Verizon: Unlimited Data Officially Ends July 6

Terrible. I'm so happy I stuck with sprint.

Minimum of $30 for dataplan is a total rip off. Some users would not need more than 200MB, so why should they have to pay for 2GB? Glad I'm not with Verizon.

It's all a big game to see how much money they can f*ck you out of. If 95% of the subscribers use less than the lowest tier, then why make this change at all? are the top 5% really bringing down your entire network?

I'm a heavy user! Verizon 3G is the only broadband option available from my home! Comcast decided to stop 1 mile from our community of 40 homes so our only options are Satellite and 3G Cards. The did offer to lay cable to our homes for the low cost of 78K-248k depending on the quote we've gotten. I routinely hit 6 gigs on my current unlimited plan(no torrents, no streaming) almost all data (Pandora, Skype and Work Related Development App updates and family browsing). Now when 4G comes I'll be able to hit my cap faster and tell the family we have to shut off the internet half way through the month. Move? Who's going to buy a home w/o internet? American Broadband is a joke. When I moved into the house Comcast said with in a year we'd have cable...that was 12 years ago.

Glad I am under a new contract.

Don't worry. When AT&T buys-off the FCC and gets approval for their purchase of T-Mobile, you'll be able to switch over and get screwed over by AT&T instead of Verozin. Pricing, speeds, reliability, no, those won't be better, but hey, at least you can give your money to AT&T instead.

God bless America!!!

wow, set the stage for the demise of the internet

im so happy i stuck with sprint too

Why does everyone feel like the wireless companies "owe" you. They provide a product. If you don't want it, then don't pay for it. That's how it works. I don't see anyone making as big of a deal with gas prices. And for the guy who's been waiting 12 years for internet...why buy the house to begin with? If internet was such a big deal, you should have found a place already in the Comcast footprint. They stopped bringing internet 1 mile from your house because of cost. If they run internet to everyone house in the woods, their install costs would increase, which would result in HIGHER monthly fees. It's simple math.

Doom! Doom and gloom! Gloooooom! Give me a break...we all knew this was coming, the only reason why it didn't happen sooner was so that Verizon could woo away AT&T iphone customers. The fact that existing customers, AND those that upgrade, won't have to switch to the new plans means that it's no big deal for those that are current Verizon customers. And for all of those that brag about their Sprint unlimited plans : Why do you think Sprint does that? Or can do that? It's because their customer base is smaller and because they are #3 and have to do something to remain relevant.

let me tell you. it costs verizon $5.00 per month no matter if the customer uses 1mb or 100 GB. It is a complete sham. They get charged on a monthly flat fee to use the highspeed large volume telecom pipes. So, the tier costs are a total money maker. Even at their previous unlimited usage they were making 15.00 per month on every customer. So, for those poor saps (New customers) sending in $80 for 10 GB, verizon is making $75.00 per month.

The same goes for Texting. It costs them $0.00 to transmit a persons text message.

What a bunch of whiners in here...don't want to pay for it don't use it...sheesh.

if they want to compete they should make it 5 dollars per GB...greedy mofos

Thats ok, I moved over to Virgin Mobile's unlimited data prepay for $25.00 per month. I have an android phone and it was the best thing I ever did. I don't talk on the phone and use minutes much so I am happy with having unlimited data. Companies figure they are loosing money because the migration of phones have moved away from talking. They claim its bandwidth but anyone on the other side of the corporate firewall know its just a scam to make more money (price restructuring) and all telcos are moving to the model due to lack of minute purchases. I'm putting up one finger. Can you guess which one it is?

"Those customers who are the heavy data users are going to pay for what they use"

uh, they already do, $30 a month.

Been with Verizon for 12 years. Abandoning ship after this. Sprint ahoy.

On the expensive end of things, it costs verizon 8.3 cents per gigabyte of data (http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2011/04/07/what-does-a-gigabyte-of-internet-service-really-cost-a-look-at-the-worst-case-scenario/). And they charge us $10 per gigabyte (or more, if you only get the base plan)? Where are they getting their numbers for it being 20 hours of video too? If you are on a newer phone and use netflix thats about two hours of video. Even if you are only using it to watch 480p youtube videos thats 8 hours of video. The only time it even approaches 20 hours is if you are watching extremely low quality 240p (or worse). And lets face it, who watches that low of quality?

Dont worry guys, in 2012 the end of the world starts so im guessing we wont have internet .

I ditched my cell phone completely.No more pricey service for me.
Smart phones are too exorbitant with their excessive service costs.

If you have a Verizon unlimited plan then I'm confused as to why you're worried. Unlimited data is grandfathered into new contracts if you're already a customer. Go into the store and ask if you don't believe me, or just read the article:

[citation]Verizon customers who have already signed on prior to July 7 will be able to retain their unlimited plans, even when upgrading to a new phone, Raney said.[/citation]

And as for:




Are you abandoning because of the changes that don't effect existing customers? or because you find their service bad in your area? I'm confused.

I'm not happy with the changes either, but to be honest since it doesn't effect me as an existing customer, the only thing it really changes is I'm going to be stuck with Verizon for quite a while, unless they remove unlimited data for existing customers which still has yet to be shown. Personally I'd never switch to sprint unless I was forced into a tiered plan by Verizon. Verizon's 4G speed in my area is 15-21Mbps roughly, Sprint is 3-10Mbps, My home internet (cable) is 15Mbps.

How is this "preparing for the future"?!?! As a country the US needs to be developing the infrastructure to provide the necessary bandwidth for a wireless country. Instituting these tiered plans is doing nothing more than encouraging people not to use the internet. This is incredibly disappointing. As more and more media and information moves online people are going to use more and more data.

I heard this and jumped from a feature phone, no data plan, to an Incredible2 with the $30 unlimited plan. I imagine tons of other people are doing this too. The announcement itself is then an effective marketing technique, is it not?

I plan on being a heavy user just to spite them.

""This change sets the stage for all the promise of 4G ... [and] when much of the computing we do will be wireless" LOL WTF?!

All this does is make everyone paranoid about what they do online to the point of not bothering to do much. All streaming content will take a hit, as well as using wireless for downloading files and installing software. This completely cripples all future wireless innovation from here on.

To me, this is just being proactive to gank customers with overages. 4G is coming, so speeds should be great. Next, thing like Netflix and Hulu streaming will be the next wow factor for all the common Joes out there. Then "bam", people start getting nice "surprise" bills.

Those that are grandfathered in, don't get too comfortable. I am sure Verizon will be finding every trick in the book to switch your plan. If you are jailbroken/rooted and tether, they will try to find that and switch your plan as ATT is doing. If you go over some monthly amount, they will probably have something for that. Be prepared to be calling their 611, staying on hold and navigating a plethora of useless voicemail options to complain about extra charges.

Think what will happen when people figure out that Verizon's network is essentially the same as AT&T. Then the real complaining will start!

The pricing is very expensive, and for the basic internet access $10 for 75MB is ridiculous, while the $1.99 per MB is simply a rip-off.

Does this change also apply to Canada or is it only in the US?

I see this as a double bladed sword.
1) their users consume less
2) show FCC how monopolies affect consumers, so that they will give AT&T a hard time in the merger with T-Mobile.

Can anyone help me.... I'm on a month to month plan right now without a smartphone or an data package, if I were to go to a verizon store tonight and buy a smartphone with the unlimited data plan would i be able to keep it with my month to month plan? or would i need to sign up for a new 2 year contract? or will I not be grandfathered in eithe way? any help is appreciated!