 
Boricua65
join:2002-01-26
Puerto Rico
| The bigger they are Their arrogance is so unwieldy. They have one of the best networks around and now since J.D. Powers, Consumer Reports and others say they are one of the best, it has now gone to their heads  .
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Yo te digo, el mundo esta jodido | |
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anjorusso
@nychhc.org | this idiocy won't last long as soon as high speed mobile internet from wimax or google (white space broadband) will be available all over, nobody will even bother with any cell phone service....everyone will use mobile voip which will be 20 times cheaper | |
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 | beaups
join:2003-08-11
Hilliard, OH | Re: this idiocy won't last long you are joking, right? | |
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| | EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA
| Re: this idiocy won't last long Well, he's right in a way- mobile VoIP will replace traditional cellular systems on 4G networks- speed and latency will finally be consistent enough to ease people off the older dedicated voice systems. (Actually, HSDPA and EV-DO Rev A can run VoIP today, but not as well as 4G networks will) It's much cheaper, but the cost savings will mostly be on the operator side of things. | |
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NY Tel
Premium
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY
 ·VOIPo
| Believe it or not...... If customers do not select a data plan, they constantly return to the stores complaining about data overages which can get eaten up immediately. I have friends telling me horror stories about getting bills for 200 bucks for data overages because they opted for the cheap plan.
By requiring this, it is full disclosure and protects the customer from overages.
And well, yes - they do have a good network and let's face it - they are a for profit organization.
They will push just up to the limit of what customers will spend and then they usually back off.
What the market will bear....
If they make this change and no one buys a smart phone (just not "gonna" happen") you'll see how fast they reverse their position.
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Love when you can - cry when you have to, be who you must, that's a part of the plan, await your arrival with simple survival and one day we'll all understand... | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
 ·North State Commun..
| Re: Believe it or not...... That's a good point NY Tel  . 3 of my 4 phones have a "mysterious" $1.99 data charge every month since they forced me to the new .000000000000001 KB of data is rounded up to 1MB plan. The funny part is that one of my phones is only used when I go running in the early AM. It's never even flipped open and most of the time is off. I wonder how it keeps racking up a $1.99 charge every month. | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
1 edit | Re: Believe it or not...... said by Matt :I wonder how it keeps racking up a $1.99 charge every month. When I canceled my data plans on my Smartphones I went into the network settings and put the text literal "do_not_use_" in front of the userid and WAP access point name so that it is impossible for either phone to connect to the data service without my intervention.
The only downside is that picture messaging does not work when we have this setting in place. However, it is easy to change that setting temporarily, send/receive the picture message (which is included in our plan), and then turn the data off once again.
Standard text messaging still works regardless of the data connection settings.
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"At the moment of conception." | |
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NY Tel
Premium
join:2004-04-09
Smithtown, NY
·VOIPo
1 edit | said by Matt :That's a good point NY Tel . 3 of my 4 phones have a "mysterious" $1.99 data charge every month since they forced me to the new .000000000000001 KB of data is rounded up to 1MB plan. The funny part is that one of my phones is only used when I go running in the early AM. It's never even flipped open and most of the time is off. I wonder how it keeps racking up a $1.99 charge every month. Well do you use:
Mobile web
VZ Navigator
Download any ring tones etc?
Use backup assistant?
They sell megabytes now for 1.99 a meg. rounded up from the first kilobyte used. (Text and Pix are exempt) so something is accessing the network as a "data call" and costing you $$.
Call them at *611 (star 611 - free call) and ask them to explain it. If they can't, politely as them to take it off the bill. They usually do. | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC | Re: Believe it or not...... Hrmmm, yep. I use Backup Assistant on all my phones. So when it backs the phone book up, they charge me data? I guess that makes sense. | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Believe it or not...... They don't charge me the $1.99 for the Backup Assistant as I did sign up via the website. There is a $1.99 charge every month on all my phones (that don't have a data plan) listed in the Data Charges section ... but they all use Backup Assistant.
I'll call and ask them to explain it regardless. Who knows, maybe they aren't supposed to charge for Backup Assistant data. | |
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GOLFnSUN
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
1 edit | said by Matt :Hrmmm, yep. I use Backup Assistant on all my phones. So when it backs the phone book up, they charge me data? I guess that makes sense. See this web page. If you call Customer Service, you can get this fee waived.
»products.vzw.com/index.aspx?id=f···=2033494
Backup Assistant is free for My Verizon customers. The $1.99 monthly fee that you are asked to accept will be waived as long as you remain a My Verizon customer.
You will not see a charge for this service on your bill. Not a My Verizon customer? Register Now --
My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC | Re: Believe it or not...... It is not a Backup Assistant charge. It's a generic "data" charge for "Pay as you use MB." | |
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Ankur T
@insideidc.com
| Classic Oligopoly Its a classic oligopoly, they will coz they can!
Take texting for example it was 10c to send or receive a few years ago across all carriers and now its 15c (I dont want to be on their plan coz i havent ever texted - but i get slammed from time to time for receiving someones text, on which i have little direct control....but anyways i digress). The point being that the national carriers in a month's span increased their pay as you go texting price from 10 to 15.
I thought competition was supposed to bring down prices!?! Now dont tell me it costs them! which all of a sudden all 4 of them realized in one fine month after years of miscalculating the "costs" of texting.
Now coming back to pay as you go data...ATT did something similar with iPhone...verizon will do it and so will t-mobile and sprint.
There are two simple trends here -
1. every carrier wants to get their customers on the monthly play. They need some amount of certainty on how much they will be making at least a quarter down as opposed to staying dependent on the consumer's usage.
2. Carriers have little competition (with possibly an under the table understanding) that they dont want to be "dumb pipes" and one guy waging a price war will bring down everyone elses margin quickly. Its easier to coordinate such price gouging in an oligopoly | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Believe it or not...... What about just 'cancelling' data altogether. A 2 year commitment on a data plan isn't cheap. Eg. A $40/month voice $30/data + taxes/fees brings you up ~+$80/month.
While I do agree that many have/will attempt to go overly cheap on a dataplan and end up paying much more (sort of like paying PPU on SMS). I do think that the consumer _should_ be able to cancel data altogether if they want to.
Eg. 12 months into a 24 month contract and I decide that I just don't really use that much data, and want to use my PDA as just a phone. Should I be forced to pay $30/month for data for the next 12 months or eat an ETF? What happens if I swap out for one of my older phones ?
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC | Re: Believe it or not...... They don't offer the option to turn data off altogether. It's $1.99 per MB or purchase a data plan. | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Believe it or not...... With AT&T - I have the option to disable data completely.
I have a block (disables EDGE/GPRS/3G data) so that I can not send/receive mms/sms or use data connection. I do not see why Verizon Wireless does not have this ability.
I only had this feature put on when AT&T started charging for inbound messages, and I also never wanted accidental use of WAP data.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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GOLFnSUN
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| Re: Believe it or not...... said by en102 :With AT&T - I have the option to disable data completely. I have a block (disables EDGE/GPRS/3G data) so that I can not send/receive mms/sms or use data connection. I do not see why Verizon Wireless does not have this ability. They do. I have a similar block on my phone. It won't accept any incoming or outgoing messages. And I can't use the built-in browser unless I am browsing my Verizon account info. If I want to use any data svcs, it sends me to a sign up screen.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk? | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Believe it or not...... said by GOLFnSUN :said by en102 :With AT&T - I have the option to disable data completely. I have a block (disables EDGE/GPRS/3G data) so that I can not send/receive mms/sms or use data connection. I do not see why Verizon Wireless does not have this ability. They do. I have a similar block on my phone. It won't accept any incoming or outgoing messages. And I can't use the built-in browser unless I am browsing my Verizon account info. If I want to use any data svcs, it sends me to a sign up screen. Right. But we're talking about blocking just DATA, not txt/pix which is a completely separate service that is paid for separately and does not incur data charges. | |
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ArkhmAsylm
Evrythng I need isn't really what I want
join:2006-02-22
Saint Paul, MN
·Comcast
| Actually they do have a way of shutting off data usage. My sis-in-law ended up paying for "suspicious" data usage due to my nephew's viewing videos on his mother's LG Dare. The VZW rep was able to shut off her ability to download data.
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Look at the pretty smoke! | |
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Matt
Gone playing Dragon Age Origins
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| Re: Believe it or not...... said by ArkhmAsylm :Actually they do have a way of shutting off data usage. My sis-in-law ended up paying for "suspicious" data usage due to my nephew's viewing videos on his mother's LG Dare. The VZW rep was able to shut off her ability to download data. Yes, but that's txt msgs too. It's an all or nothing situation, which is not very ideal. I still want to be able to txt, but not any other data. | |
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ArkhmAsylm
Evrythng I need isn't really what I want
join:2006-02-22
Saint Paul, MN
·Comcast
| Re: Believe it or not...... Mmmm...it may not be all or nothing. My sis-in-law is an avid texter, has a plan to cover this, & she is still texting. They were able to shut off her data downloads (browser only, maybe?) without affecting texting...which does seem weird as I thought that texting used minute amounts of data.
I will have to follow-up with her at the end of the month to see if she's still getting the data charges.
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Look at the pretty smoke! | |
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jonnyz
Premium
join:2003-03-20
Canfield, OH
clubs:
·Armstrong Zoom In..
| Re: Believe it or not...... I'm not sure about VZ, but on my Nokia E51 (ATT) I have an option to change the preferred text message connection from the default GSM/UMTS to the rarely used Packet Data, which leads me to believe texts normally don't travel over data networks unless specified. MMS may use packet data, however.
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Join the RC5 team. | |
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unhappy in FL
@vemark.net
| Recently upgraded my daughter's phone to a Palm Centro online. Her previous phone had data turned off. When activating the Palm it looked like I had turned off data. Two weeks later I check and there is $300 of data usage on the pay per kb plan. She has no idea what she did and is pretty good at knowing what works on the internet. Verizon keeps saying sorry but does nothing. I am thinking of not paying that portion of the bill. How long before they shut off service if I dont pay them? Does it do any good to go to the FTC? | |
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wildbill
@radford.edu
| VCast is worthless I cannot believe that I would be forced to signup for that stupid V-Cast package. I have the LG Dare right now, and I get by just fine without the V-cast non-sense. I've been loyal to VZW since the start, but forcing me into paying an extra 15 bucks for something I never use would cause me to consider switching. | |
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ArkhmAsylm
Evrythng I need isn't really what I want
join:2006-02-22
Saint Paul, MN
·Comcast
| Re: VCast is worthless wildbill, I doubt that they'd put a gun to your head to "force" you to purchase the V-pak. I too have the Dare & one if the major reasons for buying it was to use the web browsing capability. While I've perused the V-cast crap that's out there during a bout or two of extreme boredom, I chose the V-pak to cover my frequent web browsing for alot less than if I were paying by the byte. Is the price of the V-pak reasonable? Only when compared to the per-MB charges, but hey, I'm just a consumer.
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Look at the pretty smoke! | |
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BuzzDar
join:2006-01-28
West Frankfort, IL | VCast If you dont want to use the data you dont have to pay for it at all. But if you want to use data then you will have to pay the monthly fee. I think the reason for this too many people going Pay as you go and bitching they get a high bill. | |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | unlimited my ass "$15/month VCast unlimited data plan for email and web browsing."
Unlimited until you reach 5 GB then $256 per GB overage. | |
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| wcnghj
join:2008-05-01 | Re: unlimited my ass Show me where in the contract it says they have a right to charge after a certian amount of GB's. | |
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Simba7
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
2 edits | Re: unlimited my ass »Verizon Admits 5GB Wireless Broadband Cap
No, they'll just terminate your services due to unauthorized usage and nail you with a $175 ETF.
Why do you think I'm freaked out that Verizon's killing off Alltel? I use quite a bit of bandwidth (DL'd software updates, Linux discs, etc) and I don't need to be killed off for downloading a Linux Distro DVD. | |
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Ankur T
@insideidc.com
| Classic Oligopoly Its a classic oligopoly, they will coz they can!
Take texting for example it was 10c to send or receive a few years ago across all carriers and now its 15c (I dont want to be on their plan coz i havent ever texted - but i get slammed from time to time for receiving someones text, on which i have little direct control....but anyways i digress). The point being that the national carriers in a month's span increased their pay as you go texting price from 10 to 15.
I thought competition was supposed to bring down prices!?! Now dont tell me it costs them! which all of a sudden all 4 of them realized in one fine month after years of miscalculating the "costs" of texting.
Now coming back to pay as you go data...ATT did something similar with iPhone...verizon will do it and so will t-mobile and sprint.
There are two simple trends here -
1. every carrier wants to get their customers on the monthly play. They need some amount of certainty on how much they will be making at least a quarter down as opposed to staying dependent on the consumer's usage.
2. Carriers have little competition (with possibly an under the table understanding) that they dont want to be "dumb pipes" and one guy waging a price war will bring down everyone elses margin quickly. Its easier to coordinate such price gouging in an oligopoly | |
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Steely
Dumped Comcast for FiOS
Premium
join:2000-10-15
Princeton Junction, NJ
| Re: Classic Oligopoly said by Ankur T :
Take texting for example it was 10c to send or receive a few years ago Actually...with Verizon, if I remember correctly, it was 10¢ to send but only 2¢ to receive...and it was not that long ago! They abruptly raised it from 2¢ to 10¢ which was really exorbitant (a 500% price increase) when you think about it. I'd like to see my income (for the same job and amount of work) rise 500%! | |
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| | kieranmullen
Premium
join:2005-12-12
Portland, OR
clubs: | Re: Classic Oligopoly Before Verizon bought out Airtouch Cellular I was getting SMS at least unlimited incoming (I cant remember outgoing) for free. 8 years ago at least I believe. | |
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bryandj23
join:2002-08-15
Bay City, MI
| Sticking it to the customer...harder...and deeper.. This is bull. I can get everything I need (web, email, pictures, ringtones, etc) over WiFi. I too have my data connection set so that it will not automatically connect, and will not be used as the default connection to the internet.
The only thing I need their data service for is for Pix/Flix, which I already pay for unlimited. | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: Sticking it to the customer...harder...and deeper.. I suspect that AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile will eventually follow this lead. AT&T already has forced data on its iPhone, and has very few devices that are WiFi capable (HTC Tilt).
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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mech1164
I'Ll Be Back
join:2001-11-19
Lodi, NJ | One more out. One more reason they will not have me back. This may work, but I expect that AT@T along with Tmo will be getting alot more business with this. | |
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| BosstonesOwn
join:2002-12-15
Everett, MA
clubs:
·Comcast
·Comcast Formerly ..
| Re: One more out. Bad enough I am already looking to ditch Verizon, I am going GSM so I can use my phones elsewhere in the world.
Tired of being locked to only 1 provider.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
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geonap
lolatidiots
join:2005-12-14
Glendale, CA
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| nobody cares... but i will leave! i'll definitely leave verizon if they require me to get data plans for phones i dont want data on. i already have my other company blackberry for data, no reason why i should be paying verizon too. i had respect for them about what they're doing with FiOS (at least as far as what i know about wanting to bring growth) but they're a bunch of douches if they require this. | |
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Verizon Wireless Kills Pay As You Go Data Plans
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