We knew Verizon was removing unlimited data plans in favor of tiered pricing plans, but as a very cheesy, extremely repeatable line in a certain movie once said, “Not like this.” Verizon CFO Fran Shammo has declared that Verizon will be nixing all unlimited data plans that have been grandfathered in. Yikes.
Speaking at the J. P. Morgan Technology, Media, and Telecomm conference, Shammo delivered the blow, which Engadget was kind enough to fish out of the somewhat long webcast:
“LTE is our anchor point for data share. So, as you come through an upgrade cycle and you upgrade in the future, you will have to go on to the data share plan. And moving away from, if you will, the unlimited world and moving everyone into a tiered structure data share plan.”
It’s pretty difficult to take what Shammo said out of context, and it pretty clearly conveys that unlimited data plans that have been grandfathered in will be switched over to a tiered structure. It’s unfortunate that those that have been on Verizon long enough to even have an unlimited data plan to lose aren’t being treated more favorably, but what’re you going to. Those customers will just have to enjoy how their phone gets reception almost anywhere, while certain competitors’ phones struggle getting reception when a microwave is warming something within a close proximity.
Unfortunate, but there’s always Republic Wireless, I suppose.
(via Engadget)
- Throttling unlimited data plans doesn’t do much, so might as well kill them, I guess
- Verizon at least warned us about this
- Verizon is also introducing a $30 upgrade fee
