Verizon to Change All Plans (Eliminating Unlimited Data)

You may or may not have heard about Verizon's decision to change their plans around (effective 6/28/12 which is just a few days away), but one important change will be the all but forced move to a metered data plan. If you want to keep your unlimited data for two more years, you better renew now. So how will this effect you? I'm glad you asked. Let's go over the changes (for all of the info visit Verizon's page on the new plans).

Let's clear up a few things before I explain the details of the plans...
1) Your plan will NOT change on June 28 (unless you opt in). After that date, you will be able to keep your existing plan until you renew your contract.
2) This isn't all bad. Almost all of the plans are now coming with UNLIMITED talk and text for all phones on the plan.
3) With the new plans, your only question will be how much data you plan to use. Since talk and text are now unlimited, it doesn't matter how long your teenage daughter chats away with her friends (from a billing perspective at least).
4) The limit of devices per plan has been raised from 5 to 10.
5) You CAN keep your unlimited data plan, BUT you will not receive any carrier discounts on your new phones and, if purchased through Verizon, will end up paying retail ($500 and up).

All devices will carry a line charge just for having them on your plan (nothing new), but the amount you pay for each line will depend on the type of device (instead of a flat $10/line)

The new plans can be divided into three categories Plans With: at least one smartphone, only basic phones, or only data devices. Let's start with the smartphone plans.

Here is the breakdown (per device):

• $40 - Smartphones
• $30 - Basic phones
• $20 - Hotspots (MiFi/USB)/Netbooks/Notebooks
• $10 - Tablets

After you add up the charge for your devices you now need to select how much data you think you will use and select the appropriate plan between $50-$100 as follows:

• $50 - 1GB of data ($50/GB)
• $60 - 2GB of data ($30/GB)
• $70 - 4GB of data ($23/GB)
• $80 - 6GB of data ($13/GB)
• $90 - 8GB of data ($11/GB)
• $100 - 10GB of data ($10/GB)

$50 for 1GB of data may seem like a lot but keep in mind that you are all getting unlimited talk and text for that $50. If you need additional data you can add it at $10 per 2GB (not sure it's capped at 12GB or not). I recommend going a little heavy on the data at first since every GB you go over is $15. Verizon also has a nice planning tool that will show you the last 6 months (be careful since the current month is included and could bring the average down if you are at the beginning of your billing cycle).

So let's figure out a real life example. 

A family, let's call them the Reds, has 3 smartphones, a basic phone, and a tablet. Let's also assume each non-basic device uses the reported average of 1-2GB per month.

$120 - 3x smartphone

$30 - 1x basic phone

$10 -1x tablet

$160 - for the device lines PLUS

$80 - for a nice average 1.5GB per device per month

$240 per month (plus taxes and fees)

See it's not too complicated. The other advantage of this new plan is that if you had one person that was always hitting 2GB or higher (the old limit) and the rest of the devices had 0.5-1GB extra, you still got charged for the overage on the one line. Now since you are sharing, you can use more on one device and not worry.

So what about families/individuals with only basic phones? Things are even more simple. You have a choice of two plans

$30 - Per device charge 

PLUS EITHER

$40 - For 700 minutes, no texts included ($10 extra for 1000), and no data included ($1.99/MB)

OR

$70 - For unlimited minutes, unlimited texting, and 300MB of data (overage is $15 per 300MB)

So for example, Mr. Red's parents only have two basic phones and don't want texting or data. They would pay:

$60 - 2x basic phone

$40 - 700 minutes

$100 per month (plus taxes and fees)

The last plan is similar to the first except that it doesn't have minutes or texting and is only eligible for data only devices:

Per line is the same as the smartphone plan above ($10-$20 per device) and the data choices are:

$30 - 4GB

$40 - 6GB

$50 - 8GB

$60 - 10GB

So for a hotspot and tablet (3G/4G enabled) and 6GB of data it would be:

$10 - tablet

$20 - hotspot

$40 - 6GB of data

$70 per month

Or you could save $10/month and just have the hotspot on the plan with the tablet using the hotspot or a WiFi network instead. If you don't have a Verizon compatible tablet, you will have to take this route as well.

That's pretty much it. The plans seem a lot simpler than they used to be and should save the average family money, but will most likely cost individuals and heavy data users more. 

Hope this helps understand the new plan structure! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

P.S. As a thank you for reading to the entire post, I've save a very nice surprise. Mobile Hotspot on ALL compatible phones in now included (with the new plans) at no additional charge (was $20/month for 2GB and was separate from your cell's data). You now only have to share the data of your plan. Enjoy!