Verizon Planning on "Turbo" Network Speed Mode with Micro-Transaction Tiered Data

[SquireSCA]

My guess is that it is even cheaper to send a text over the voice towers or else they would send it over the data connection.

I looked last month and they had a 250 text/month option for $5 a month and my current minutes plan $20 cheaper but now it is gone. I wish I would have grabbed it while it was there but now it is too late and I am stuck with the coupled talk/text plan. I think I may still opt for a switch $10 for 1000 and hope that $5 for 250 comes back.

They really are tightening things up. I understand that the economy sucks, but they are still bringing in what has to be record profits despite that. And they keep raising prices, forcing people off Unlimited plans, etc... Each year they give us less and less and charge us more. My girlfriend and I had unlimited data plans, but with worrying about throttling after 2GB, we figured why not take advantage of double the data and get 4GB for a penny more than what the Unlimited(which is their most limited plan ironically)... Simple, right? Not, because my GF got a 20% discount on the Unlimited plans, and lost that when we moved to the tiered plan because they do not honor corporate discounts on that plan, which they never disclosed to us when we made the change. So we expect the price to go up 2 cents for the two data plans, and it goes up $14. When we asked them, they said they don't discount the new plan and that we cannot go back to the Unlimited plan.

These companies are absolute sharks.

 

[jpiarull]

They really are tightening things up. I understand that the economy sucks, but they are still bringing in what has to be record profits despite that. And they keep raising prices, forcing people off Unlimited plans, etc... Each year they give us less and less and charge us more. My girlfriend and I had unlimited data plans, but with worrying about throttling after 2GB, we figured why not take advantage of double the data and get 4GB for a penny more than what the Unlimited(which is their most limited plan ironically)... Simple, right? Not, because my GF got a 20% discount on the Unlimited plans, and lost that when we moved to the tiered plan because they do not honor corporate discounts on that plan, which they never disclosed to us when we made the change. So we expect the price to go up 2 cents for the two data plans, and it goes up $14. When we asked them, they said they don't discount the new plan and that we cannot go back to the Unlimited plan.

These companies are absolute sharks.

You're telling me I'm set to lose my unlimited plan when I switch from Moto Droid 1 to whichever LTE device I want to upgrade to? What gives next, take away unlimited text messaging and charge a fee per attached image per message, I mean really????:icon_evil:

 

[ilikemoneygreen]

They really are tightening things up. I understand that the economy sucks, but they are still bringing in what has to be record profits despite that. And they keep raising prices, forcing people off Unlimited plans, etc... Each year they give us less and less and charge us more. My girlfriend and I had unlimited data plans, but with worrying about throttling after 2GB, we figured why not take advantage of double the data and get 4GB for a penny more than what the Unlimited(which is their most limited plan ironically)... Simple, right? Not, because my GF got a 20% discount on the Unlimited plans, and lost that when we moved to the tiered plan because they do not honor corporate discounts on that plan, which they never disclosed to us when we made the change. So we expect the price to go up 2 cents for the two data plans, and it goes up $14. When we asked them, they said they don't discount the new plan and that we cannot go back to the Unlimited plan.

These companies are absolute sharks.

wow. idk what to say to that. :frown: that sucks.

 

[Trusstopher]

You're telling me I'm set to lose my unlimited plan when I switch from Moto Droid 1 to whichever LTE device I want to upgrade to? What gives next, take away unlimited text messaging and charge a fee per attached image per message, I mean really????:icon_evil:

Going from D1 to an LTE should not cause loss of grandfathered unlimited. Did a Verizon rep tell you this?

Edit: just realized you were asking, not telling. No you won't lose it. Squire made the choice to switch.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

 

[ilikemoneygreen]

Going from D1 to an LTE should not cause loss of grandfathered unlimited. Did a Verizon rep tell you this?

Edit: just realized you were asking, not telling. No you won't lose it. Squire made the choice to switch.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

If only he could press an undo button.

 

[kodiak799]

My guess is that it is even cheaper to send a text over the voice towers or else they would send it over the data connection.

I looked last month and they had a 250 text/month option for $5 a month and my current minutes plan $20 cheaper but now it is gone. I wish I would have grabbed it while it was there but now it is too late and I am stuck with the coupled talk/text plan. I think I may still opt for a switch $10 for 1000 and hope that $5 for 250 comes back.

Just use Google Voice = free texts. Hard part is getting friends to switch to your new text number - wish I would have ported before the deadline for grandfathered unlimited.

 

[Trusstopher]

Just use Google Voice = free texts. Hard part is getting friends to switch to your new text number - wish I would have ported before the deadline for grandfathered unlimited.

Exactly. If I didn't have to worry about people sending me incoming texts, I would switch to the 10 cents/text plan and never use it

 

[SquireSCA]

Exactly. If I didn't have to worry about people sending me incoming texts, I would switch to the 10 cents/text plan and never use it

But because so many people are starting to do that, VZW will start adding the cost of the messaging plan into the minutes plan, so that you will still be paying for it even if you use Google Talk or another service.

VZW is like the government and taxes. Once you are paying for something they come to rely on it, and it takes an amazing amount of effort to get them to go without it. VZW has enjoyed a near 90% profit margin on their texting plans. The more we use other methods of texting, the sooner they will just add the fee into our base fees so that we are forced to keep paying for it. I will see if I can find the article that talked about their plans to do this...

 

[Trusstopher]

But because so many people are starting to do that, VZW will start adding the cost of the messaging plan into the minutes plan, so that you will still be paying for it even if you use Google Talk or another service.

VZW is like the government and taxes. Once you are paying for something they come to rely on it, and it takes an amazing amount of effort to get them to go without it. VZW has enjoyed a near 90% profit margin on their texting plans. The more we use other methods of texting, the sooner they will just add the fee into our base fees so that we are forced to keep paying for it. I will see if I can find the article that talked about their plans to do this...

Not if you can get a separated talk and text plans before they combine them for good.

Until you change something on your account, your plan or your rates shouldn't change. It is just like getting in the door before they closed unlimited data.

They can't arbitrarily up your voice plan and say you are now paying for texting as well unless you switch to it... if they could do that, the grandfathered unlimited data plans would be costing $500 a month right now to push everyone off of them.

 

[SquireSCA]

Not if you can get a separated talk and text plans before they combine them for good.

Until you change something on your account, your plan or your rates shouldn't change. It is just like getting in the door before they closed unlimited data.

They can't arbitrarily up your voice plan and say you are now paying for texting as well unless you switch to it... if they could do that, the grandfathered unlimited data plans would be costing $500 a month right now to push everyone off of them.

They can change whatever they want, whenever they want, we have seen examples of this already. And while you may not change your plan, when you upgrade your phone, if you want the contract discount you have to sign the new contract which will have that in it.

VZW stopped doing 12 month upgrades on 2 year plans last January, but those of us that were under contract before then were locked into the 12 month cycle, which I just used to get my Rezound. And in doing so, I had to resign a new 2 year contract, which states that I am no longer eligible after 12 months, but have to wait 20 just like everyone else.

The bottom line is that you signed a contract stating that they can make changes(but you cannot) whenever they want, and there is very little that you can do about it.

 

[Trusstopher]

They can change whatever they want, whenever they want, we have seen examples of this already. And while you may not change your plan, when you upgrade your phone, if you want the contract discount you have to sign the new contract which will have that in it.

VZW stopped doing 12 month upgrades on 2 year plans last January, but those of us that were under contract before then were locked into the 12 month cycle, which I just used to get my Rezound. And in doing so, I had to resign a new 2 year contract, which states that I am no longer eligible after 12 months, but have to wait 20 just like everyone else.

The bottom line is that you signed a contract stating that they can make changes(but you cannot) whenever they want, and there is very little that you can do about it.

I don't know that I completely agree with that. If that were the case, why am I still going to have my unlimited data when I upgrade in the near future? As long as you keep renewing the same contract and don't make any changes that require a completely new contact, the pricing terms can not be changed. That is one of the few areas they do not have free rein.

 

[SquireSCA]

I don't know that I completely agree with that. If that were the case, why am I still going to have my unlimited data when I upgrade in the near future? As long as you keep renewing the same contract and don't make any changes that require a completely new contact, the pricing terms can not be changed. That is one of the few areas they do not have free rein.

How is it Unlimited when they can throttle you after 2GB?

 

[Trusstopher]

How is it Unlimited when they can throttle you after 2GB?

Well, when I make the upgrade, I will be on 4G, which isn't being throttled, yet. But once they start hitting 4G as well:

Because unlimited only applies to amount not speed. I could leave my phone downloading data none stop for the entire month and never pay an overage because I have no limit on the amount. There were no implications or promises as to what rate I would receive said data.

I am in no way defending Verizon or saying that the throttling is "right"... but they are still "delivering" what I signed up for. They are trying to make it useless to the point it makes more sense to switch to tiered by the means they have (change speed) but I guarantee you they would rather change the price I'm paying to encourage the switch instead of change the speed I get my data as it would more than likely make me switch faster and/or they would be making more money off me until I did switched.

 

[SquireSCA]

Well, when I make the upgrade, I will be on 4G, which isn't being throttled, yet. But once they start hitting 4G as well:

Because unlimited only applies to amount not speed. I could leave my phone downloading data none stop for the entire month and never pay an overage because I have no limit on the amount. There were no implications or promises as to what rate I would receive said data.

I am in no way defending Verizon or saying that the throttling is "right"... but they are still "delivering" what I signed up for. They are trying to make it useless to the point it makes more sense to switch to tiered by the means they have (change speed) but I guarantee you they would rather change the price I'm paying to encourage the switch instead of change the speed I get my data as it would more than likely make me switch faster and/or they would be making more money off me until I did switched.

The speeds were implied. If you pay for 3G service and "unlimited data", the implication is that you get unlimited data at 3G speed. Not 2GB at 3G and the rest at 2G or dial-up speed.

And no, this does not apply to 4G, but in 6 months it will, and you will be in that boat having to decide to give up your "unlimited" plan which is the most limited that they offer, or step up to a tiered plan...

 

[Trusstopher]

The speeds were implied. If you pay for 3G service and "unlimited data", the implication is that you get unlimited data at 3G speed. Not 2GB at 3G and the rest at 2G or dial-up speed.

And no, this does not apply to 4G, but in 6 months it will, and you will be in that boat having to decide to give up your "unlimited" plan which is the most limited that they offer, or step up to a tiered plan...

Which is where the "legal but not ethical" argument comes into play. They aren't responsible to deliver what was implied, they are responsible to deliver what was explicitly stated in the contract (and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a clause in our contact from day one that said they would deliver data at the best possible rate at the current time, and no transfer raters were guaranteed).