VZW unlimited global data going away

[silver6054]

Thanks Silver6054,

All I've been able to find so far is SIM card rental through Softbank, problem is it's 1500 yen / day so that would be 45000 yen for the ~ 1 month I will be there which is $550. Ouch.

I'd be all for a petition if I thought it would do any good. Hopefully, given that this just changed last month and that it happened very quietly, there is still a very large number of occasional global data subscribers that don't know about it yet either. If everyone calls to complain/ threaten to terminate contract maybe they will get the idea and reinstate some sort of revised global plan. With plans only available now for Canada, Mexico and Europe and $20/ mb for everywhere else who are they kidding about being global? I just looked up my data usage for the last billing cycle and it was ~240 mb so in other words at $20/mb = $4800. Who in their right mind would pay this?

I had asked Global Support to look up the termination fees - again if they perceive that enough people are going to jump ship over this things may change. The way I'm looking at it now is I've been a customer for only 3 months so I am on the hook for $320 x 2 lines in early term. fees but they in turn will be losing 21 months of revenue at $200/ month for the family plan that I have.

If anyone has any other input as to other cost effective workarounds for Japan it would be greatly appreciated.

R/ tmg - "Owner of Droid 2 Global that's no longer affordable to use Globally"

And now for Japan I don't think my suggestion works, they need CDMA SIMs, not the GSM SIMs that will fit in the Droid 2 Global. Others have recommended Japan Cell Phone Rental - Rentafone Japan
Under mobile internet they have pocket Wifi devices for data, and their phone charges seem cheaper than many. Of course, this does nothing for your feeling "Why did I buy a Droid 2 Global!" since this solution uses other equipement!

 

[saildroid]

FWIW, I sent them a carefully worded letter. Someone from customer service left a voicemail saying that they received it and that each letter will be forwarded to the appropriate department. Or something.

I doubt that this will make a difference but i feel that I have been a good boy.

BTW, my D2G is unlocked (VZW gave me the numbers without a problem) but it is a pain to get the local cards, install them, etc. Wasted a lot of time with that in Austria last month, never got it to work for data (phone is easy). And this is even worse if you travel in more than one countries.

What a pain.

 

[Uxorious]

As you've found, SoftBank isn't cheap.

You can try these guys:
http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/simrent.html
(Make sure to check their coverage... I think they use these guys http://emobile.jp/area/area.html)

If you need tethering, try these:
http://www.jcrcorp.com/mobile/mobile_rental_simcard.htm

 

[Jackrandom]

Just joined the club when i went to plan out my trip to Japan, i'm so glad they sold me a global phone right as they take away the means to use it. i'm beyond disgusted with Verizon right now.

 

[leobg]

You all realize unlimited roaming data equals unlimited roaming calling as well (via voip/skype/etc) and $0 profit for the wireless carrier beside the relatively low cost of that plan. This very well explains why Verizon took it off (I am not sure how it sneaked in first place to be honest!)
I am yet to hear about another provider in the world who offers similar plan at similar cost honestly. Even at the 70MB ($1/MB) sounds good compared to what many contries get. This is a point of view of a non-American user of course. Don't bash me for that please!

 

[Uxorious]

You all realize unlimited roaming data equals unlimited roaming calling as well (via voip/skype/etc) and $0 profit for the wireless carrier beside the relatively low cost of that plan. This very well explains why Verizon took it off (I am not sure how it sneaked in first place to be honest!)

Of course it doesn't. They can write in their TOS that they do not allow VOIP while roaming internationally.
They already have TOS disallowing you from tethering, and if you root your phone and violate it, they may find out and terminate your account (or in the global case, bill you).

I think most of us here would be perfectly willing to refrain from using VOIP or even streaming music/video while abroad.
When I'm travelling, I *really* need access to maps and email.

I am yet to hear about another provider in the world who offers similar plan at similar cost honestly. Even at the 70MB ($1/MB) sounds good compared to what many contries get.

The Verizon Global plan was fantastic - I completely agree.

I will even agree that the 70MB bucket of data is a reasonable compromise ... except that they don't offer it in large parts of the world.
Travel to Asia and you're paying $20.48/MB ... is that reasonable?

 

[Jackrandom]

not going to bash, but if they need to increase the price a bit then go ahead, but completely eliminating unlimited data in a country which is absolutely ripe with unlimited data plans (we're talking about japan here) is insulting.

 

[vatothe0]

Sign up with a japanese carrier then.

not going to bash, but if they need to increase the price a bit then go ahead, but completely eliminating unlimited data in a country which is absolutely ripe with unlimited data plans (we're talking about japan here) is insulting.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[vatothe0]

Your phone doesn't work outside the us anymore? Maybe you need a warranty replacement.

Just joined the club when i went to plan out my trip to Japan, i'm so glad they sold me a global phone right as they take away the means to use it. i'm beyond disgusted with Verizon right now.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

[Jackrandom]

Your phone doesn't work outside the us anymore? Maybe you need a warranty replacement.

Just joined the club when i went to plan out my trip to Japan, i'm so glad they sold me a global phone right as they take away the means to use it. i'm beyond disgusted with Verizon right now.

Sent from my DROIDX

hilarious troll is hilarious!

really though, charging $20 per 1mb of data is so prohibitively expensive that it's laughable. the message it sends is, "we do not want you using these devices overseas, period"

 

[Uxorious]

not going to bash, but if they need to increase the price a bit then go ahead, but completely eliminating unlimited data in a country which is absolutely ripe with unlimited data plans (we're talking about japan here) is insulting.

The VZW pricing in Japan is generally weird.
I pay 20c to send/receive a text message here in US.
When I'm in Japan it costs me 50c to send a message (which is crazy but OK).
Receiving one is 5c.
How much sense does that make?

 

[Uxorious]

As you've found, SoftBank isn't cheap.

You can try these guys:
Best Rate Rental SIM Card in Japan:: Global Advanced Communications
(Make sure to check their coverage... I think they use these guys ƒT[ƒrƒXƒGƒŠƒAFEMƒ‚ƒoƒCƒ‹ƒuƒ[ƒhƒoƒ“ƒhbƒC[Eƒ‚ƒoƒCƒ‹)

If you need tethering, try these:
JCR - Japan iPhone SIM Card Rental High Speed Internet, Blackberry SIM & PDA

I checked with ww.globaladvancedcomm.com, and they use either NTT Docomo or SoftBank for the SIM card - EMobile is only for their WIFI AP service.

 

[tmg]

Strength in numbers...

I recall one of the earlier posters had the idea of a petition and I see that Word attachments are allowed here so perhaps I'll draft something up on the flight this Sunday from LAX to NRT and post it next week. Perhaps not so much a petition but more of an "open letter", potentially post it on VZW's own forum as well.

I talked with CS last night for a while regarding another issue and also brought this up. The agent provided me with the following contacts and suggested I write a letter:

Daniel S. Mead - President & CEO
One Verizon Way
Basking Ridge, NJ 07920

T.J. Fox - Regional President IL, WI,
777 Big Timber Rd.
Elgin, IL 60123
​

If anyone else wants to take a crack be my guest, I just think that with minimal effort Verizon might take notice.

Key points as follows:

1.) $20/Mb for Global Data (Verizon doesn't seem to "get" the idea that "Global" is bigger than just North America, Canada, Mexico and Europe) is not just inconvenient it is outrageously overpriced rendering the phones useless:

Again, using my last months usage as a reference and I don't believe I am a heavy user - email, some browsing, Weatherbug, Nav. etc, 250Mb at $20/Mb = $5,000

Do they seriously think anyone can afford that? All they have done is to hurt their own bottom line.

I'd be really curious to know how many subscribers to the $64.99 Global plan they had or in other words how much revenue they lost.

I'd be happy with a compromise but to eliminate it completely?

2.) According to Global Support, Data has to be either on or off, no way to selectively leave on POP email which is really the only thing I have a need for and simply turn off everything else. Even if you use an App killer how do you really prove there is no data transferring unless you specifically tell the device.

Might be time to root if I could be sure it would eliminate unwanted data transfer.

3.) The availability of this plan vs. other carriers was the only reason I switched from AT&T last November. No mention was ever made of this plan going away. Misleading sales tactics IMHO.

4.) Canceling my contract (family plan at ~ $190/month) that is only 3 months old at this point would sting a little bit for me in terms of 2 lines @ $320 each for early termination. But, from Verizon's perspective that would be 21 months of lost revenue or ~$4000.

So if 10 people were to send letters/ 10 signatures, we're are talking about potentially $40,000 or more.

100 people now we are starting to get into serious money.

Any way you look at this, Verizon has only succeeded in hurting their own bottom line: Potential canceled contracts, customers spending the money elsewhere such as Japan's Softbank or NTT Docomo in my case, potential new customers lost due to publicity of this, etc.

Any +/- feedback appreciated

R/ TMG

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[vatothe0]

Your best case solution will most likely be an offer to add the feature back on and keep it.

It isn't cost effective for them to allow people to add/remove a feature that only charges an extra dollar per day but allow unlimited roaming data.



Sent from my DROIDX

 

[trekuhl]

sorry to pull a somewhat old thread, but this plan is still available on the corp side from what i understand. if you are on a biz acct you can still use it which makes no sense to me...Y offer this only to biz users?

we have lots of user that travel int'l and we had them use this plan frequently over the years. we typically didnt add them on our corp acct and reserved that only for the high level folks.

there isnt a fee to change over to a corp acct, so maybe ill just have them move their number over if its a lengthy period of time and then we can push it back off on a personal plan if need be. i dont care ill waste vzw's time pushing them back and forth (and some of mine obviously).

vzw has been doing some irritating things recently...i argued with biz rep when he said we had to put droid users on the $45/mo plan and got them on the $30/mo plan since they just want to charge biz users the extra $15/mo. he said "biz users use more data" HA my 19yr old sister is on youtube, etc all day long. majority of my biz users use exchange/corp email 99% time and dont even browse. guarantee her monthly data usage (mine is 2-5 GB/mo) is higher than all of them combined.