Verizon to Ditch Unlimited Data Plans With 4G LTE

Looks like a continued movement to screw us people who are up with the times and actually know how to use there smartphones to their fullest extent. Not having unlimited plans is going to blow severely.

such liars .... verizon hasnt had a a actual unlimted data plan in over 3 yrs ... they say unlimted but fine print says 5 gb. thats why i dropped ur sorry A$$e$$

All those AT&T commercials is having Verizon running scared.

I was almost ready to jump on the smartphone bandwagon, but I sure won't if I have to pay for a variable amount of bandwidth. I imagine I wouldn't use the online features too much if I have to worry about going over my limit.

What good is a faster service if they dont want you to be doing traffic intensive tasks. If all I wanted was texting and email, I would be waisting my money on a faster speed.

Good, let those leechers pay more for bandwidth. I would rather not pay the full $30/mo for a data plan of which I rarely use more than 200 MB/mo. and have never used more than 500mb/mo. If they want unlimited, sell it to them for $99/mo and let me pay $15/mo for a 500Mb/mo plan.

For those that whine about the limits, I really doubt you know how hard it is to actually use more than 1GB/mo on your phone (*without* tethering to a PC)

Quote: "What do you think of metered data plans?"

Archaic, inefficient, wasted opportunity, money grabbing.

Here in Sweden, one of our major networks Telia are launching their 4G service imminently and have done the sensible thing – it’s primarily being launched for data, with unlimited plans, aimed at power users / businesses.

Whichever company offers the unlimited data plan will prevail. Ultimately, consumer have been screwed by Phone companies soo often that they would be drawn to a plan that allows them to feel the phone companies can't screw them anymore.

Those that think this is a good idea don't realize that the cheapest data plan offered will still probably be $30 after the change.

Verizon and ATT are the same company. It's just sibling rivalry. All this bogus lawsuits are just them playing us as fools saying they aren't monopolies as if they are competitors.

Phone carriers are taking their greedy habits with them as the world's mobile companies shift from "Cell Service Providers" to "Mobile ISP's", which is the worst possible thing that could happen.

Then again, the people that scream ZOMG I WANT UNLIMITED DATA are the same uneducated, selfish heathens who think they're owed the world, with nary a care nor regard for anyone else.

And don't get me started on the kind of infrastructure you'd need to support a wireless, broadband network to feed the sheer number of users it's going to have to.

Phone carriers are taking their greedy habits with them as the world's mobile companies shift from "Cell Service Providers" to "Mobile ISP's", which is the worst possible thing that could happen.

Then again, the people that scream ZOMG I WANT UNLIMITED DATA are the same uneducated, selfish heathens who think they're owed the world, with nary a care nor regard for anyone else.

And don't get me started on the kind of infrastructure you'd need to support a wireless, broadband network to feed the sheer number of users it's going to have to.

Use more, pay more. What's hard to understand about that????

Where they set the tiers in the pricing plans will affect whether or not anyone should feel screwed.

Since their "unlimited" data plans are anything but, this means they want to charge people for for every byte instead. Gotta love "marketing!" It's just ways of making more money off of the chumps for less service and hoping they won't notice.

I don't see a problem in tiering... I'd be interested in a data plan for occasional use if it was say $10/mo for 100Mb, I know I wouldn't use it much so $30 isn't worth it to me. They could still offer an unlimited plan for maybe $50.

Seriously, why do you bother having a UK mirror when you post articles like this to it?

You know. I don't even have a cell phone. I get along just fine without it.

It boggles my mind why people want to shell out $100 dollars a month for these "services." It's nice to stay in touch with people. It's to the point where its becoming an accepted cultural addiction. People who use food stamps to purchase their food and stuff come through my line with droids, iphones, and other smartphones. Then they cry about how they don't have enough on their foodstamps to purchase everything they want. (This isn't everyone just most of the more selfish ones).

This is a sick backwards world where we are living. H.G. Wells said our fears would kill us. I don't think that's quite the case. If anything our addictions and wants will kill us.

If they meter the most user friendly way to do it would be the way the electric company or water company does it...in a very fine grained manner in usage tiers. That way, if you aren't a heavy user you don't pay excessively, but if you are you pay more, but less per MB. As long as they can accept charging acceptable rates per MB that is (fat chance...I guess there's the hole in my idea lol).

I think it is another way for these companies to rape and pillage the consumers. It is a way for them to charge large fee's for little service and yet demand what service we can have because of the phones they offer. look at AT&T for over 4 years now they have had the Iphone, and yet they want to charge you 50 bucks a month for unlimited data and texting, 30 a month for the apple data plan and then 20 bucks for the unlimited data, when a non smart phone can get the same unlimited data and texting for 30 bucks total. isn't a text nothing but raw data anyways?

and now with all these new phones coming out soon will all force you into a data plan even if you dont want it, what happened to buying and paying for what you need? not what the company is telling you, you have to have?

I think this move is great, its going to get the other big three to offer cheaper and better plans. I for example, get unlimited everything through sprint on my blackberry tour for about $60. That plan includes 4G (limited headset availability, but unlocked 4g dongles for sale). I think this will be a great move to push ATAT into finally offering some better plans and data capability. T-Mobile should take the intuitive as well. Sprint already jumped to take all the pissed off Verizon customers who got tired of paying an extra fee for blackberries and who got tired of paying 100 for capped internet usage. Of course where you live will decide which network to buy into. Where I live Sprint is wonderful. Mileage may vary

It depends what the caps are. If it high enough for surfing and email fine. They just obviously dont want everyone downloading video and music over an infrastructure that doesnt have the capacity to support it.

It depends what the caps are. If it high enough for surfing and email fine. They just obviously dont want everyone downloading video and music over an infrastructure that doesnt have the capacity to support it.

I take issue with this. Verizon charges what... $30 for a data plan for their phones and even then they cap it at 5 GB / month... and there are overage charges beyond that. Well, why not give us UNDERAGE (I made that word up) charges since most of us rarely use our allotted 5 GB of bandwidth. It should go both ways or not at all.

joebob2000, I just don't think you have any idea how this works. These guys will not lower your rate because they introduce tiered pricing, they'll just make yours the new base. You find me just one instance where a company actually did something that was really good for the consumers (especially amongst cell phone companies) and not just something they said was good for you but turned out to be better for them.

Rollover minutes anyone? AT&T charges 15 - 20 bucks more per month for the same minutes as anyone else, and whatever happens with those "rollover minutes"? Nobody really uses them. They expire every year, and if you save up enough minutes for an entire month, or even 10, you don't get anything free from that.

Bull poop.

Honestly, I'm not sure what is the right or wrong path for wireless ISP's when it comes to data plans. But news like this makes me less anxious to jump on the smart phone bandwagon (which I was planning to do with WP7). Because if I do get a smart phone, I will want to be able to consume a lot of online media.