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Verizon CEO: Family Shared Data Plans Coming in 2012

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Verizon’s CEO Lowell McAdam spoke at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference this week and he touched on the annoyance that is their family plan data structure. As it stands, each line under a family plan maintains their own data plans.

One might have 10GB of data while the other line may have 2GB, both having to pay their respective amounts. Some people would be quite alright just sharing data but it is not currently possible.

Fortunately for us, McAdam says Verizon has been working on the issue for a couple of years and may be ready to introduce it sometime in 2012. Of course, without the option of unlimited data for those who aren’t grandfathered shared data might become a problem for some accounts.

Trying to share 2GB of data between two or more lines might prove to be worrisome for everyone involved as you’d approach overage charges in the blink of an eye depending on usage.

Even having a 10GB plan might not be great if you have two or more lines under one account. Of course, no details were given on how all of this would work for both tiered users and current grandfathered unlimited users. We’ll just wait patiently for all of this to go down when the time comes. [Fierce]

Quentyn Kennemer
The "Google Phone" sounded too awesome to pass up, so I bought a G1. The rest is history. And yes, I know my name isn't Wilson.

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27 Comments

  1. Verizon CEO, NOONE CARES, TELL US ABOUT OUR DAMN NEXUS!

    1. i care, personally i just want enough data to check my email on the go maybe once a week, check the weather, and maybe check out the game results.

    2. if they bring a 20Gb shared or an unlimited shared plan then yes, i care very much as it may temp me enough to move away from sprint. but at this point i rip through data on my EVO so i just cant switch because they would charge me out the ass

    3. Hah, true that

  2. You know what I would like to see coming this Friday, Mr. CEO? A certain phone called the “Nexus”, you might not have heard about it.

  3. History has shown that any changes made to phone/data plans are bad changes (for the customer anyways).  Whatever they’re planning, I’m sure we will end up paying the same or more for less service.

  4. I’m unlimited this is another way to butt rape our wallets

    And I want my nexus too

  5. I have been begging for this for years. Please be true.

  6. Well, technically he said “I think in 2012 we will see it…”

    Translation: “We will definitely not see it in 2012.”

  7. It’s just an easy way for these telco companies to make money.  They are using the same model that they used with voice and text plans. They started off with 200 minutes, then they went to 450, then 1000, then eventually unlimited. I am sure they will do the same with data as more people start using cloud services. To me, it seems obvious that they are all price fixing.

    1. The reason for unlimitted minutes is that most people don’t use them. It’s a fake give away. We had unlimitted data before, because it wasn’t used much. We started using data and big surprise.. we get limits.
      Here is an article from ny times
      http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/technology/personaltech/14talk.html
      As a whole, we are usung less voice minutes.

  8. I hope this comes to unlimited users… That would kick rocks

    1. I think you know the answer to that. It’s some where between “oh hell no” and “hahahahaha”.

    2. I don’t think you know what that phrase means.

  9. I been looking forward to this; I currently have family plan and five of them are smart phones. Every phone has unlimited but we each pay +30 for 4 phones that adds up to $120.00 on data plan alone. I have roadrunner at home that’s another $45.00 totaling $ 165.00 on internet services a month. 

    1. Look for promotions Verizon has, I got 20 bucks off all our unlimited plans, 30 bucks a month for 3 phones unlimited data.

  10. Damn you GNexers, worse than the damn iSheep.  Why must every piece of news become a soap box for your damn unanounced phone?  

    1. because it’s been announced and YET to be released????

      1. Verizon hasn’t announced anything about the phone.  The topic of conversation is data plans.

  11. “nothing to see here. Don’t look there either. Look over here! Here’s a shiny new family plan!” Shut up, Verizon. iDon’tCare.

  12. Googlelover99-where did you get that promo for the unlimited. Did you call and ask or was it online?

  13. At what point is this data cap going to be thrown out? They must be trying to milk as much as they can now before data speeds and technology get to the point where download limits are negligible for the majority of the population. I’ll take my unlimited data on Sprint and laugh all the way to the bank. No, no I will not do that. I use wifi anyways 95% of the time. I’ll be lucky to hit 200MB of data on the EVO 3D a month.

  14. Unlimited Family Shared data on Sprint.  Granted, it took being a Sprint customer for over ten years, and having them totally screw up our billing a few times (like $500 extra a month for two months) for that to happen, but basically $30 for 5 lines (not counting the $10 charges for the Evos) for all data pretty much ties me to Sprint for quite awhile.

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