Kiss Your Unlimited Data Goodbye: Verizon Wants Tiered Plans with 4G
In a move that is sure to offend customer while keeping Verizon’s pockets deep, CEO Lowell McAdam stated in a conversation with investors that he doesn’t see unlimited data plans as making sense when their 4G network rolls out. Purchasing a set data bandwidth per month is what he sees as the logical model moving forward.
Puh-lease. What part about serving up bandwidth in capped blocks makes sense for a network with higher data speeds and more smartphone users taking advantage of those speeds? I guess it does make great sense for investors and Verizon who will be able to easily tag on overage fees, but they’ll have a hard time selling this to customers. People are having a hard time enough swallowing the extra $10 a month for usage of 4G with the HTC EVO 4G. Data served in this model will mean contracts that ultimately don’t go in favor of the consumer. /rant
The light at the end of this tunnel? Verizon is moving forward with their 4G plans with conviction. By the first half of 2011 they plan to carry three to five 4G handsets, with LTE calls via VoIP by 2012.
As a long-time VZW customer the new billing policy that will arrive sooner rather than later is disconcerting, but the fact is Verizon won’t be alone in this shift in data coverage costs. We all knew “unlimited” could only last so long.
[via Financial Times]