Data & Family Plan Changes

[Wane]

Essentially I'm in search of definitive answers to the upcoming changes to the data paln services provided by Verizon.  I've read a lot of posts in which some show benefit and some do not for what I may require after this paln change.  I'm just looking for round dollar figures and why this may or may not work for me.  Now we ahve three Smart devices (1 Droid with unlimited, 1 iPhone with limited data and 1 Galaxy Tablet with imited data) and two standard phones with no data services.  In keeping things the way they are I would imagine there would be no change to my bill until a renewal is due.  Now if I wanted to change the two plain mobile phones to Smart devices, I guess this is where things get tricky and prices may escalate (don't know for sure but trying to get answers).  If I upgraded the other two to Smart phones, I would then have 5 smart devices on my plan sharing about 1400 voice minutes. I suppsoe I'm looking at a $300-$300+ bill per month based on the addition of data services whether they're the lowest possible per device or not.  Is this true?  Ironically we're also looking to add at least two iPads as well.  Datahog, maybe we are and maybe we're not but it appears that this new structure will hurt quite a bit.  It focuses on increasing revenue from data usage, per device.  It seems to erase the benefit on having a family plan or migrating to one.  Having data services have become a luxury my family is getting accustomed to because it allows you and your children to continue to work or do homework even while away or taking road trips.  Again I'm not speaking as an expert on this matter but am simply trying to see what works best for me and my family.

[AZSALUKI]

Wane wrote:

Essentially I'm in search of definitive answers to the upcoming changes to the data paln services provided by Verizon.  I've read a lot of posts in which some show benefit and some do not for what I may require after this paln change.  I'm just looking for round dollar figures and why this may or may not work for me.  Now we ahve three Smart devices (1 Droid with unlimited, 1 iPhone with limited data and 1 Galaxy Tablet with imited data) and two standard phones with no data services.  In keeping things the way they are I would imagine there would be no change to my bill until a renewal is due.  Now if I wanted to change the two plain mobile phones to Smart devices, I guess this is where things get tricky and prices may escalate (don't know for sure but trying to get answers).  If I upgraded the other two to Smart phones, I would then have 5 smart devices on my plan sharing about 1400 voice minutes. I suppsoe I'm looking at a $300-$300+ bill per month based on the addition of data services whether they're the lowest possible per device or not.  Is this true?  Yes. Ironically we're also looking to add at least two iPads as well.  Datahog, maybe we are and maybe we're not but it appears that this new structure will hurt quite a bit.  It focuses on increasing revenue from data usage, per device.  It seems to erase the benefit on having a family plan or migrating to one.  Having data services have become a luxury my family is getting accustomed to because it allows you and your children to continue to work or do homework even while away or taking road trips.  Again I'm not speaking as an expert on this matter but am simply trying to see what works best for me and my family.

This all depends on your data usage. if you were to add 2 smartphones AND 2 ipads, your current bill would increase by about $100 i believe (maybe even more). you have a few options.

you could change to the plan and have 5 smartphones and 3 tablets sharing 15gigs of data for $380.

you could use your smartphones as hotspots and wouldn't need to add the 3 tablets to the plan, for $350 ($380-the 3 $10 tablet fees).

if you will use less than 15 gb's it could be cheaper (in the first example, if you shared 10 gb's it would be $330). it really just depends on how much data you use. your devices are capped now (except for the one device with unlimited) so i suspect if you check out your total data usage for the past few months, you may be under 10 gigs. if that's the case, then you'll save $ on the new shared plans.

[Jax_Omen]

4 smartphones on 1400 Talk and Text: $100 for the plan, $40 for the phones, $120 for data, $90 for 3 2gb tablets:

totals out to $350/month

4 smartphones, 3 tablets, on 14gb share everything:

$120 for 14gb of data, $160 for smartphone lines, $30 for tablets:

totals out to $310/month

So new plan is way better with all the tablets/smartphones you want.

Right now, however:

1400 Talk and Text: $100 account charge, $40 for phone lines, $60 for phone data, $30 for tablet data

totals out to about $230/month for your current bills, right?

On share everything:

$80 6gb plan, $80 for smartphones, $60 for basic phones, $10 for tablet

totals out to $230/month - nothing changes price-wise