Verizon's CFO Says that "unlimited" is "just a word" and "doesn't mean anything."

[Narsil]

Unlimited doesn't mean anything? How about unlimited cuts to his salary? It would begin to mean something to him rather quickly.

He's a technological moron.

I'll bet if you asked America Online's CFO in the mid to late 90's whether AOL would ever provide unlimited access for the same monthly price, he would have choked on his martini olive laughing and crashed his Countache. The idea that data access is not going to move towards unlimited at a fixed price is counter-indicated by the last 20 years of technological history regarding the sale of data access.

Franny's argument?

 

[pinoy_92]

I think a lot of consumers think they consume a lot more data than they really do.

this is true. on average, i only use right around 50GB per month. maybe he is saying i should go higher.

 

[johnomaz]

People need to start moving away from Verizon.. or this crap will just continue. Thank god my contract is up in a few months.

I did. I returned my VZW S3 adn went to AT&T. I'm on a 3 gig plan which I'm cool with. I never went over 2 gigs since I have wifi nearly everywhere I go but it was a nice safety net if I happen to go over. I voted with my wallet and now AT&T gets my money.

 

[akhenax]

Makes no sense to me to have a shared data plan for individual users.

Shared data is for the phone, and then for the tablet, laptop, etc. that one might 'illegally' tether. LOL

So I guess I have an unlimited shared data plan. :icon_ devil:

 

[hradek422]

Here's my opinion on these "Share Everything" plans. I'm currently on a plan where I have my line, as well as my friend's line. I was grandfathered in from Alltel with my unlimited data. I personally use just under 4 gigs per month of data, and my friend uses about 2 gigs. I know because I actually check my account monthly to see how much data has been used. I was considering switching to a share everything plan because my mom and dad were wrangled into it, being told they would save money. The rep on the phone actually told me I would be paying about $50.00 more per month than what I'm currently paying. Needless to say, I didn't switch it over, and the Verizon rep agreed that it was a good decision not to. That's just my experience with it.

 

[StormyHeather]

I'm beginning to think that to VZW: "customer" is "just a word" it "doesn't mean anything."

 

[Theot]

This is why I'm using LTE like it's the only thing there is right now. I pay a car payment a month for phone service and they want me to upgrade, pay more, and possibly pay more again for overages.

In January when our contact is up I'm selling our Verizon phones, buying unlocked ones, and going to straight talk for $45 per line and saving $125 a month in the process.

From an Eclipsed GNEX

 

[loki993]

But not everybody wants terrible service, for me at least where I live the only phone companys that get good service without being a hassle is verizon and a central illinois company called IVC.

Most people get service from any carrier anywhere, so thats not the real issue.

Problem is that's not true. There are many places where I'm at even in Michigan that has dead spots for carriers and Verizon still works.

there is really only one reason to stick with verizon, and its a pretty big one to a lot of people... 4G LTE...sure att has it some, and sprint is working on it but verizon has more 4g lte than all the rest combined by a long shot...sure get unlimited data with sprint but on 3g its practically pointless

another reason though is verizon generally has the best and biggest overall coverage, att is pretty good as well and sprint is still working on expanding coverage areas

Its unfortunate but its true and they know it. Which is why the pull the stuff they pull. They know people will not leave for inferior service no matter what they do.

 

[skennelly]

While upgrading/preodering the s3, I had 3 different vzw reps trying to talk me into a shared plan with my wife by using the above argument that we don't use that much data. I knew that my data usage would increase on 4G just for the fact that you can do more in the same time compared to 3G. I was exactly right. I haven't used less than 5gb/month since my upgrade compared to 2-3 gb previously. I just wonder how many people they convinced to switch to a tiered plan that are now getting screwed for overage charges or can't even use there phone for fear of going over.

 

[gadgetrants]

It doesn't take a high school diploma to figure out:

(1) Verizon analyzed voice/text/data usage for a few years

(2) In particular, they computed average data consumption, which I'm guessing is under a GB per device per month (hence the comment that "'unlimited' doesn't exist or mean anything because the vast majority of users consume so little data)

Assuming that low-bandwidth voice/text are almost free for the carrier, data is the expensive commodity:

(3) Verizon then modeled what happens to their income stream by moving everybody over to "unlimited voice/text", while placing heavy caps on data.

The result of the model is:

(1) The average user gets a specified data amount that, on average, they shouldn't exceed

(2) Occasional data overages create additional revenue

(3) They offer "unlimited" voice/text, which cost Verizon almost nothing but have great perceived value to the "average" user

(4) They offer "shared" pools of minutes/texts, which depending on the number of "families" (I'm assuming > 50% of the customer base) is also a high-value option

(5) Relatively expensive data consumption is bottlenecked, and hi-density data consumers are chased off the network


I think that was how it worked. Not a personal decision, not an emotional decision, not a social-progressive decision. Just a business decision.

-Matt

 

[metalspring]

on second thought, the cfo had a point, unlimited data doesnt mean anything...ON 3G...when you can only get about 2.5 mbps then yeah 2 or 4 gb a month is pretty reasonable, when you 10-20+ mbps then 2 or 4 gb seems like nothing...
they should have waited for the shared data plans until they had more data collected on how much data people with 4g use (it takes time for people to realize what they can do with those crazy high data speeds)

 

[gadgetrants]

on second thought, the cfo had a point, unlimited data doesnt mean anything...ON 3G...when you can only get about 2.5 mbps then yeah 2 or 4 gb a month is pretty reasonable, when you 10-20+ mbps then 2 or 4 gb seems like nothing...
they should have waited for the shared data plans until they had more data collected on how much data people with 4g use (it takes time for people to realize what they can do with those crazy high data speeds)

Excellent point. :clap:

 

[Theot]

haha, gotta love this marketing from Verizon!

[video=youtube;dPYM-XTqcec]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYM-XTqcec[/video]

Excellent point. :clap:

Amen, the last two weekends I've been away from home and used the nfl mobile app to watch red zone. On 4G, about 5 hours of use between the two weekends and it put me well over 12 GB, and I usually use 4-5 tops. They can't keep pushing streaming of video and music and all the things you can do and expect people to pay ridiculous overages to use these services long term. People are going to go without.

From an Eclipsed GNEX

 

[cybertec69]

Most people get service from any carrier anywhere, so thats not the real issue.

REALLY:blink:

 

[captdroid]

Really 'unlimited' means nothing eh' ok well this pin head cfo better be sure that another carrier doesn't catch up enough in coverage for me along with a better deal because I will inform Verizon what exactly the word 'cancel' means! :biggrin:

As a side note where do they find these guys? lol must be Obama fans... can't add and they speak out both sides of the mouth.