Verizon Wireless kills Pay as You Go data plans, data plans now mandatory
This has been rumored to be coming but VZW E dropped the bomb on us all by leaking a Verizon Wireless document detailing some drastic changes to Verizon’s data plans. Starting November 14th, 2008, all new PDA / Smartphones will require a $29.99/month or greater data plan. Gone are the pay as you go data plans, 1X data block plans and the 10 MB $24.99/month plans. The good news is that those who are currently signed up for any of the now canceled plans will not be forced to change. If you have a data block, you can keep your data block and continue to use Wi-Fi instead of EV-DO for you data connection. The bad news is that once you swap out your phone for any reason, you will be forced to upgrade to a $29.99 or higher monthly plan. The leaked document also notes that a similar plan will go into effect in 2009 for select Mobile Web 2.0 phones. Since the document mentions HTML web browsing capability as the criteria for a mandatory data plan, we assume this will affect phones such as the LG Dare, the LG Voyager and the new Krave ZN4. With this change, you will be forced to subscribe to the $15/month VCast plan that provides unlimited data for email and web browsing. This move, though controversial, is not entirely surprising. Verizon is apparently trying to better montize the growing interest in smartphones and generate a constant revenue stream by requiring data for all its advanced data-capable phones. Oh, one other thing. You know all of the hot new phones set to hit store shelves in November? Don’t be surprised if we see them become available after November 14th when this new mandatory data plan policy takes affect.
Tags: canceled, data block, data plan, mandatory, PAYG, verizon wireless
This is the best news I’ll hear all day. ATT WILL be dropping this shortly. Just glad to see Verizon stepping up their game. Think about it; If a carrier has a guaranteed data for phones, their going to have to work extra hard to push out solid phones that people will want to shell out the extra dough for i.e. iPhone, G1 and Storm.
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This is why I’m leaving Verizon.
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well…e-mail for one
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Props to Verizon as long as the reps continue to make commission on those data plans. It really is a requirement for smart phones (or whatever verizon passes off as smart phones these days) to have these data plans and I couldn’t imagine selling one without it.
I’m going to bet AT&T follows suit with something similar soon.
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And to think i was about to switch companys to them? I dont think so. I will stay with t-mobile as long as possible. The only thing that was about to make me switch was for the storm but not no more. 20.00 dollars a month for unlimited data is good enough for me.
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the american mind still is on course for suicide …
now, in asia, exactly the opposite is happening, and if you can get your eyes up a bit from the latest brittney news, you will realize that asia is kicking out ass … and will continue to do so
verizon, comcast , they are selling our future for a few dollars in the present ..
usa usa usa
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Looking at this all i can say is Wow!!! I can see what Verizon is doing from the business end of things but this is terrible for the consumer side of things. I agree that if you carry a PDA/Smartphone you need to have the data plans thats no biggie and i could also argue when the data plan isn’t necessary but what about the basic phones and mandatory data plans? So you telling me that if i buy a phone for grandma i have to add a unlimited data plan for $15 when grandma is only going to use it for calls every now and then. No thank you Verizon, i’m not a verizon basher in any way i understand that this is a money making business but don’t make everyone accept a data plan how about some choices. I guess the choice now will be to go to another carrier. I’m an at&t manager and i get all kind of gripes in regards to the iPhone data plan being mandatory which i can agree with seeing how many adjustments we make daily for people who try to trick the system and run up data charges over $4000 and request a credit, but Verizon should only require data plans on its flagship smartphones such as the Blackberry Storm etc. Working for at&t i hope we don’t follow suit since we like to follow everything Verizon does because this is going to generate some complaints i hope Verizon is ready because we got still get hundreds of complaints about the iPhone pricing when we put all the information online and explained this to the customers in advance but they still can’t figure out why they can’t get it for $199/$299 when they just got a subsidized device less than a year ago…lol… Anyways that is my rant and it will be interesting to see if Verizon sticks with this.
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Verizon forcing you to add data…big surprise. If you want a bare bones phone with a good signal great. If you are a multi-tasking/power user then Verizon are the anti-christ. Why would I ever want any smartphone from Verizon lol!
RECESSION LMAO nobody will be able to afford high data costs Idiots. So, stuff your Bolds where the sun doesn’t shine.
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Fuck Verizon.
@Ninja, are you f*cking serious? There are other reasons to having PDA/Smartphones other than needing internet….
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don’t y’all forget that
Verizon Wireless = Sir Charge
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They called me friday since I’m past my 2 yr contract, and the rep was telling me that mobile web is now included in all nationwide plans. I only have a KRZR, so not sure what exactly it includes though.
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The price is “just a little” inflated. However, it is definitely the right thing to do.
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@ Aaron
Isn’t the mandatory data hike only applicable to web 2.0 phones? Tell me, why does grandma need a Voyager, Dare or that silly Ming contraption? Please do more research before “Ranting”.
P.S. One of my favorite things to do in my store is watch my reps tell customers their not eligible for an iPhone at subsidized price’s. American consumers have zero clue about the business side of phone carriers. But I have a feeling their about to have a rude awakening.
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see this is exactly another reason why people want wifi on their phones! i know i am in a hotspot most of the time.
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@yonith and this is exactly why they wont give you wifi lol
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Yet another reason to stay far away from Verizon.
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Data usage is quickly growing. I would expect all other carriers to follow similar pricing in the next few months. Especially T-Mobile with the G1.
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i bet now with this you’ll see alot of devices have wifi for verizon. b/c they have you locked to the data. so they will be nice and give you wifi. hahhaha
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While I understand VZW wanting to make a profit, it seems to me that “forcing” customers to buy something they may not want or need isn’t the right want to run a business. I’ve had two “smartphones” and no data plan. There’s more to a smartphone than just internet access. My current one has WiFi and that’s enough access for my needs.
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web 2.0 phones have been around for 2+ years as far as I know… shouldn’t the HTML phones Voyager/dare etc… be web 3.0 to differentiate them from every other dumbphone vzw sells now? Or do they really mean any dumbphone could be forced onto this like razr’s are web 2.0, and so on and so on… Don’t they do some minimal html?
If i go to sites like http://www.linuxtoday.com and it loads the page or part of it on my moto V750 isnt that ‘html’?
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@Blackula
Hate to break it to you, but data plans have always been required for Blackberries. If you wanted the Storm, you were going to have to shell out for the plan no matter what.
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I don’t see the big deal here, whats the point of having a smart phone without a data plan? Everyone is so quick to bash Verizon, even if you only had a smart phone to only check email, 9 times outta ten your pay as you go data usage is close to 30.00 per month anyway. So whats the big deal? Obviously the average pay as you go subscriber bill is about 30.00 per month anyway, there is no way in hell that you would only use your 200.00 and up smart phone to only check email messages, because if you do then your an idiot who isn’t using the full capabilities if said smart phone.
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@Kyd Not everyone wants a smartphone for email or data. I like the smartphones because with them I can type up documents on the go, plan my day with the calendar, and add many applications to it. Not many other cell phones can do multiple things at once like play music while sending a text message and thats another reason i like them. I find “dumbphones” like the dare and glyde boring and lacking of features. I was thinking about switching to verizon when they got the htc diamond or omnia then using it on the pay as you go data plan (i dont go on internet that much). They are smartphones but they also have many multimedia features and are more along the lines of a first smartphone for someone. I hope they dont do this because i cant justify the price of a $30 data plan when I only spend $15 looking at email and web.
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Well that’s a shame- what if you wanted something like the Centro for the PDA features but not necessarily data? Now if you wanted that you’d have to get a separate PDA and a phone, and Palm doesn’t have any non-phone PDAs with real keyboards.
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when i bought my voyager a year ago i had to go with premium plan love the fact i can drive surf with out outrages feed im bying the storm and will gladly by the 29.99 plan… you all remember when the iphone came out and folks were seeing outrages bills for data usage.. with unlimted or cap at 5gb is about time
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