Verizon force removing grandfathered "Unlimited Data"

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ronartest2005

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2010
765
26
Terre Haute,IN
The whole thing that pisses me off about carriers having capped data is that 95% of their advertising for smartphones is showing people using their phones on 4g either video chatting or streaming something (which will eat up your data super fast)

So it's basically like "hey check out all of what your phone *can* do...just don't do it for more than 10-15mins a day on lte or you'll have a $300 bill"
 

ronartest2005

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2010
765
26
Terre Haute,IN
I am pretty sure if someone has already signed on for a new contract with terms agreeing to unlimited data that if verizon were to change that you could do an ETF with no fee.

Sprint pulled something like this before last christmas when they changed something in their terms and conditions and so they gave people 30 days to ETF without fees.

Like I said before though, for me having unlimited data was a must, but now that I see how much I actually use I probably could get by on the 4gb plan. But I know my neighbor who had an altell plan was able to upgrade his phone to 4g on verizon and keep his unlimited data. He told me he uses like 40gbs a month. But he will use his phone as a modem to play COD.
 

Product F(RED)

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
9,883
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Brooklyn, NY
I am pretty sure if someone has already signed on for a new contract with terms agreeing to unlimited data that if verizon were to change that you could do an ETF with no fee.

Sprint pulled something like this before last christmas when they changed something in their terms and conditions and so they gave people 30 days to ETF without fees.

Like I said before though, for me having unlimited data was a must, but now that I see how much I actually use I probably could get by on the 4gb plan. But I know my neighbor who had an altell plan was able to upgrade his phone to 4g on verizon and keep his unlimited data. He told me he uses like 40gbs a month. But he will use his phone as a modem to play COD.

Sprint does it pretty damn often too; it's happened 2 or 3 times in the last 2 years.
 

ronartest2005

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2010
765
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Terre Haute,IN
Sprint does it pretty damn often too; it's happened 2 or 3 times in the last 2 years.

Basically if you press sprint they will let you out without an ETF for any reason. They will ask for your phone back.

But the way I did it was by telling them that they are charging me $10/mo for "premium data" I then ask them what premium data meant to them...he responded with "Well typically smartphones use more 3g...." Me- "I can't even use 3g because the speeds are less than dialup and pages timeout"

As long as you're nice and keep pressing about paying for premium data that isn't premium they let you out.


Whereas with verizon I HIGHLY doubt they would let you out early for any other reason than them having to because they change the terms & agreements that both parties agreed to.
 

Product F(RED)

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
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Basically if you press sprint they will let you out without an ETF for any reason. They will ask for your phone back.

But the way I did it was by telling them that they are charging me $10/mo for "premium data" I then ask them what premium data meant to them...he responded with "Well typically smartphones use more 3g...." Me- "I can't even use 3g because the speeds are less than dialup and pages timeout"

As long as you're nice and keep pressing about paying for premium data that isn't premium they let you out.


Whereas with verizon I HIGHLY doubt they would let you out early for any other reason than them having to because they change the terms & agreements that both parties agreed to.

I'm sitting on a $140 ETF. I want to switch to Straight Talk. I currently have an Epic 4G Touch that I don't want to give back to them, obviously because the ETF is half the value of the phone. But we'll see. My speeds are crap as well, so maybe I can get them with that.
 

nerdydesi

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
111
9
Texas
Its probably more likely that Verizon will institute throttling of unlimited plans, just like ATT has done since last year. They'd probably do it, even though I've kept hearing they "cannot" throttle due to FCC rules when they bought their certain spectrum to use for LTE. But these corporations will always find some catch or loophole to exploit at our expense.

I'm out of contract and mulling whether to renew in an effort to keep my unlimited data. I fear they may just yank it from me now that I'm going month-to-month. I feel that if I renew, then at worst, I can just leave without paying an ETF. But in this scenario, VZW will likely throttle vs. taking away the unlimited plan entirely, thus they still give you "unlimited" data and they didn't break their end of the deal, just like sneaky ATT has done.

I don't want to renew and then right then, Verizon institutes throttling and I am stuck with an ETF. My friend was unlucky enough to renew with the iPhone 4S with ATT last October, just as they started to institute throttling on unlimited plans. He was quite livid but will grudingly stay with them.
 
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ronartest2005

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2010
765
26
Terre Haute,IN
Its probably more likely that Verizon will institute throttling of unlimited plans, just like ATT has done since last year. They'd probably do it, even though I've kept hearing they "cannot" throttle due to FCC rules when they bought their certain spectrum to use for LTE. But these corporations will always find some catch or loophole to exploit at our expense.

I'm out of contract and mulling whether to renew in an effort to keep my unlimited data. I fear they may just yank it from me now that I'm going month-to-month. I feel that if I renew, then at worst, I can just leave without paying an ETF. But in this scenario, VZW will likely throttle vs. taking away the unlimited plan entirely, thus they still give you "unlimited" data and they didn't break their end of the deal, just like sneaky ATT has done.

I don't want to renew and then right then, Verizon institutes throttling and I am stuck with an ETF. My friend was unlucky enough to renew with the iPhone 4S with ATT last October, just as they started to institute throttling on unlimited plans. He was quite livid but will grudingly stay with them.

Yep, there is always a loophole. Just like verizon saying that they will throttle a "data hog phone" if the tower it is on is overloaded.

Although I thought the whole reason for 4g (other than the speeds) was that it could handle more people and higher usage without it effecting others use.
 

Product F(RED)

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
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Brooklyn, NY
Yep, there is always a loophole. Just like verizon saying that they will throttle a "data hog phone" if the tower it is on is overloaded.

Although I thought the whole reason for 4g (other than the speeds) was that it could handle more people and higher usage without it effecting others use.

5GB on 3G is the same as 50GB on 4G; it even out to about the same thing. 4G was meant to accommodate more data usage, true. But not if your usage increases equally with capacity.
 

ronartest2005

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2010
765
26
Terre Haute,IN
5GB on 3G is the same as 50GB on 4G; it even out to about the same thing. 4G was meant to accommodate more data usage, true. But not if your usage increases equally with capacity.

Which is exactly why verizon put caps on data. They knew people would be tempted to use large amounts of data. Like I said, I thought when I first took over this unlimited plan that I would be using around 20gbs a month. I barely use 5.
 

Product F(RED)

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
9,883
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Brooklyn, NY
Which is exactly why verizon put caps on data. They knew people would be tempted to use large amounts of data. Like I said, I thought when I first took over this unlimited plan that I would be using around 20gbs a month. I barely use 5.

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.
 

ronartest2005

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2010
765
26
Terre Haute,IN
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."
 
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boosterp

Member
May 21, 2011
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4
Somewhere in Texas hidding
Did they get bigger connections for 4G or something? I'm sure LTE itself allows for more tower to phone traffic but what about from tower to the actual network?
Cell towers have a finite number of connections that they can handle, one. Two, while 4G equipment is currently integrated with 3G, 4G (LTE only) expansion is adding double the amount of people who can currently connect to one tower (cell) which is the dominate cell in their home or roaming network. This means in places like San Diego where VZW and ATT have congested networks LTE relives that congestion and adds more expansion.

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"?
Per ATT and VZW in the most congested network areas, San Diego being one, there are more cell phones than there are connections to a tower. Towers being limited by both federal and local government and roaming agreements lea to congestion over the 3G networks. LTE which VZW uses Siemens and Lucent as vendors not only allows double the capacity while maintaining a fast an reliable connection, but also allows for expansion at a much lower cost using existing towers. The industry sees a minimum of 5 years before more is need, which also means throttling is not around the corner for LTE. This is also why the major players are adopting LTE instead of WiMax and HSPA.


I have to throw in a disclosure. I am not saying that 3G has reached it's limit nor am I saying that one particular carrier has imposed limitations. Also the LTE adoption is the long term per industry. One last disclosure, I am also not stating that any one carrier "throttles" but do employ "network optimization" for 3G only whereas per independent studies have shown between 2-5% of users per carrier use more than 2 gigs of data.
 
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Phryxus

Member
Jan 2, 2012
41
1
theironforge
I just have to say, I pay $30.00 for 2GB currently. I stream Spotify why at work all night 10pm-7am, with breaks of course when I get sick of music. Use facebook always why on my lunch or on the go, browse the web or check my e-mail. And in the four months I've had my phone have never even hit above 300MB, hell according to my bill I haven't even touched 1GB in the past four months total. I'll never understand how people can use up to 60GB in a few weeks. Makes no sense to me. Just like the Comcast data cap of 250GB, the highest with all my downloading from Steam and BT is only like 80-100GB monthly. (Gotta remember, Steam games can be up to 11GB)

I also turn off my 3G when it is not needed and use WiFi when at my house or at a friends that has wireless. Maybe I'm just smart with my usage? Haha.
 

MrObvious

Senior Member
Mar 1, 2008
2,291
330
Wichita KS
OK so you are just saying the technology allows for more people than CDMA per tower purely on a tower to phone level I see. OK.

Sent from my XT862 using XDA
 

Thalinor

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2010
143
132
Connecticut & New Hampshire
For those who said it would never happen. SUCK IT.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/16/technology/verizon-unlimited-data-plan/index.htm

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...d-data-plans-push-users-data-share/2012-05-16

Quotes from the second source above:

"Shammo said that Verizon will move to a "revenue per account" metric that will more accurately measure the company's business."

"A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited," Shammo said. "When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us."

I just left our good buddy Shammo a nice early morning nasty-gram on his VM. I can't post what I said to him here or I will get ban, but while it was non threatening and completely legal, it was probably some of the the most awful *hit I have ever said to another human being. He would have to be a complete sociopath not to be seriously offended. I hope he enjoys piss in his Wheaties because this VM was a gem.


And for the idiot(s) who think they are "safe" because they buy phones for full retail and not subsidized; you are NOT safe unless you have enough money to deal with Verizons lawyers in court. They WILL remove your unlimited data with in the next two years, whether you buy a subsidized or unsubsidized phone.

Its going to start for those who buy a new phone, but in the end no one will have unlimited.
 

Thalinor

Senior Member
Sep 14, 2010
143
132
Connecticut & New Hampshire
For those who said it would never happen. SUCK IT.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/16/technology/verizon-unlimited-data-plan/index.htm

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...d-data-plans-push-users-data-share/2012-05-16

Quotes from the second source above:

"Shammo said that Verizon will move to a "revenue per account" metric that will more accurately measure the company's business."

"A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited," Shammo said. "When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us."

I just left our good buddy Shammo a nice early morning nasty-gram on his VM. I can't post what I said to him here or I will get ban, but while it was non threatening and completely legal, it was probably some of the the most awful *hit I have ever said to another human being. He would have to be a complete sociopath not to be seriously offended. I hope he enjoys piss in his Wheaties because this VM was a gem.


And for the idiot(s) who think they are "safe" because they buy phones for full retail and not subsidized; you are NOT safe unless you have enough money to deal with Verizons lawyers in court. They WILL remove your unlimited data with in the next two years, whether you buy a subsidized or unsubsidized phone.

Its going to start for those who buy a new phone, but in the end no one will have unlimited.
 

ATHORNFAM2

Senior Member
Feb 29, 2012
275
12
Harrisburg
Funny how Verizon steals from people they added a 20 dollar bill to my bill and I called them up to ask what it was they oh that's just fees. Hmm so why does my bill change every month when its set to 170 with the included tax and fees

Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA
 

Stvnx7

Senior Member
May 20, 2009
50
3
So will they be able to lock you out of unlimited data even if you simply activate a new phone w/o signing a new contract?

For example, if I had a backup Thunderbolt and my current one broke, would they have a right to force me to an paid data plan when i call to activate my backup? That would suck if they could. I guess I better take care of my current phone.
 

Product F(RED)

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
9,883
2,105
Brooklyn, NY
So will they be able to lock you out of unlimited data even if you simply activate a new phone w/o signing a new contract?

For example, if I had a backup Thunderbolt and my current one broke, would they have a right to force me to an paid data plan when i call to activate my backup? That would suck if they could. I guess I better take care of my current phone.

No, as long as your replacement phone or even temp phone is a smartphone. However Verizon's CFO made it official that unlimited plans are being phased out: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/16/...-plans-on-the-way-out/?a_dgi=aolshare_twitter
 

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  • 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."