:
That's because the only thing anyone has to go on is a very short quote from the Verizon CFO. Everything else is speculation.
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Sometimes they say a lot without saying much of anything.

Knowing that this is a hot button issue and throwing a quote out there that basically does nothing other than getting folks all worked up, in my opinion, is irresponsible.
 
This is truly sad to say the least and it's sad the government has allowed this to happen. I remember back in the days when the government forced AT&T and the Bell's to break up. Really think we are getting close to that needing to happen again. These cell phone companies have gotten so large, they basically don't answer to anyone anymore.

The really sad part of all this is, cell phones were about to the point where they were actually affordable...reasonable priced. Now, with the roll out of the fastest data speeds and everyone is starting to use ONE DEVICE to consume their data, the cell companies come in a kill everything with these capped plans. With all the video and content streaming a 2 gig plan might last you a few days. But of course, this is the overall plan of the cell companies, to push everyone to the most expensive plans they offer.

Instead of progressing, we are regressing. Remember the early cell phone days of having a so-called plan and they being hit with really high charges when you exceeded those minutes...here we are again, but just with data. They might as well do away with all of they data plans except the most expensive, because no way can live with those lower plans...really.

As far as switching carriers...I agree...will do you no good. Those that are still offering unlimited are the the smaller, less coverage carriers. They will continue to offer this for a while, long enough to try and pull enough customers away from the giant companies, but then, they too will switch over their plans to the tiered plans. So, there is no escape...only a temp reprieve.
 
The way I see this.... I have 18 months left on my contract.
If they change the terms I have an out and I will use that to break the contract.

Several years ago I jumped onto T-Mobile to give them a shot with my original Nexus One. It sucked.

Now, the silver lining is that T-Mobile has improved their coverage in my area 10 fold in the last 2-3 years.
I don't have a problem going back and I never had a dropped call with them - the only thing that sucked was their data coverage but that has apparently changed.
From the coverage maps they are almost in-line with Verizon so.... we will see.

I would rather take 5GB from T-Mo and be throttled than take 2GB from Verizon and be charged overages.

I ordered a new sim for $2 from T-Mobile to toss into my nexus and give it a spin for a month to see if their coverage is what they say it is now.

I loved being on a GSM carrier because I could swap phones with ease and even get phones that they did not offer and I do miss that sometimes.

If Verizon keeps the terms we have for the remainder of 18 months, fine.
If they change them that is my ticket out of an ETF....
 
trophynuts said:
for me personally i think i can get away with 2gb of data a month easily.
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If I had WiFi at work I could. If I kept my ROM downloading and flashing restricted to home, I could.

We're spending $30 a month for wireless internet access. They're not able to provide an unthrottled, unrestricted product for that amount??
 
trophynuts said:
for me personally i think i can get away with 2gb of data a month easily.
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That is great! Most people will not fall into that category however.

I do understand where the cell phone companies are coming from, with the newer fastest technology, customers can easily consume tons more data. But on the flip side, I feel the plans they have in place are NOT realistic at all. If you stream music some, watch a movie here and there on Netflix (or whatever service), then you can easily gobble up 2 gb's in no time. I feel we are seeing nothing more than cooperate greed than anything. But that is just my opinion :D
 
HTTR said:
Sometimes they say a lot without saying much of anything.

Knowing that this is a hot button issue and throwing a quote out there that basically does nothing other than getting folks all worked up, in my opinion, is irresponsible.
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He provided info about what is to come. Details are not available. They don't want to give out specifics before they are finalized. And most everything is speculation. He specifically said this will affect 3G unlimited users upgrading to 4G that is about it. Could it affect more people? Sure it could..can anyone say for sure? No, not even the CFO can at this point so there is no real reason to get worried currently.

If people want to insist to worry about something...there will be a natural disaster in the US before this comes to pass...could affect any of us...seems like that is better to worry about than if we will need to decide what carrier we use for phone service in the next two years....
 
dirkbonn said:
Ok, I'm gonna wade in on this and give you my 2cent take on this topic.

I'm guessing that most of the people who are upset with this latest developement from Verizon and thier doing away with unlimited data plans are people who consistantly use more than 5GB of data per month. You're threatening to jump ship and migrate to another carrier. I'm here to inform you that you're playing right into Verizons hand. They consider someone who uses more than 5GB's of data to be a data "hog" and as such, your leaving and "hogging" data on another carriers bandwidth is "no skin off thier nose" so to speak.

I currently have unlimited data and was glad to be grandfathered into it. However I have 3 phones on a family plan, mine (which I use about .5GB/month) my wifes (.8 GB/mo) and my daughter. (1GB/mo) For this I pay about $86/mo. (not $90 because one phone has a 20% corp discount on the data plan) Anyway, I hoping that the shared plans will maybe cost a little less, but that remains to be seen. I remember writhing about this subject about 6-9 months ago and said Verizon was trying to get to a "Pay to play" pricing structure, and this is one more step towards that goal. If you use less that 2GB of data you pay one price. If you use more than that, you personally have to pay for what you use. Your use of large amounts of data is not subsidized by all the customers that use small amouts of data and pay the same price as the large amount of data users.

Again, just my take on this subject and I could be way off base, but I don't think so.

So best of luck to all of us and may the shared data plans be a benefit to us all,
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Sorry to get a little off topic but you have 3 phones and only pay $86/month?! I have two with the lowest minutes and pay double that, share your secrets!

Back on topic, I don't generally use more than 2GB a month either but in the off chance I do (ie- installed a new ROM and new download everything), I like having the ability to without huge extra charges.
 
Thom Little said:
Here's something to consider. When it will happen it will be for new conversions from 3G to 4G LTE. Those who were already grandfathered in when going to 4G have a contract for the two years they signed up for.

So ... it would appear that ... if you are a heavy data user and are on 3G unlimited now and have the option to go to 4G ... now would be an excellent time to do it.

... Thom
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I read on CNET that vzw will change existing 4g contracts if you signed up in the last year. so if you get one tomorrow, you'll be screwed.

For those who want to go to Tmobile, they're NOT unlimited. Fine print says they throttle speeds over 2gb.

Sprint is the ONLY truly unlimited right now and they just suck!
 
91Firebirder said:
Sorry to get a little off topic but you have 3 phones and only pay $86/month?! I have two with the lowest minutes and pay double that, share your secrets!
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They only pay $86/month FOR DATA.

91Firebirder said:
Back on topic, I don't generally use more than 2GB a month either but in the off chance I do (ie- installed a new ROM and new download everything), I like having the ability to without huge extra charges.
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That's what wifi is for ;)
 
91Firebirder said:
Sorry to get a little off topic but you have 3 phones and only pay $86/month?! I have two with the lowest minutes and pay double that, share your secrets!

Back on topic, I don't generally use more than 2GB a month either but in the off chance I do (ie- installed a new ROM and new download everything), I like having the ability to without huge extra charges.
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I think he was saying how much he pays for data;)

And if you install roms over wifi you should be fine. It is your choice to install roms and when you do it you know if you are on wifi or not so that seems to be something that is easily avoidable...you will just need to pay attention to when you are using data.
 
darkcyber said:
As far as switching carriers...I agree...will do you no good. Those that are still offering unlimited are the the smaller, less coverage carriers. They will continue to offer this for a while, long enough to try and pull enough customers away from the giant companies, but then, they too will switch over their plans to the tiered plans. So, there is no escape...only a temp reprieve.
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I have thought about this before too. It does feel like it could be a bait and switch.
 
The funny thing is I don't even use my 4G much. I mostly keep my phone on 3G to save battery because my Thunderbolt sucks in that area. Most of my data comes from GPS and Pandora, Slacker, and Shoutcast in my car.
 
Anyone know when this will go into affect? Usually when they pull this they give a date "Starting on X/XX/2012" or whatever like they did when they started doing the $30 upgrade fee they gave enough notice so people eligible for an upgrade could get it before the fee went into affect.
 
jasondhsd said:
Anyone know when this will go into affect? Usually when they pull this they give a date "Starting on X/XX/2012" or whatever like they did when they started doing the $30 upgrade fee they gave enough notice so people eligible for an upgrade could get it before the fee went into affect.
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That hasn't been released yet. Just sometime this summer
 
iowabowtech said:
I have thought about this before too. It does feel like it could be a bait and switch.
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If they did this mid contract, then I would agree with you. If they're waiting until it's time for you to renew your contract, you have the option of not renewing your contract if you don't like the terms of the new one.

I don't think it's anything illegal, but I do suggest we vote with our feet. However, if enough people do that, then you'll see Sprint doing the same thing at some point in the future.
 
New statement from Verizon:
Verizon Statement on Unlimited Data: Will Let You Know of Policy Changes When We Get Closer to Shared Data – Droid Life
As we have stated publicly, Verizon Wireless has been evaluating its data pricing structure for some time. Customers have told us that they want to share data, similar to how they share minutes today. We are working on plans to provide customers with that option later this year.
We will share specific details of the plans and any related policy changes well in advance of their introduction, so customers will have time to evaluate their choices and make the best decisions for their wireless service. It is our goal and commitment to continue to provide customers with the same high value service they have come to expect from Verizon Wireless.​
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