Verizon force removing grandfathered "Unlimited Data"

Search This thread

Thalinor

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2010
143
132
Connecticut & New Hampshire
I should have posted this two months ago when I found out, but got lazy. The now $30 fee reminded me and I decided I should pass the info along. I had a conversation with:

Handsets, Product Distribution, Business
Brenda Raney
908-559-7518
Brenda.Raney@VerizonWireless.com

This conversation was about the NFC blocking but I baited her with a comment and she responded by saying something along the lines of "Unlimited Data would no longer be an option on "Advanced" handsets released later this year (2012). When you upgrade to one of these new "Advanced" (IE Smartphone) you will have to give up your unlimited data plan and pick a paid package."

She would not tell me when it would happen, but said that Verizon was not under any obligation to continue to grandfather people with unlimited data. I fully expect this to happen as soon as Quad Core phones hit the market.

Just one more drop in the bucket. Removing unlimited data packages for new subscribers, removing early upgrades, every two discounts, blocking Google from releasing direct updates for developer devices like the Galaxy Nexus, and now the $30 upgrade fee.

No, I did not record the phone conversation but the removal of grandfathered unlimited data will happen, and sooner then later. Feel free to chalk it up to a rumor if you don't believe me but when it happens, don't say I didn't warn you.
 

4ktvs

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2011
834
46
It seems like something they would do. I think I know there "plan" to get every one off unlimited data.

I have herd some things, but not like this. I think this is about spot on.

Now I will hold on to both of my unlimited data for dear life.

Edit: yes they do throttle 4G and will be doing more and more intill the next iphone and then will pull an AT&T X2. They will likely force you out of unlimited when you upgrade or if you you are on a "old" 4G phone they will throttle you on 4GLTE. I know, becuase I was throttled on 4G and then I stoped using the phone for 3 days, now I am unthrottled and sit at 90+hours of uptime with 2GB of use.

Link to some one who got throttled on 4G:http://www.phonearena.com/news/Is-Verizon-throttling-4G-speeds-too_id22818

Now he did use a crap load of data and I think he got what was coming, but I know when the new iphone with LTE comes out, WE ARE DOOMED. I have a 2nd line with unlimited data on AT&T, thats my back up plan. If not oh well.
 
Last edited:

spunker88

Senior Member
Sep 8, 2006
1,318
334
Upstate NY
Once again Verizon showing how little they care about their customers. From a legal standpoint they could probably do this because when you get a new phone you are under a new contract. But what if you buy the phone from ebay, etc and just add it to your plan. You are still technically under the same contract but they could track ESNs and force your plan to switch.
 

cell128

Senior Member
Oct 4, 2008
795
151
Lomita,CA
I hope they don't do this. I just left att after months of looking to take over someones Verizon contract. I found a person with 2 unlimited lines hopefully its not short lived. I really don't want to go to sprint


Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk
 

Product F(RED)

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
9,883
2,105
Brooklyn, NY
New Verizon devices use Sim cards, welcome to the world of buying off contract devices.

Verizon is CDMA only. The SIM cards are used for LTE, not GSM (a few phones have SIM slots for international GSM, but they're useless while on the Verizon network). So no, there is no buying of unlocked phones from Verizon.

Speaking of this, in China and other Asian countries, CDMA devices have SIM cards called R-UIM cards that work exactly the same way as GSM SIM cards, but CDMA carriers here in the US want to be able to stranglehold you in terms of what kinds of phone you use.
 

SwampNutz

Member
Mar 28, 2009
35
2
Hopefully Sprint still has unlimited data and their act together when my current contract is up in two years. Verizon charges an arm and a leg for their services and it's not enough? They have to nickel and dime us every step of the way. Aside from decent service I can't say that I feel like I get a whole lot for my money with Verizon. I've just had enough bad experiences with AT&T, and Sprint that I've been afraid to go back to either of them. Maybe it's not so bad these days?
 

4ktvs

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2011
834
46
I hope so too, becuase I need a 3rd back up plan and for every one elses sake.

My experience with AT&T has been very good, but I don't think that would be true if I was locked in for 2 years. Sprint has really come up in the last year or so and they seem like they are upgrading fast. (NV and LTE)
 

techmatlock

Senior Member
Apr 6, 2012
469
105
Not surprising in the least. Sprint will have to soon end too and remove grandfathered unlimited. Aside from that though, thanks for this update.
 

jman42028

Senior Member
Apr 14, 2012
75
18
I wouldn't read a ton into all this stuff. And I don't know how good of an idea it is to publish someones personal/professional contact info for them on any forum...

I worked with verizon for a while, and on a daily basis I was upgrading phones and allowing customers to keep these 5 or 6 year old alltel rate plans.

It is absolutely correct that verizon can remove unlimited from grandfathered accounts if it wants to, but verizon's course of action with old alltel plans and the like, suggest that it won't happen.

I'm not saying it will or wont happen, all I'm saying is that its definitely possible that they will allow you to keep unlimited data, as long as you are playing nice and not DLing 100 gb's a month on their network.
 

boosterp

Member
May 21, 2011
29
4
Somewhere in Texas hidding
I love all the misinformation, conjecture, an the posting of a professional email, signs of the derogation of society.

First: Yes VZW is charging an upgade fee. To say everyone is doing it is a cop out. To say that they are loosing money on equipment subsidies is true and the fee helps recap som of the cost while keeping prices competitive even with their own indirect partners.

Second, the only time you can loose a grandfathered plan per contractual agreement is a) older Altel devices that upgrade or change devices because there is no longer an Altel contract. b) you change to a basic (from smart) phone for over 30 days or c) you agree to it.

There are no exceptions to the three listed above.
Don't believe me: 1800-922-0204 and ask for the loyalty department.
 

4ktvs

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2011
834
46
I love all the verizon fan boys who think they are the best and they would NEVER pull some thing over them like: taking away unlimited data, THROTTLING or the $30 "upgrade" fee.

The contract only lets you keep grandfathered plan's for the lenth of time you signed up for (AKA 2 years) and then They can make you sign a new contract with out unlimited data if you want to upgrade and if you don't upgrade, then they can just take it away.

Why is so easy for me to type this you may ask? Becuase they throttled me at 12Gb and now I can't go over about 10-15gb with out ricking this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCbvDEewcJU&feature=channel&list=UL

P.S I sit at 65GB on AT&T and no throttling. Eat that verizon
 

Tastywheat

Member
Sep 23, 2011
7
0
I really came in under the wire on this one. I upgraded about three months ago; still have my unlimited data. I never really understood why providers are simply eliminating unlimited plans rather than charging exorbitant amounts of money which plenty of people would pay.
 

4ktvs

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2011
834
46
do you expect anything less of Verizon?

Nope, this is what I think they will do. They are thinking about razing the price up as well to get every one off of it, like AT&T did the $20 unlimited to 30, but with more kick. I have herd every thing from 30 going up to 50, all the way to it replacing the 20GB plan.

Any way: They are going to do some thing soon and well I will just say it's not likely going to be good.
 

DavidinCT

Senior Member
Jun 2, 2006
1,607
156
Someplace in CT
I love all the misinformation, conjecture, an the posting of a professional email, signs of the derogation of society.

First: Yes VZW is charging an upgade fee. To say everyone is doing it is a cop out. To say that they are loosing money on equipment subsidies is true and the fee helps recap som of the cost while keeping prices competitive even with their own indirect partners.

Second, the only time you can loose a grandfathered plan per contractual agreement is a) older Altel devices that upgrade or change devices because there is no longer an Altel contract. b) you change to a basic (from smart) phone for over 30 days or c) you agree to it.

There are no exceptions to the three listed above.
Don't believe me: 1800-922-0204 and ask for the loyalty department.

Pretty much the exact thing I heard when I called them a few weeks ago. I've been out of a contract for almost 6 years now (just lucky that my phone breaks when they dont have any more and get a free upgrade). I currently have a HTC Trophy with Windows Phone 7 and dont have a newer one because they have not gotten newer WP7 devices, YET.

I called them up and was asking on new devices and presented them with the same question. According to Verizon, I can buy a new Smartphone today, sign a new 2 year agreement and I still will not lose my unlimited data plan according to them.

Of course the day I do it, that will be my first question and will ask for it in writing :)
 

cell128

Senior Member
Oct 4, 2008
795
151
Lomita,CA
As of this moment you are not forced off of your unlimited plan when upgrading phones or switching between current phones

Sent from my R800x using Tapatalk
 

Thalinor

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2010
143
132
Connecticut & New Hampshire
I wouldn't read a ton into all this stuff. And I don't know how good of an idea it is to publish someones personal/professional contact info for them on any forum...

I worked with verizon for a while, and on a daily basis I was upgrading phones and allowing customers to keep these 5 or 6 year old alltel rate plans.

It is absolutely correct that verizon can remove unlimited from grandfathered accounts if it wants to, but verizon's course of action with old alltel plans and the like, suggest that it won't happen.

I'm not saying it will or wont happen, all I'm saying is that its definitely possible that they will allow you to keep unlimited data, as long as you are playing nice and not DLing 100 gb's a month on their network.


So it's ok for Verizon to publish her information on their public website, but not for me to copy and paste it from that site to this one? I will edit this post later to provid the direct link to Verizon's corporate PUBLIC website that lists this PUBLIC information. As a "former Verizon employee" you should know all about their public site and what's listed on it. Even if it wasn't Verizon does not respect its customers so I have no respect for their employees at the upper level management.

I will get you that link tomorrow (today really, but later). My nephew is having a bad night teething and is co sleeping next to me so this post is on my device not a pc or I would do it now.

Fyi I have never gone over 5gb on my cell. I don't abuse my unlimited. Oh and I am rooted and can tether for free. Not everyone deserves to be ppunished for the crimes of a few. Wish VZW would figure that out but in reality people abusing unlimited is just an excuse to increase profits, which gets their CEO a bigger bonus. It's all about the money. Corporate Greed.
 
Last edited:

Top Liked Posts

  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 2
    I should have posted this two months ago when I found out, but got lazy. The now $30 fee reminded me and I decided I should pass the info along. I had a conversation with:

    Handsets, Product Distribution, Business
    Brenda Raney
    908-559-7518
    Brenda.Raney@VerizonWireless.com

    This conversation was about the NFC blocking but I baited her with a comment and she responded by saying something along the lines of "Unlimited Data would no longer be an option on "Advanced" handsets released later this year (2012). When you upgrade to one of these new "Advanced" (IE Smartphone) you will have to give up your unlimited data plan and pick a paid package."

    She would not tell me when it would happen, but said that Verizon was not under any obligation to continue to grandfather people with unlimited data. I fully expect this to happen as soon as Quad Core phones hit the market.

    Just one more drop in the bucket. Removing unlimited data packages for new subscribers, removing early upgrades, every two discounts, blocking Google from releasing direct updates for developer devices like the Galaxy Nexus, and now the $30 upgrade fee.

    No, I did not record the phone conversation but the removal of grandfathered unlimited data will happen, and sooner then later. Feel free to chalk it up to a rumor if you don't believe me but when it happens, don't say I didn't warn you.
    2
    I love all the misinformation, conjecture, an the posting of a professional email, signs of the derogation of society.

    Perhaps lack of education is actually what is leading to the "degradation" of society. Yes?

    I really came in under the wire on this one. I upgraded about three months ago; still have my unlimited data. I never really understood why providers are simply eliminating unlimited plans rather than charging exorbitant amounts of money which plenty of people would pay.

    I don't know. I am assuming they are idiots. A recent study came out illustrating unlimited customers were not using anymore data than the "capped" customers. The gist of the study was by eliminating tiers of service between 300mb and 3 gb they (the carriers) were forcing people onto 3gb plans to avoid overage fees. On at&t the 300mb plan costs $20. You go over you get charged $20 for the next 300mb. Now the 3gb plan costs $30. So why take chances? Get the 3gb plan. But now that a bunch of people are getting the 3gb plan they mean to use it. Instead of having a 800mb plan or a 1gb plan they forced people onto a 3gb plan. So now that people have paid for 3gb they mean to use 3gb which means the network takes an exponential hit. Now at&t is whining about excessive use. But there are far fewer unlimited plan users out there than new 3gb users.

    I have a new unlimited plan. I doubt I'll go over 3gb in normal usage. I got the plan because through my company it costs the same as a 3gb plan. Honestly with a little common sense and restraint I doubt I would go over 300mb. But if I want to relax why not pay $10/month more? Well now you are on the 3gb plan and if you have it use it.

    at&t's strategy makes no sense. The solution to their network woes is having a plan in between 300mm and 3gb. An order of magnitude?! Are you serious? They need to rework their price structure and bandwidth tiers. Hammering unlimited plan customers ain't gonna solve their problems.

    Didn't someone higher up in VZW admit that they will throttle a phone that is a "data hog" if its on a "strained tower"?

    I don't know, but to me that would make sense. If you are streaming tons of data on a lightly used LTE tower on a Sunday afternoon why should they throttle you? Most of my heavy data use does NOT occur during the business day. Data should be like minutes. If you are using it off peak and on a non-congested tower they should let you download away.

    I'm sure LTE itself allows for more tower to phone traffic but what about from tower to the actual network?

    That's the real question. We don't want to be gouged but at the same time carriers have costs. I would really love to know what the TRUE costs are. I think at&t should make a profit. I just don't think they should make an exorbitant profit. Plus I like things to make sense. $20 for unlimited text and $30 for "unlimited" data doesn't make sense. My text messaging puts zero strain on the at&t network. If I abused by unlimited data plan it would definitely make a dent... until throttling kicked in.

    What if you commute an hour each way to and from work each day on a train, and want to watch HD video while doing so? That's 4000kbps lets say, 500kBps *60 sec * 60 min * 2 hr * 5 days a week * 4 wk/month / 1024kb/mb / 1024mb/gb= 68.66 GB a month just from daily video watching, not including any audio streaming at work or web browsing on weekends or on the go or other activities. I don't think I'd call that abuse, despite it being a lot of data.

    You do realize with modern technology you can download video podcasts at night over wifi while your phone charges.


    However given that I've had LTE for all of 4 days now and used 1.6GB and all I've done is load less than 10 youtube videos, do some basic web browsing, and run a lot of speed tests. I can easily see even a moderate user hitting 20GB/month without any excessive use let alone actual abuse.

    The network should not be required to accommodate excessive "speed tests."

    I have no plans of abusing at&t's network. But if I am on the road and I plug my phone in overnight I should be able to download all the latest podcasts with minimal hassle. I think that is a reasonable accommodation. Unfortunately at&t or Microsoft has denied that. They will not download podcasts over cellular even during off hours. So if I am on the road and it is midnight and I want to download a podcast for the next day I have to sign up for hotel wifi even if there is a 30 Mbits/sec unused LTE tower near by. Total technology fail.

    Sorry buddy, while true networks are strained across all the major players in 3G, they are not in LTE. LTE allows for more throughput, more people using said data, and cost the networks a lot less to maintain and upgrade. This is an industry fact, reference Current Analytics. You'll need an account though.

    I'm with you on that... till a point. Wait until the iphone LTE hits. Then tell me what is and is not "strained." If it's not strained then they should let us unlimited LTE guys download with impunity. If it's strained then some sensible temporary throttling makes sense in my opinion.
    1
    1) It's a new video

    2) I only did becuase he wanted speed test, so I gave him some.

    3) your just mad that some one could have an issue with crap you have.

    4) Before you ask: I have gone to both the FCC and the BBB. ( I did that yesterday and now will wait for there reply.)


    Verizon is not slowing you down at all. You need to get your account rebuilt and your problems will go away. The same exact problem happened to a friend of mine who had 4 devices replaced. Now posting the same false info in every post is border line trolling and should earn you time in a corner :D
    1
    I don't care if you guys disagree with me or insult or whatever you want for saying this, but you're ridiculous for using that much data on a mobile device. You are the reason carriers are switching to tiered plans, and you're the reason networks are strained and other users don't get adequate connections.
    1
    Yeah. If everybody used 4GB on 3G, and continued using 4GB on 4G, then network quality and capacity would increase. But now there are these nutjobs that think it's totally normal to use 50GB, 60GB, 100GB "because the 4G is faster so I use more data". Data speed has nothing to do with what you use. You're tempted to use more data because the data is faster. Downloading a 700MB movie on 3G is the same thing as downloading a 700MB movie on 4G; it doesn't magically turn into 1.4GB.

    Like I was saying earlier, my neighbor told that he will use his phone to download movies all night while he is sleeping.

    I didn't really say much...I just thought to myself "it will be because of people like you I will lose my unlimited data."