Verizon says unlimited data plans are on the way out!

[DavidRT1]

Don't you just like that someone from Verizon comes in and removes some bad Pr for the company!!!! This is the first month since I got my Smart phone last year will go over the 1 gig of data and my wife has not gone over 500 Mb a month. I think if they are going to remove the unlimited data they should do it on people who use over a certain amount like 10 gig a month. The people who use a little shouldn't have to get rid of it. And depends on how the family share works it may not be worth if for me to switch plans. I May look else where when all my lines are up. That will be next year in February. Granted I get 4 G Lte at my home and that is it so far so I really don't need it. It is fast but my home wifi is sometimes better then the data plan on Verizon. All they are doing right now is making all the loyal customers upset with all the Fee they want to charge. Before long they will loose customers and be loosing money. And then they will see what they did caused this and they cant recover my this mistake. I agree with what someone said about the economy still being in bad shape and they want to add more fee. GET REAL VERIZON AND STOP ADDING MORE FEES!

[PJNC284]

coolasbluefire wrote:

Also, Verizon agreed to subsidize the price of the iPhone just like they have any other phone that they've offered, and you can guarantee that Verizon still made and is making a profit off of each and every last one of those devices. If a person stays with Verizon over the term of their contract, Verizon will make a profit. If a person leaves Verizon after the 30 day trial period, they must pay the gigantic cancellation fees which now cover the cost of these smart phones (irrespective of branding). And this brings up a further disturbing trend.... for those of us (like myself) who are choosing to pay full price for our phones moving forward in order to keep the unlimited data plans, Verizon will still be reaping the rewards of that built-in subsidy fee from our monthly payments.... only we're no longer getting a reduced price for our phones. However, to subject one's self to such a paltry sum as 4GB of data each month, you might as well not own a smart phone.... 

Sure they're making money but the ARPU (Average revenue per unit) is likely less with the iPhone due to it being much more heavily subsidized than the competition.  The whole goal of the shared plan is to move away from a per unit model and more toward generating more revenue per account. And go to any store and ask one of the reps which phone (android or iPhone) they'd rather sell.  I bet the majority don't choose the latter because they hardly make any money on iPhone sales.  Heck, a lot of them have a general hatred for any and all things Apple as a result. 

And don't forget that 30 day trial period is now 14.  Can you guess when that change occurred? As for paying full retail, think I'll just pick something up on craigslist or ebay.  Unless Verizon drops 2 yr contract prices significantly (unlikely), that route isn't much more expensive and you don't have to worry about being tied down.  Currently holding onto an upgrade I have to see if anything nice comes out before the change otherwise I'll probably just hold onto the thunderbolt a bit longer.

[AZSALUKI]

PJNC284 wrote:

And don't forget that 30 day trial period is now 14.  Can you guess when that change occurred? As for paying full retail, think I'll just pick something up on craigslist or ebay.  Unless Verizon drops 2 yr contract prices significantly (unlikely), that route isn't much more expensive and you don't have to worry about being tied down.  Currently holding onto an upgrade I have to see if anything nice comes out before the change otherwise I'll probably just hold onto the thunderbolt a bit longer.

i've got one as well and i'm REALLY hoping verizon gets a version of the htc one series.....BEFORE these data plans change. i'd snag it quick with one more subsidy and i'd be set for the next 2 years. 2 years from now, EVERYTHING will be much different anyway. otherwise, i'll get what i can subsidized (before the changes).....sell it brand new on ebay, and wait for what i want later, and just buy it outright.

[JimDandy]

Yes but what your buying " full price " from Verizon is sometimes higher then if you buy it direct from the manufactures and you can only buy them from Verizon. Example, when I upgraded to my Droid X yes it only cost me $50.00 but if I bought it out right from Verizon it would have cost me $499.00 . But when I kept having issues and after having it replaced over and over I went to the manufacturers web site and found out a few things that bothered me. First I found out on their forums that what I Had was only happening to Verizon Droid Xs, that it was somthing to do with Verizon changing the softwares originally installed by the manufacturers and if I could by one from the original manufacturers it would have cost me $329.99 but they could not sell me one because it would not work on Verizons network. So anyone paying " full price " should find out how much it should really cost before buying. Now I do not know if this is the same for every cell company but if you go on a monthly pay as you go plan I have noticed the phones are much cheaper then Verizons " full price " .

[Just_Me]

This decision by big red jolted me into determining what I was "really" paying for my unlimited data plan.  For the same number of shared minutes and the same number of text messages (which I can share) at another provider my monthly cost is "X" dollars.  Looking at what I pay Verizon each month, the real cost of the unlimited plan is over $500 a year.  I'm beginning to think I don't need any services from Verizon.

[llichtwalt]

The question then becomes is there grounds for class action lawsuit for a monopolized product line, eg. Verizon branded products only to be used/purchased from them.

I have no problem buying a phone at retail value & being able to keep my unlimited data BUT then it gets sticky.

Why should I have to buy directly from Verizon, who more than likely will have a mark up on the retail value of the product? I'd rather buy a device directly from Google. Yes I know, right now the tech is not the same. With that being said I can also see Verizon not allowing their coded radio signals, (one of the reasons listed behind the slow Nexus update.) to be thrown into a device not coming directly to them.

If the ability to keep unlimited data on one's service requires no handset subsidation, then Verizon needs to fulfill their earlier pleadge for open handset alliance.

[Germain916]

How much data are using?  If it is more than 3 Gbs, how are you using it?  Most people don't use one whole Gb in a month, yet there is a lot of talk about how this is a deal breaker.  I'm not picking on you in particular.  It's just this thread goes on for days about all the greedy profit VZW is trying to make, and these postings are chronological.  If over 90% of users have less than 2Gb of usage, this doesn't seem a profit maker for VZW.  Those data hogs who have rooted their phone so they can avoid a cable bill, while still downloading HD videos and playing World of Warcraft, will simply move on to Plan B.  So the motivation would seem to be more about reliability.  If you get a household or an apartment complex full of these "Big Bang Theory" characters, all of a sudden everyone in that cell is running at ATT speeds.  "Can you hear me now?"

I want to dispell the allegations that I'm a plant for VZW, in advance.  I'm a self-employed 50-year old man. I don't have a penny invested in VZW.  I'm invested in my own business, which is real estate.  I just hate ATT. I do like that T-mobile girl, and her motorcycle, but I'm too old for her.  So I'm staying with VZW.

[michaeljtimko]

When Verizon makes decisions of this magnitude, I really believe they owe us an explaination.  Rather than just saying customers want family shared data.  They should openly defending their position to gether support rather than animosity.  If Fran Shammo had had specifics with when he spoke at the Chase Bank conference, then this might have turned out differently.  Had he said to our remaining grandfathered unlimited plan holders we would like you to consider moving to a family plan because it will benefit you in this way to share a pool of X data for Y dollars which in the long run will save yoy Z dollars.  Instead we got no specifics and crickets when we ask questions.

[JimDandy]

Lol, I'm sorry if you thought I was calling you an employee of Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless removed that part of the post where I named the person. I use under 1 gig of data monthly but my problem lies with the fact that every time Apple comes out with a new item it costs me more money and I have no Apple products and now their taking away my safety net of wireless and the cheapest data plan is $10.00 more PLUS it will cost me $30.00 if I upgrade my phone . Its not my fault I waited to get data when the price was cheap. Their big advertising gimmick at that time was " get it while its still here because it wont last long " they never said because we will take it away the first time we need to. The whole reason to do this is to not only push a family plan but to make money off of people for going over like they did in texting, are they going to take away unlimited texting next? Im just saying theres other companies out there much cheaper and has about the same service. I myself will take the three phones that come up in the same month and leave but if I do, theres no going back unless they make it worth my wild. I have been in a discussion in Facebook about this as well and when there was a poll on people leaving Verizon over this there were hundreds saying yes and less then a dozen staying. If that just a small group in a small discussion place ( as in here ) they could lose millions over what can be a bad desition and most of these people leaving will sign a two year contract keeping them from coming back. Myself, I have found a great unlimited plan with everything unlimited including minutes for $29.99 monthly WITHOUT a contract. A friend of mine has had it for over a year now and gets great coverage in the areas I live and vacation in.

[MikeInATL]

Has anybody wondered how this going to effect Voice over LTE (they're supposedly starting this next year)?  I mean seriously, won't that use data???  So how will that effect people with unlimited VOICE plans?  Are those going to be done away with next?  Or will they charge you out the wazoo for going over your "data" limit?

Or maybe they're doing away with unlimited data in in anticipation of freeing up bandwidth for VoLTE?  Perhaps they'll give us a certain amount of data and we can use it for voice or apps or both, up until we hit our allotted amount.

Whatever their reason, I think it's going to hurt them.