Tiered 4G data plans, according to VZW.

[jbg25]

They are probably changing the data plans because they realize with Google...you don't need their voice service.

IMO...This is in preparation of everybody switching to data only plans.

I KNOW I WOULD PAY $69 for unlimited data, with no voice or other services. Would reduce my phone bill by a significant amount.

 

[jsh1120]

They are probably changing the data plans because they realize with Google...you don't need their voice service.

IMO...This is in preparation of everybody switching to data only plans.

I KNOW I WOULD PAY $69 for unlimited data, with no voice or other services. Would reduce my phone bill by a significant amount.

Bingo. I'm surprised no one mentioned this comment in the cited article...probably because it was near the end of the first paragraph...

"... At the same time he said he expected all voice traffic originating from LTE subscribers to be carried as a VoIP data service by 2012, resulting in significant additional savings (for VZW)..."

What this means, in effect, is that McAdam and other wireless provider execs recognize that their voice plan use will decline significantly with LTE. They'll recover that revenue by increasing data plan charges.

 

[Sweettooth]

Wow... and to think just 10 yrs ago people actually used their phones to talk on. You guys make it sound like the end of the world or something. Use a laptop or copy the music directly to your phone instead of streaming it. Honestly what did some of you do before cell phones became all in one devices?

What we did was do what you described, inconvenience ourselves. It isn't that a phone HAS to do all of these things, it's that in this day and age, it should. Everyone knows that smartphones being phones with extra features is old thinking. People should know that smartphones will eventually be a true all-in-one device and become as standard as carrying a drivers' license. You shouldn't have to take steps backwards, these aren't phones anymore, they're multimedia/multi-medium devices.

As for tiering data plans, I don't much care, but eradicating the truly unlimited data plan is bad move if you ask me. As much as we pay a month for these phones, they'd be stupid to rip their customers off even more. As much as I love my Droid I already find it ludicrous that I pay $140 a month to keep it going; nearly $1,700 a year for a phone I paid $200 for...and you want to question whether or not I should be allowed an unlimited data plan?

 

[JhankG]

Wow... and to think just 10 yrs ago people actually used their phones to talk on. You guys make it sound like the end of the world or something. Use a laptop or copy the music directly to your phone instead of streaming it. Honestly what did some of you do before cell phones became all in one devices?

It's the 21st century. I think it's time for you to catch up.

 

[czerdrill]

Wow... and to think just 10 yrs ago people actually used their phones to talk on. You guys make it sound like the end of the world or something. Use a laptop or copy the music directly to your phone instead of streaming it. Honestly what did some of you do before cell phones became all in one devices?

haha i won't be as blunt as everyone else, but yeah you can't just go backwards in technology. we all can still use rotary phones if we wanted to as well, but that would be dumb. if you're creating a smartphone which is billed as something that is a multimedia device you should be able to use it to its full potential. saying "just do this instead" kind of defeats the purpose of buying the phone...

 

[jsh1120]

Wow... and to think just 10 yrs ago people actually used their phones to talk on. You guys make it sound like the end of the world or something. Use a laptop or copy the music directly to your phone instead of streaming it. Honestly what did some of you do before cell phones became all in one devices?

haha i won't be as blunt as everyone else, but yeah you can't just go backwards in technology. we all can still use rotary phones if we wanted to as well, but that would be dumb. if you're creating a smartphone which is billed as something that is a multimedia device you should be able to use it to its full potential. saying "just do this instead" kind of defeats the purpose of buying the phone...

Agreed. But expecting to have those capabilities without paying for them is just as "dumb." Competitive pressure and concern about legislation mandating equal net access will place some obstacles in the way of tiered pricing, but only temporarily and only in terms of mitigating to some degree the extent to which individual users will pay for the amount of bandwidth they use.

Make no mistake. Every carrier faces the same market landscape and they will all opt for tiered pricing as data use grows and dwarfs use of their voice networks. The only strategy capable of countering that trend is to "socialize" paying for data use through legislation.

 

[czerdrill]

Wow... and to think just 10 yrs ago people actually used their phones to talk on. You guys make it sound like the end of the world or something. Use a laptop or copy the music directly to your phone instead of streaming it. Honestly what did some of you do before cell phones became all in one devices?

haha i won't be as blunt as everyone else, but yeah you can't just go backwards in technology. we all can still use rotary phones if we wanted to as well, but that would be dumb. if you're creating a smartphone which is billed as something that is a multimedia device you should be able to use it to its full potential. saying "just do this instead" kind of defeats the purpose of buying the phone...

Agreed. But expecting to have those capabilities without paying for them is just as "dumb." Competitive pressure and concern about legislation mandating equal net access will place some obstacles in the way of tiered pricing, but only temporarily and only in terms of mitigating to some degree the extent to which individual users will pay for the amount of bandwidth they use.

Make no mistake. Every carrier faces the same market landscape and they will all opt for tiered pricing as data use grows and dwarfs use of their voice networks. The only strategy capable of countering that trend is to "socialize" paying for data use through legislation.

oh yeah definitely agree with you there. You gotta pay for what you want. I'm not against a tiered plan especially since my data usage barely gets over 2 gigs a month (and that's a really busy month haha). Just saying that it's not wrong for people to expect to get what they pay for and in this case they're paying for a phone that is supposed to have capabilities which a 5GB cap may not suffice for some.

 

[jsh1120]

oh yeah definitely agree with you there. You gotta pay for what you want. I'm not against a tiered plan especially since my data usage barely gets over 2 gigs a month (and that's a really busy month haha). Just saying that it's not wrong for people to expect to get what they pay for and in this case they're paying for a phone that is supposed to have capabilities which a 5GB cap may not suffice for some.

My guess is that if carriers have their druthers data plans will eventually shift to a "per gigabyte" charge similar to the charges for minutes used on a voice plan, i.e. the user is charged for an additional gigabyte each time they use any portion of that gig just as he/she is charged for a full minute whenever any part of that minute is used.

 

[Taegost]

They are probably changing the data plans because they realize with Google...you don't need their voice service.

IMO...This is in preparation of everybody switching to data only plans.

I KNOW I WOULD PAY $69 for unlimited data, with no voice or other services. Would reduce my phone bill by a significant amount.

Bingo. I'm surprised no one mentioned this comment in the cited article...probably because it was near the end of the first paragraph...

"... At the same time he said he expected all voice traffic originating from LTE subscribers to be carried as a VoIP data service by 2012, resulting in significant additional savings (for VZW)..."

What this means, in effect, is that McAdam and other wireless provider execs recognize that their voice plan use will decline significantly with LTE. They'll recover that revenue by increasing data plan charges.

Yeah, I'm surprised too... Most people probably just read "blah blah blah WE WANTZ UR MONEEZ!" and didn't read the whole article.
I don't like the idea of a tiered plan, but it makes sense with the direction of their business and the internet, and in a way I agree as well, for that reason... It's not going to be tracked in minutes, but in gigabytes.