Verizon changing plan structure

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

By the end of the month, Verizon will offer new and upgrading customers "share everything plans" -- shared unlimited voice and text, and a tiered data "bucket."

It's designed for folks who want to put, say, two cell phones plus an ipad, etc. all on one plan. However, you'll pay for the convenience.

Just 1GB of data will cost you $50 with an additional cost for more (for instance, a 4GB plan would cost $70).

That doesn't sound bad till you get to the other charges. There will be a $40 per phone charge and the ipad I mentioned will add another $10.

So the scenario I described will be:
$70 data
$80 for two phones
$10 for your ipad
-----
$160 a month

Read more here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405671,00.asp

For my part, I'm on a grandfathered unlimited data plan. My contract expires in September so I called Verizon and said I wanted to upgrade my phone early so I could not only move from 3G to 4G but also lock in a new 2 year contract with my grandfathered unlimited data and price. The lady said she needed to put me on hold so she could talk to her supervisor. In about 15 seconds she came back and said, "okay."

I was a bit stunned with the quick reply and had to think fast as to whether I really wanted to do it or not. Said "yes" and gave them the discounted, renewing-your-contract phone price and my new 4G phone is on it's way.

So, I've kicked the can down the road a couple of years for the cost of upgrading my trusty DroidX 3G to a Rzar Maxx 4G. Who knows what they'll be doing by then.

[Dan Henderson]

I "kicked the can" a bit too, but did it with a droid3 from Sam's, discounted to free with dock and car mount two months ago. I will transition out of Verizon to whomever has the best deal at the time. I understand that Verizon has said that we can keep our unlimited plan when we renew but no discounted phones. Like you, I will wait and see. I've got two phones with data plans now, 3 total on the account so I am already in that range you mentioned.

[Gary Creely]

By the end of the month, Verizon will offer new and upgrading customers "share everything plans" -- shared unlimited voice and text, and a tiered data "bucket."

It's designed for folks who want to put, say, two cell phones plus an ipad, etc. all on one plan. However, you'll pay for the convenience.

Just 1GB of data will cost you $50 with an additional cost for more (for instance, a 4GB plan would cost $70).

That doesn't sound bad till you get to the other charges. There will be a $40 per phone charge and the ipad I mentioned will add another $10.

So the scenario I described will be:
$70 data
$80 for two phones
$10 for your ipad
-----
$160 a month

Read more here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2405671,00.asp

For my part, I'm on a grandfathered unlimited data plan. My contract expires in September so I called Verizon and said I wanted to upgrade my phone early so I could not only move from 3G to 4G but also lock in a new 2 year contract with my grandfathered unlimited data and price. The lady said she needed to put me on hold so she could talk to her supervisor. In about 15 seconds she came back and said, "okay."

I was a bit stunned with the quick reply and had to think fast as to whether I really wanted to do it or not. Said "yes" and gave them the discounted, renewing-your-contract phone price and my new 4G phone is on it's way.

So, I've kicked the can down the road a couple of years for the cost of upgrading my trusty DroidX 3G to a Rzar Maxx 4G. Who knows what they'll be doing by then.

The part of that plan that seems too costly is the per phone charge of $40. If you are going to pay $70 for data: the cost to add a device should be $10 or less.

[Marian Schwaller Carney]

bleah.

[Jon Twitchell]

The part of that plan that seems too costly is the per phone charge of $40. If you are going to pay $70 for data: the cost to add a device should be $10 or less.

but the $40/phone includes unlimited voice/text, right?

I want to know if they offer something similar/cheaper that shares 700-1000 minutes as well as the data bucket... then I might be interested.

[Zach Wingo]

So my current plan would cost:

$40 Smart Phone
$120 Four basic phones
$50 Data
------
$210
$174 After discount from work

My current plan is $109 for 4 regular phones and 1 smart phone with $30 unlimited data for a grand total of $139 so with Verizon's new plan, that's a 25% increase? My hatred for Verizon continues to grow every month.