[Update] Verizon's New Family Data Plans Begin: It's Called the Share Everything Plan

[wetwilly1643]

I am sure this was talked about , but I didn't feel like going through the 40 some pages to find it. The S3 unlimited upgrade. I currently have the Nexus. I took my brothers upgrade for the S3 and will give him my Nexus. Are we safe with the S3 being unlimited with the pre order stuff or will we be screwed. Also should i give him my OG droid and get on a plan now or is he ok to upgrade to my nexus on the 9th and still only pay for 2gb at 30 or will he be thrown into this automatic family share stuff even though he didn't upgrade his plan to a new phone? He doesn't currently have a data plan right now.

 

[akhenax]

This reminds me of the bone-headed move Netflix pulled recently that drove away their customers in waves.

Off topic, I wish there was a sister forum site for Netflix, as I really hate the new Xbox 360 Netflix app and would love to festoon the internet with my rants about it. When I say hate, I mean HATE A LOT, just to clarify.

On topic, I see a lot of people saying to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy SIII now to keep your unlimited data. Is there a reason to do this if you already have a high end phone (Droid Razr, Galaxy Nexus, Razr Maxx, Rezound)? I think doing so would be a waste of money in my mind.

 

[Zanzaras]

Dumb Phone Plans

I've read several articles about the new plans and i've been seeing the usual blurb about all plans being replaced by the "Share Everything" plan except for one $40 per month plan intended for feature phones (see link below). Just for the sake of curiosity, do we know anything about that $40 plan? If it's feasible, i may just use that plan and get my data from other sources.

Verizon's Share Everything plans will go live June 28 - TechSpot News

 

[mountainbikermark]

I haven't seen this graphic before. Its from Time.

View attachment 50980

According to that graphic my bill wouldn't change a penny but I'd lose unlimited on 1 smartphone. Between the 2 smartphones I have now we barely use over 1gb and the 2 feature phones use none

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A Rezound phone was used for this Tapatalk post

 

[Beka27]

Off topic, I wish there was a sister forum site for Netflix, as I really hate the new Xbox 360 Netflix app and would love to festoon the internet with my rants about it. When I say hate, I mean HATE A LOT, just to clarify.

On topic, I see a lot of people saying to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy SIII now to keep your unlimited data. Is there a reason to do this if you already have a high end phone (Droid Razr, Galaxy Nexus, Razr Maxx, Rezound)? I think doing so would be a waste of money in my mind.

I don't (personally) think there's a reason to upgrade if you have one of the current phones UNLESS you have an extra upgrade laying around and want to use it up. In that case you could sell either the current phone or the S3 and recoup your money.

In our case, we are limping along on two DXs... so yes, for us it's more than worth the upgrade... lol

 

[nikecar]

that graphic would be fine if it were to showcase how many of us on unlimited or those that use higher tiers of data get screwed here....

we don't need a graphic to show us that.

 

[huskur]

I will be leaving vzw shortly.

Alot of people are saying this and some will do it.

What some don't realize is that this is going to bring in many new customers also that would benefit from something like this. No one offers a plan like "share everything". Personally, I don't like it because I for one will not benefit from it. AT&T "family type" users will flock in along with many others from every carrier. (thats the flipside vzw is looking at)

 

[Trusstopher]

Alot of people are saying this and some will do it.

What some don't realize is that this is going to bring in many new customers also that would benefit from something like this. No one offers a plan like "share everything". Personally, I don't like it because I for one will not benefit from it. AT&T "family type" users will flock in along with many others from every carrier. (thats the flipside vzw is looking at)

Family Share + Masses of Families of 4 or 5 members wanting Iphone 5's and Ipad 3's = Dollar Signs in VZW's eyes

 

[Colorado]

Alot of people are saying this and some will do it.

What some don't realize is that this is going to bring in many new customers also that would benefit from something like this. No one offers a plan like "share everything". Personally, I don't like it because I for one will not benefit from it. AT&T "family type" users will flock in along with many others from every carrier. (thats the flipside vzw is looking at)

And that says what about customer loyalty???

 

[tech_head]

I am sure this was talked about , but I didn't feel like going through the 40 some pages to find it. The S3 unlimited upgrade. I currently have the Nexus. I took my brothers upgrade for the S3 and will give him my Nexus. Are we safe with the S3 being unlimited with the pre order stuff or will we be screwed. Also should i give him my OG droid and get on a plan now or is he ok to upgrade to my nexus on the 9th and still only pay for 2gb at 30 or will he be thrown into this automatic family share stuff even though he didn't upgrade his plan to a new phone? He doesn't currently have a data plan right now.

I just burned my last upgrade for my daughter on the S3 and it walks through and you update your agreement with the plans available *NOW* not on the 28th. So if you preorder the S3 *BEFORE* they put the new plans in place you will get your current plan. I just did it.

On another note, my current usage 8 days into my billing cycle:
My phone -> ~.9 GB
My Wife's -> ~.3 GB
Daughter -> ~.5 GB

So at the current usage we are on track for ~7GB, but my wife hasn't been streaming lately.
We would need the $90 or $100 dollar plan so that we have enough cushion.
The new plans only work if you use a small amount of data.
If you use anywhere near 4GB on an individual plan (remember they were offering double the data promotion) or have multiple phones lines and use reasonable data, this new stuff blows.

The other thing that his irritating is that they don't offer an auto-ramp type plan. That is pay for what you use and buy the data in $10 blocks. you know if you don't use but 1GB this month shared, it's $50 but next month you use more so the bill auto increments by $10. No, that makes sense, they want you to pay for more than you use or hit a limit so they can add penalties.

I say screw them and anyone on unlimited should ignore that WiFi exists unless you need to connect to a server at home.
BTW - I don't need a tethering plan for my iPad because Bluetooth PAN works great on Motorola phones and there is nothing Verizon can do to stop it.
It's not a WiFi hot spot.

 

[equake]

Current plan: $79.99 (plus TAXES!!!) for 450 national minutes and unlimited data, 500 messages. The recommended plan with 2gigs (which could work for me) is $100.

Heck, I'm trying to get friends to text my GV number so I can ditch the $10 texting fee. Unlimited minutes would be nice, but I've gone over it like twice in the last five years, mostly when I'm not paying attention. If they really want to turn the screws they'll eliminate the free mobile-to-mobile and maybe make the free night hours later.

If I really need more minutes for some reason, I'll just add this plan on a new account for a dumb phone - unlimited minutes and text for $40 is a good deal. So in that scenario, if I get everyone to call/text my GV number it will forward to both phones and I just need to monitor minutes on the one - total cost of $110 and I keep my unlimited.

I GV for texting quite a bit but unfortunately it does not support mms or short codes. Once those are supported its over for phone texting.

 

[wanta99gtr]

I don't know if it has been talked about, but if Verizon does partner with Redbox and offers streaming movies, would the data usage be excluded from your monthly allotment? Because if it is then wouldn't that be grounds for a class action lawsuit by Netflix and it's users? If they do include that data into your monthly tally, your going to burn through your data fast on these tiered plans.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Droid Forums

 

[bobbyjunk]

OK...I think the deal isn't too bad for the RIGHT people/plan combinations. Take for instance a couple of the following scenarios:

First of all...yes, plans SUCK big time for people that want lowest minute plans, use tons of data, already have unlimited plans no longer offered, etc.

But looking from a NEW customer's perspective...assuming the following:
1. New customer uses smartphones on all lines (becoming quite standard these days)
2. New customer uses a moderate amount of minutes. So would be looking existing 1400 minute family plan (need this anyways to get 10 family and friends numbers)
3. New customer uses a moderate amount of data.
4. New customer needs texting

Old plan for new customer:
$90 - 1400 minute family plan
$30 - texting plan
$60 - 2 data plans, new customer so limited to 2gb each
Total = $180

New plan for new customer:
$80 - 2 smart phone election
$70 - 4 gig plan, equivalent to above with 2gb each
Total = $150

Am I missing something? Seems the new shared plans aren't so bad...at least for new customers with the assumptions outlined above?? The new shared plan is cheaper, includes unlimited minutes and also free hotspot (tethering).


NOW...why couldn't a new customer 'share' (afterall these are the share everything plans :biggrin: ) his plan with 2 additional extended family members or 2 additional friends or a neighbor to sweeten the the deal?? So maybe I want 2 phones for myself (and wife) and my neighbor would like 2 smartphones as well (himself and his wife). All smartphones, all with data.

We could each do the old plan outlined above and would each pay $180. Or if we 'shared' my single account then:
$160 - 4 smartphone election
$90 - 8 gig plan, equivalent to 2gb each
Total = $250, split two ways is $125 each.

Seems $125 each is not a bad deal at all for 2 smartphones with unlimited minutes/texts/2gig data each??

What am I missing here?

 

[nikecar]

Family Share + Masses of Families of 4 or 5 members wanting Iphone 5's and Ipad 3's = Dollar Signs in VZW's eyes

I think Apple will see $ signs.

 

[BLeClair12]

I, like many others, actually like the structure of the new plans, but I completely agree - it's the data prices that are absolutely horrible.

If there was some sort of "loyalty" promotion to get existing data customers to switch over, I'd be perfectly fine with it. Honestly, it doesn't seem like it'd be all that hard to do.

For example, if Verizon were to say, offer unlimited data customers a promo where we could get 4 gigs of data for, say, $30 under the new share everything plans, I'd be completely willing to make the switch immediately, I use anywhere between 1.5 - 3 gigs of data month, so 2Gb is worry-some, and 1 is ridiculous. But if I had one smartphone ($40), one feature phone ($30) and 4Gbs of shared data at $30 a month, I'd be saving money, and not squawking a bit at this new strategy.

The biggest problem is here is how big of a hit unlimited data users are taking. By even having unlimited data, it's a sign that we've been loyal to Verizon. The least they could do is consider rewarding those people.