Verizon Wireless CTO hints at data plan tiers

What does the etf have to do with the ability to change handsets? If your calling plan is high enough you get an upgrade every year and full retail or used are still options

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You can’t compare your LANDLINE internet service with WIRELESS service. For one, it’s a completely different product. You can get a landline phone for $15 but everyone still has a cell phone…Why? It’s mobile. It’s more valuable to us and it costs alot more for the carriers. Running a coaxial cable or even fiber optic is nothing compared to buying spectrumm from the government at outrageous prices and then building a network of towers that constantly need to be upgraded. Be pissed at the goverment for over regulation if you want ti want to be angry at someone. Companies have always been interested in profit. Nothing new here.

The key here is to educate consumers. I love tiered plans. Just like minutes. I don’t use unlimited mins so I don’t pay that much. Same for data. I would probably fall somewhere in the middle. I use between 1-2 gigs a month on my Droid. I don’t see the issue honestly. $30 a month if well worth it for me.

Hmmm, I wonder how customers who have been off contract and now pay month to month will be treated.

Mine is ending soon with AT&T, yet have no plans on jumping. I just use unlocked phones on the network that they can’t see.

Besides, once Wifi is ubiquitous in most metro areas, carriers will be so desperate to gain you back as a customer that they’ll go back to cheap unlimited data plans.

Carriers: your future is to become dumb data pipes, a utility, similar to my water or power company. Face it. Deal with it.

@somethingtoconsider, you speak truth my friend. A year or two ago, there was a leaked or released Nokia LTE document, showing around 2014, CDMA will begin to be phased out and voice calls will be done over VOIP, using LTE. Minutes make no sense. Sure back in the days of CSD (Circuit Switched Data), when you could get a 14.4 or 28.8kbps download speed by flipping a switch on the voice line, you had to alternate services. LTE is going to provide use of SMS, Data and Voice all over the same technology, possibly using different channels, but it’s seemless. SMS currently cost a fraction of a penny to send over the network. I know that Verizon has a 3rd party company who actually manages the SMS traffic over their network, so even with paying them, they are still posting record profits. Don’t get me wrong, capatilism is awesome, it’s what makes America…America. But, they offer a $30/month (falsely advertised as Unlimited) 5gb plan and want to charge more because it is more taxing on the network? Uh…so each person that uses the bandwidth is paying for it, so that should allocate money to build the backhaul needed to support added usage. The real solution is to create a technology, similar to the Intel/Microsoft and others investment of white space. Bandwidth is the only real barrier. Everything else is just a lie to bend the consumer over. With the goverment talking about allocating spectrum to “free” Internet access, it only hurts the people actually “paying” for spectrum on a carrier. It’s all a clusterfuck. Anyways, cell rates are a joke in the states. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

What a wuss? He doesn’t even have the IPhone (The anti-Christ of all data users) and he’s complaining about data usage?

The loaner would have to be Sprint definately not T-Mobile.

And I second the opinion that just when you think Verizon is almost playing fair and you *might* actually switch to them they stab you in the back.

Whelp, that’s the end of Verizon, and anyone else that tiers their access. I’m not buying it.

I long for the good old days where Verizon Wireless would just blatantly lie to you and say your data was unlimited, and really, it’s capped off at 5g and always was.

Having a popular data heavy platform (android) crippiling your network isn’t fun, is it verizon? At

I hope any tiered plan has an option to “roll over” unused gigabytes.

I don’t mind paying, but I don’t like over-paying. By letting me roll-over unused gigs, I’d at least be able to bank them.

Give me a “C” – what’s that spell—”CHEAP”

I dont see why people dont understand whats happening..infact im starting to believe that if its anything that involves them “possibly” paying more then they try not to understand.

Its simple. The more data you use the more strain you put on bandwidth. The more the network has to compensate (which is why we are getting more “data crashes”). The more thats going to cost to fix and maintain (more site workers and more parts for sites). People are starting to really abuse the “Unlimited” title and use so much data that the network AND people in that network are experiencing problems.

Because of this Verizon at one point try to only slow down the ones with high usage (we’re talking like near 20 gig and over) by simply slowing them down for a month and having them contacted or called in. This lead to possible class action and was settled that to avoid any misrepresentaion and save the growing costly network at the same time verizon would do a blanket sweep and change the pricing of its unlimited. Though no longer advertised as unlimited it still is its just ince you hit 5gb then you get charged more simply put.

This is only applied to data cards and phones with tethering (or mobile hot spot tech) and is not applied to smartphones (as they naturally use less data anyways). Some feature phones have plans now to since thet are gaining the abilities of smartphones when it comes to data which in my opinion if your going to use that much data in the first place you need to get a smartphone anyways.

come on lets be real. Who here remembers the data network crashing in 2003?….2004?……2005?…..now they seem to happen within months in some areas. With money now being allocated for new phones 4g and more bandwidth verizon lead on revenue can and may begin to slip quickly.

Not saying I like it just saying it does make some since..consumers demand more and more then its time yo rake in profit for it just like any company would do.

Only a matter of time…..

Tiered data plans? Sounds great conceptually. Let’s remember though that for every person who downloads 5GB/month, there is another person who only downloads a few MBs while paying for unlimited data.

My cynical opinion is that Verizon will give you 2 GB for $30/month and increase the price from there.

Want to make it really fair Verizon? Eliminate the fixed monthly data fee and charge me per MB. When I don’t use any data for a month, it’d be nice to see no charges for it. I am guessing that will be very hard for any provider to choke down though.

VZW is a joke, they like to stranglehold their consumers with restrictive menus, policies, and what you can do with your device. On top of that they tout that they are best. Well no crap if you keep on splashing advertisement every 3 secs. you start believing that. Most of their money goes to their advertisement graffiti.

This is where Sprint’s Everything plans look way more attractive, everything all in one plan

I tether off my pre on sprint and go way over the 5gb cap. Never a problem