  LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 |  Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins
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 |  pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
1 edit | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins Fools and their money... what kind of idiot sees any gain in going from $30 a month for unlimited data to $50 a month for 1GB of data, and that's before the overages kick in. It is a pretty sad commentary on what we've devolved into when so many people think nothing of paying a lot more and getting a lot less.
For us, this plan represents an increase of $20-$30 a month should my wife decide she wants a new phone. While we've got until December before her contract is up, we're definitely looking at other options.
On another note, I think that any cell operator that is going to go with caps should be required to give you the option to shut off all data once you hit the cap (until the start of the next billing cycle) so you cannot incur overages.
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Romney 2012 - Put an adult in charge. | |
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| | | | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins There are apps that will shut off your data connection if you approach and/or exceed your data allotment. I use 3G Watchdog and it seems to be accurate +/- 1% to what Verizon logs my data consumption as. | |
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| | | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins said by Crookshanks:There are apps that will shut off your data connection if you approach and/or exceed your data allotment. I use 3G Watchdog and it seems to be accurate +/- 1% to what Verizon logs my data consumption as.
Therein lays the rub. Even if you're off by one bit you get hit with the overage.
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Romney 2012 - Put an adult in charge. | |
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 ·Frontier Communi..
3 edits | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins Last month 3G watchdog logged 2.78GB of data consumption. MY Verizon bill showed 2.81GB. That's an error of less than 1% and more than enough accuracy for me. On a 2GB data plan that means you need to stay about 20mb under your cap to be safe. Most people would not regard that as a hassle.
In any case, no application on the phone is ever going to agree exactly with the meter at the phone company. We're dealing with wireless here. Lost/unacknowledged packets are a fact of life. If your phone transmits a packet that isn't received it will log more data than Verizon. If the tower transmits one that the phone doesn't receive it will log more data than your phone.
Edit: By the way, I don't like these plans anymore than you, but you CAN leverage them to save money if you are so inclined. It means you have to make adjustments to the way you use your phone but such is life; those of us who have been maximizing our nights/weekends minutes for the last decade are already used to such adjustments.
My fiancee and I currently pay $133.57 with our 22% discount for two smartphones (4GB and unlimited), 700 minutes and unlimited texting. I use around 2GB to 3GB a month and she uses around 1 to 2GB. The lions share of our usage is Pandora, if we were willing to give that up we could easily get away with the 1GB plan for $119/mo.
That's a savings of $175/yr (actually more with taxes) if we decide to forgo streaming media. You can look at your own usage and make similar choices if you feel that you're paying too much money. | |
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| | | | | | | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins said by Crookshanks:The lions share of our usage is Pandora, if we were willing to give that up we could easily get away with the 1GB plan for $119/mo.
That's a savings of $175/yr (actually more with taxes) if we decide to forgo streaming media. You can look at your own usage and make similar choices if you feel that you're paying too much money.
Why should the paying customers adjust their behavior to use less service for the same or higher cost? Customers are losing a lot of value with these plans, therefore the cost is higher, even if the bill is lower. | |
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·Frontier Communi..
| Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins said by PixFoo :Why should the paying customers adjust their behavior to use less service for the same or higher cost? Because that's what you do when you want/need to save money. Some people forgo a/c to lower the electric bill. Others forgo eating out. Some are willing to accept slower broadband connections. Others drive economy cars. It's the way the world works.
said by PixFoo :Customers are losing a lot of value with these plans, therefore the cost is higher, even if the bill is lower.
*shrug*, I don't think unlimited data was sustainable with the technology that's currently available. People tend to forget that unlimited data was introduced back when "smart" phones were used almost exclusively for push e-mail and light web browsing. Nobody envisioned streaming audio, video, and other data hungry applications until the iPhone arrived and shook up the market.
It will come back sooner or later. Look back to the 1990s/early 2000s when cellular technology had scaling issues with voice calls and minutes cost many times what they do today. Technological advances enabled more efficient use of the available spectrum and today minutes are literally too cheap to meter. It will be the same with data in the coming decade or so. | |
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| | |  FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | That burden should not be the consumers. | |
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·Frontier Communi..
| Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins So the carrier should hold your hand and make sure you don't spend money you don't have? Should your credit card company also hold your hand and keep you from making impluse purchases? Why don't you go prepaid if you really need a service that shuts off rather than incur overages? | |
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| | | | | FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins No, the carrier should shut my service off just as I tell them to. Stop being a shill. | |
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| | | | | | | | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins Verizon has usage controls if you're too inept to use the options provided with your phone to disable your data connection when you approach your limit. | |
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| | | | | | | | | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins said by Crookshanks:Verizon has usage controls if you're too inept to use the options provided with your phone to disable your data connection when you approach your limit.
You mean like their phantom $1.99/month charge for data services for phones that had no internet connection?
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| | | | | | | FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | What are these usage controls and do they update in real time? I'm not a Verizon Customer and do not know about these things. | |
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| | | Sprint while their data coverage is slow as dirty.... Stop making bad investments Sprint and get 4G out already to all markets.... I'll still take unlimited over any limits. I need never worry about hitting a "cap". | |
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| | | Not trying to defend Sprint, because we all know their network has been abysmal in some parts, but if they do get their NV improvements going, you could see coverage that could rival Verizon.
Sprint have a lot of things going for them if they can get going with this LTE and 800Mhz SMR. That and cell density will play a greater roll as more and more people go LTE. Sprint should be able to handle more people than Verizon or AT&T because of this. | |
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| | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins said by sandman_1:Not trying to defend Sprint, because we all know their network has been abysmal in some parts, but if they do get their NV improvements going, you could see coverage that could rival Verizon. The only thing Sprint has going for it is unlimited data. If you have just one Smartphone, you aren't really doing much better moneywise with Sprint than you would be with Verizon.
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Romney 2012 - Put an adult in charge. | |
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| | | Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
 ·DIRECTV
 ·Optimum Online
·Cablevision
| Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins I agree that price-wise you aren't saving any money with Sprint, unless your a heavy data user and don't have an unlimited data plan on Verizon. I've priced all of the carriers and for my usage Verizon is just as cheap as AT&T, Sprint and T-mobile. granted I have a grandfathered texting and data plan, their current plans are a little more expensive.
But not as much as people make them out to be, especially on an individual plan. I travel for work, coverage wins.
When Verizon finally pulls the unlimited from my cold dead hands, I'll look into Sprint if their network vision program succeeds, based on the technical specs, it looks like they really have a shot a building a very good network, the current network though is so slow, that having unlimited data is useless if it's so slow it's frustrating to use. Verizon's 3G which was much better was frustrating to me, no way I could deal will 500kbps | |
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| | | | | You are just wrong. They have several things going for them. There Network Vision improvements, LTE 1900mhz 800mhz 2600mhz, spectrum holdings, and "unlimited", are just a few things.
Moneywise, they are cheaper than Verizon and AT&T. How do I know? I was with Sprint until here recently. My bill for 2 phones was $140 w/ tax. Verizon it would of been ~$170. Granted we got a %10 discount but even with that not factored in, it was still cheaper. | |
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| | | | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins Under Verizon's share everything plan, one smartphone will cost you $90 a month ($40 for the monthly line access cost and $50 for 1GB of data).
With Sprint, an unlimited plan for a single smartphone will cost you $80 a month for 450 minutes an unlimited data.
$10 a month isn't a huge difference, unless all I cared about was unlimited data, and especially since even at Sprint's price I am still paying more than I am for my grandfathered Verizon plan.
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Romney 2012 - Put an adult in charge. | |
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| | | You do have a point that verizon has the best coverage, but a certain point you can just keep raising rates and providing very little for it when there are other options available. People are going to only pay so much for the best network and I think right now its too high. You will these shared plans not work out. The only way they will work out is if they give you more options. Not everyone needs unlimited min and unlimited text. Put the 700 min plan back in with more data. You will see verizon will end up having to bump their data 1gig is just plain ridiculous. | |
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| | pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | Re: Consumer inertia & Verizon's outstanding coverage wins said by hotshot187:You do have a point that verizon has the best coverage, but a certain point you can just keep raising rates and providing very little for it when there are other options available. People are going to only pay so much for the best network and I think right now its too high. Agreed... for me though, I started thinking, do I really care if my phone works in some far-flung place I might only be in for a short amount of time, or is having simply working at home and at work most important?
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Romney 2012 - Put an adult in charge. | |
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·Frontier Communi..
| said by hotshot187:You will see verizon will end up having to bump their data 1gig is just plain ridiculous.
Why is it 'ridiculous'? The cost maybe but the amount of data is perfectly fine for a couple that is only interested in web browsing and e-mail. My usage in months without streaming media hovers right around 300MB and that's without making any special effort to run app updates and the like on wi-fi.
When AT&T comes out with their plans there will be a little bit of competition on price. Not much mind you, but they'll do SOMETHING to try and nibble away at each other. You might also see nights/weekends come to data sooner or later. If I had to hazard a guess I'd say that the 1GB plan will come down to $40; that would make it attractive for couples ($120/mo for two smartphones isn't bad) and encourage more people to give up their dumbphones, which is ultimately what the carriers want to see happen. | |
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 baineschile2600 ways to livePremium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI
1 edit | two of three Expensive and Punitive, yes.
Gotta give VZW credit though, I actually think the plans are very straightforward and easy to understand. | |
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| | | Re: two of three I disagree; VZW's new "Screw Everyone" plans are atrocious. $30 a month for a dumbphone, NOT including the calling plan? Our family would see huge price hikes if we needed a new contract and phones. Fortunately we don't.
The $10 price difference between dumb and smartphones is their attempt to force people into smartphones. We have no need of them! Yet if we want texting we have to fork over a lot of extra money AND get data we won't use.
Once our college-age kids are on their own my husband and I will probably go prepaid. | |
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| | | | Re: two of three I thought the new price DID include the calling plan... Just that now it is a constant cost per line/device instead of how it was before...
Before, you would pay:
1. $80 for the 700 minute shared plan
2. $9.99 for each line
3. $29.99 for data for smartphones
Now you pay:
1. $30 for each dumphone or $40 for each smartphone
2. $50+ for 1GB+ of data for all phones.
Sure, it's definitely not a better deal, but it's MUCH more straightforward than the (more affordable) system they had in place before. | |
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| | | | $30 a month does include the calling plan.
So for example 2 dumbphones would cost $60 per month with unlimited talk and text.
The problem is the data. Nobody wants just dumbphones anymore and the data is where you get screwed, as it is required to get a subsidized smartphone.
The only way around the plans is to buy your phone at full retail price or from somewhere else.
I expect at&t and sprint will take a wait and see approach. If Verizon experiences high churn or posts significantly lower subscriber adds, then I expect the other carriers will stay away. If Verizon's numbers don't change much at all, expect the other carriers to quickly follow suit. | |
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1 edit | Re: two of three
30 bucks for a dumb phone
40 bucks for a smart phone
then pick a data plan
60 bucks for 2 gig shared
$130 is what ur paying | |
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| | |  BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | said by anonanon :$30 a month does include the calling plan. Actually no. The $30 is just the line fee. The talk and text are included in the data.
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·ProLog
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| Re: two of three That is correct. You pay $30/month for the "privilege" of owning the basic phone.
In order for it to actually be able to do anything, you need a plan. Cheapest is $10.00 month for 700 minutes. Texting and data are "a la carte". $.20/text and $1.99 MB for data.
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The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. | |
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| | | | FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | so, for 2 smartphones sharing 4GB of data it would be:
$40+$40+$70=$150/month. that is way to freaking high for what you get. | |
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| | | | | BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Re: two of three said by FBGuy:so, for 2 smartphones sharing 4GB of data it would be:
$40+$40+$70=$150/month. that is way to freaking high for what you get.
Under Verizon's old plans it would be $160.
700 minutes $60 first line, $10 2nd line, Unlimited texting $30. Two 2 GB data plans at $30 each.=$160 | |
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| | | | | | FBGuyPremium
join:2005-03-19
Evanston, IL | Re: two of three drop the unlimited texting and it becomes a deal. | |
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| | baineschile2600 ways to livePremium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI | the point was that they are easy to understand, not if they are a consumer friendly model. | |
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| | | yes, they are. You know you're going to be screwed, and they're laying that out upfront. Beyond that though it's a complete loss and represents why I'll be dumping verizon in the near future. | |
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| | Share Everything indeed When I hear Verizon's new "Share Everything" plan all I can think of is that "everything" includes my entire bank account. I'll stick to my grandfathered plan thank you very much. | |
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| | Agree 110% I agree 110%. I did the #'s and they are about $30+ more expensive than AT&T for us and God knows how much more expensive than T-Mo or Sprint.
We'll stay on our current plan with Verizon until we can't and then look at other options - they are not the only game in town and I hope people stay away from these plans and tell Verizon where to shove them. | |
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 aaronwtPremium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FiOS
| T-Mobile is at the top of my list... for if/when I need to leave Verizon. When it gets to the point that Verizon tries to raise my monthly charges $30 and decrease the data to a trickle I will be looking elsewhere and right now T-Mobile is at the top of that list. Although I still have 18 months on my current contract with Verizon wireless so as long as nothing happens to my phone I will be ok for awhile. Hopefully by then Verizon comes to their senses, otherwise I will be going somewhere else. Even prepaid if I have to. But alot can happen in 18 months. | |
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 jgkoltPremium
join:2004-02-21
Lakewood, OH | coverage As expensive as verizon's plans are i only wish sprint and tmobile had the same coverage map to truly be a like for like competitor. | |
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| compPremium
join:2001-08-16
Cranberry Twp, PA | Re: coverage i think you have to give it time. My wifes verizon contract is up right around when Sprint should have Network Vision close to completion and most sites at LTE She plans to evaluate then | |
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| Reviews:
·World Lynx
·Cox HSI
| said by jgkolt:As expensive as verizon's plans are i only wish sprint and tmobile had the same coverage map to truly be a like for like competitor.
That's my conundrum right now......due to coverage (or lack of) the only viable choice I have is AT&T right now..  | |
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| BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | And if you think they can keep unlimited if they had the same coverage as Verizon you are deluding yourself. | |
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 IowaCowboyWant to go back to IowaPremium
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA
·Comcast
 ·Verizon Broadban..
| Share Everything works for me It actually is better for me as I can have my iPhone ($40), Jetpack ($20), and my iPad ($10). So that is about $140 per month for everything including the $70 for the 4GB data plan. I'd be paying substantially more with the old plans. I may even kick the data up to 6GB for $10 more.
I am also thinking of adding Mom and Grandma to my plan for $30 each (they both currently have dumb phones on AT&T). I like the unlimited talk and text. | |
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| | tmobile for every one in a tmobile good coverage area spread the word......I live in Michigan and in 75 percent of the state I get 9mbs per second and I pay 50 dollars on the value plan which tmobile should be advertised . | |
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BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | Some save some don't old plan
2 smartphones, 700 minutes, unlimited texting two $30 data plans with 2 GB each =$160
new plan
2 smartphones, unlimited minutes/texting 4GB data =$150
or
2 smartphones, unlimited minutes/texting 6GB data =$160
So one is either saving $10 a month or getting 2 GB extra for the same price. | |
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draggerPremium
join:2002-06-19
Festus, MO Reviews:
·Charter
·AT&T Southwest
| Old plan? New Plan? How about no plan, Verizon? Old Plan: $40.00 for voice, 30.00 unlimited data. No texts so I paid per message. I paid 90.00 or so each month.
New Plan: Bought Google Galaxy Nexus for 349, a T-Mobile sim card for 98 cents, and went on a pay as you go plan. I get 100 minutes, unlimited text, and 5g of data for 29.99 a month. I can buy the refill cards online from various discounters so there's no bs fees or sales tax. It's actually more like 28.00 a month now. Added hassle? Nope, I paid VZ once a month and it's no different buying a refill card once a month.
Coverage has been excellent, in fact better than ATT in this area. I just switched a week or so ago but in this short time I'd say that Tmo is about as fast as Verizon was or just slightly slower. For $700 a year I can deal with that.
I don't talk much on the phone, and it was killing me to pay VZ that much money for their cheapest, most basic smartphone services.
Yes, they needed to change their rate plan but they totally screwed it up. | |
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