HTC Thunderbolt Release Date

[cereal killer]

Verizon allowing unlimited data on their LTE network for $29.99 a month? When pigs fly. This is Verizon we are talking about! You can bet tiered pricing will be in effect at launch.

Sent from my Droid

Originally that was the plan. $30 unlimited and summer was to introduce tiered data. If they changed it now it doesn't matter its still vaporware anyways



Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

Lols vaporware....I love it!

Miami I love it when you talk like this hahahaha

More more!

In all seriousness though I wonder who's pointing the finger at who and what they are saying. Id love to be in those meetings.


Sent from my Droid

 

[kodiak799]

I think Verizon would be smart to charge an extra 10 or 15 for unlimited 4G (on top of the $40 today). That would undercut the AT&T pricing and would cause an differentiation. Verizon has to be careful with advertising video streaming and then capping data (to your point).

Yeah, I try not to get overly excited or anxious. I don't think VZW is stupid and they'll find a way to create value.

Along the lines of your $40-$45 pricing, I like what TMo does with throttling after 10gigs (that plan is @ $65 a month). I could maybe get on board with that (even $80 for 10gigs then throttled thereafter). Might be like 6 hours of video a month and then as long as I'm only throttled to like 3mbps to still have a good surfing experience...

 

[sidsixseven]

What will be interesting is there's a lot of resistance here [this forum] from paying more for LTE. The big question is are the people here representative?

No -- this forum is not representative of the majority of users.

The subject of Tiered pricing generally receives a much more mixed reaction because -- depending on your perspective -- it's not always a bad thing.

For arguments sake, let's create a fictional Tiered pricing plan for LTE:

• $15 / month - 250mb data cap (LTE)
• $30 / month - 2gb data cap (LTE)
• $50 / month - Unlimited data (LTE)

If we compare this plan to the existing $30 / month Unlimited data plan, then the only people negatively impacted by this change are those that exceed 2gb of usage per month.

If you use less than that, there is no change or it can even be BENEFICIAL if your usage is so low that you can drop down to a 250mb plan.

A lot of people prefer Tiered pricing because they see it as buying "a la carte" where they can customize the plan based on their own usage. This is seen as preferable to "buffet" pricing where low usage users pay the same price as the high usage consumers.

On a forum like this -- where most people are likely high usage consumers -- the Tiered pricing is viewed as a severe negative because they will need to pay more if they continue consuming at that level.

There is also a third group (of which I'm included) that simply doesn't like Tiered pricing because they fear overage charges. I don't want to closely "monitor" my data usage for fear of going over. So even though I may never get anywhere near my "cap" -- I prefer the Unlimited style plans.

From Verizon's perspective, Tiered pricing can maximize profits. It can entice flip-phone users into into trying the new smartphones by offering an entry level data plan. It can also charge overages. It can also get people to pay based on usage, discouraging abuse.

 

[StinkyPete]

I think Verizon would be smart to charge an extra 10 or 15 for unlimited 4G (on top of the $40 today). That would undercut the AT&T pricing and would cause an differentiation. Verizon has to be careful with advertising video streaming and then capping data (to your point).

Yeah, I try not to get overly excited or anxious. I don't think VZW is stupid and they'll find a way to create value.

Along the lines of your $40-$45 pricing, I like what TMo does with throttling after 10gigs (that plan is @ $65 a month). I could maybe get on board with that (even $80 for 10gigs then throttled thereafter). Might be like 6 hours of video a month and then as long as I'm only throttled to like 3mbps to still have a good surfing experience...

Throttling down at a certain point is an interesting idea. My only concern is setting the bar too low based on today's behavior on an inferior data network (VZW 3G). Can't say "95% of our users never go above 2GB per month so... we will set the base at 2G and then charge X per GB above that and start to throttle at 6GB."

The one positive I see is that there hasn't been a lot of leaking about the new pricing - only about the phone. People are saying "we got trained on the phone" not "we got trained on the phone and the new pricing"

You would think Verizon would have to train people on the pricing ASAP if it was coming out before the end of March.

 

[kodiak799]

No -- this forum is not representative of the majority of users.

Agree with everything you wrote. I guess what I meant to say is even while this forum is not representative, if users are likely to pay more and don't want to that's a larger issue.

You might be right with most people being unaffected. They mentioned the cheaper plan was pretty effective in getting new smartphone users, so they make be looking at making more money off the ends and the bulk of current users will be unaffected in the middle.

Plus they may start cracking down on illegal tethering. I like the idea of HDMI out, but I don't know that it's going to be a good user experience since the compressed video won't scale well to bigger screens. And depending on what they throttle to, that could be punishing given the remainder of the month and the next month at that speed.

 

[kodiak799]

You would think Verizon would have to train people on the pricing ASAP if it was coming out before the end of March.

Good point. They could announce new plans but maybe not effective until June or something, which wouldn't be inconsistent with anything that's been said.

 

[Dark Lazer]

So I just saw that this was posted on twitter but then removed.

http://cdn.androidcommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/thunderbolt-htc-rep1-540x253.png

Maybe Verizon wanted to be the ones to announce it

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DroidForums App

 

[StinkyPete]

For arguments sake, let's create a fictional Tiered pricing plan for LTE:

• $15 / month - 250mb data cap (LTE)
• $30 / month - 2gb data cap (LTE)
• $50 / month - Unlimited data (LTE)

The real interesting thing here is that we now have two different data networks - 3G and 4G. Today you can go unlim. since it is all on 3G. While 4G rolls out (and probably for some time after that) people will be using both 3G and 4G for data depending on where they are.

In your example above, would it be an add on to existing 3G pricing? Would it be for data consumed no matter the network? It would be a real pain for people to keep track of how much they used on each network.

 

[StinkyPete]

You would think Verizon would have to train people on the pricing ASAP if it was coming out before the end of March.

Good point. They could announce new plans but maybe not effective until June or something, which wouldn't be inconsistent with anything that's been said.

Then it would be worth it to lock in to a 2 year plan with today's pricing...

 

[TheOldFart]

You would think Verizon would have to train people on the pricing ASAP if it was coming out before the end of March.

Good point. They could announce new plans but maybe not effective until June or something, which wouldn't be inconsistent with anything that's been said.

I seriously doubt that they would train people on the pricing. That would be like telling them what the TB release date is. It would leak in a second and then the competition would know what the pricing is. It takes advanced training on the phone to know how it works. It only takes a late night or early morning meeting the day of release to tell the employees what the pricing is.

 

[kodiak799]

In your example above, would it be an add on to existing 3G pricing? Would it be for data consumed no matter the network? It would be a real pain for people to keep track of how much they used on each network.

Agreed. I originally thought such issues would prevent any major change, especially because they want people to upconvert. Doesn't seem to be the case.

They're talking about buckets of data and matrix pricing. Sounds like 3G is going to be part of that, meaning new contracts (3G or LTE) will be subject to the new pricing.

But there's also been at least one comment for VZW execs about wanting to simplify pricing, along with the "buckets" comment I think meant to cover multiple devices on an account. Right now, $30 for unlimited is as simple as it gets, but then you also have tethering and mobile broadband plans so who knows.

My take on all this is VZW seems to be really struggling with how to optimize pricing. And I might argue that's probably a good indication it will be too complicated for consumers and destined for failure.

 

[StinkyPete]

You would think Verizon would have to train people on the pricing ASAP if it was coming out before the end of March.

Good point. They could announce new plans but maybe not effective until June or something, which wouldn't be inconsistent with anything that's been said.

I seriously doubt that they would train people on the pricing. That would be like telling them what the TB release date is. It would leak in a second and then the competition would know what the pricing is. It takes advanced training on the phone to know how it works. It only takes a late night or early morning meeting the day of release to tell the employees what the pricing is.

If it was as simple as "we will now charge $34.99 for unlimited data" then yes, but if it is some sort of tiered, capped, multi-band pricing, with per-GB overages, then I think they would need more than a day of the release meeting.

Cell phones and cable TV have been around for many years - and they still can't give you a "taxes and fees included" price when you order.

 

[Its TwiX]

Next on the to do list was to feed the hypebeast its dinner so...

​

 

[kodiak799]

It takes advanced training on the phone to know how it works. It only takes a late night or early morning meeting the day of release to tell the employees what the pricing is.

Point taken, but I think you're giving a little too much credit to the in-store sales reps. It just depends - even a relatively simple matrix pricing still has a lot of moving parts and will generate a lot of questions from customers.

 

[Its TwiX]

That was posted yesterday and pulled 20 minutes after.