Verizon Wireless Shared Data FAIL

[makryger]

I was very much looking forward to verizon's shared data plans... my family of 5 does not really use a whole lot of data, so being able to share it between us would have made sense. Had Verizon followed its shared voice scheme, it would have been great: Buy a pool of minutes at a slight premium. Add individual lines for a low price. Given that 4GB of data from them costs $30, I would have imagined that our family would have been fine with 6GB of data for maybe $50. Then, verizon could have charged a low fee to add devices to the pool- $10 per device would have made sense.

INSTEAD, verizon has shown again that they really don't care about helping the customer. All they care about is profits. So now, their pool of data starts at $50 for 1GB (which is just asking for overage fees). 6GB is $80. But the real kicker is that every smartphone you have on the account costs $40!!!!! The cost per line is basically the same as before- $10 for a line, $30 for data. Except now, instead of each person getting 4GB of data, 5 people are sharing 6GB.

Mobile hotspots now cost $20 per month, and tablets cost $10 per month. So if you have those, maybe you end up saving money. Interestingly, they penalize having a basic phone- instead of just the $10 line addition, you're forced to pay $30 now. But for a smartphone-based family, in my eyes, verizon really failed.

http://solutions.vzwshop.com/shareevery ... etails.pdf

[Ack]

I was very much looking forward to verizon's shared data plans... my family of 5 does not really use a whole lot of data, so being able to share it between us would have made sense. Had Verizon followed its shared voice scheme, it would have been great: Buy a pool of minutes at a slight premium. Add individual lines for a low price. Given that 4GB of data from them costs $30, I would have imagined that our family would have been fine with 6GB of data for maybe $50. Then, verizon could have charged a low fee to add devices to the pool- $10 per device would have made sense.

INSTEAD, verizon has shown again that they really don't care about helping the customer. All they care about is profits. So now, their pool of data starts at $50 for 1GB (which is just asking for overage fees). 6GB is $80. But the real kicker is that every smartphone you have on the account costs $40!!!!! The cost per line is basically the same as before- $10 for a line, $30 for data. Except now, instead of each person getting 4GB of data, 5 people are sharing 6GB.

Mobile hotspots now cost $20 per month, and tablets cost $10 per month. So if you have those, maybe you end up saving money. Interestingly, they penalize having a basic phone- instead of just the $10 line addition, you're forced to pay $30 now. But for a smartphone-based family, in my eyes, verizon really failed.

http://solutions.vzwshop.com/shareevery ... etails.pdf

It looks like it may be better for me (given the current pricing). My contract with ATT ends in August and I'm considering switching to Verizon. Currently if I stay with ATT, I get 800 minutes (already in my plan) with rollover and 2 GB of data per phone for 160.00. BTW, we have never gone beyone the 800 minutes and used any rollover minutes for two of us so the unlimited voice isn't attracting me.

Looking to use two smart phones and rounding the cents to the nearest dollar, if I went with Verizon today, I could get 700 minutes voice ($70.00), unlimited messaging ($30.00), and 2 GB of data a month per phone ($60.00 for the two). That's $160.00 per month.

If I'm understanding their new pricing correctly, I would get unlimited voice and messaging and 6 GB of data for the two phones for the same $160.00. Am I missing something?

I presume you signed up when you got 4 GB of data per phone for what they charge for 2 GB at today's prices so I can see where it'd be a deal breaker for you.