Verizon: We’re Moving to Tiered Data Plans This Summer
“All you can eat” fans may not want to read this as there is strong risk of this piece of news causing extreme anger and sudden urges to break smartphones. Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo – speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom conference – has said to investors that tiered data plans would make their way to the carrier this summer.
Fran Shammo said that they would have done it when they launched the iPhone 4, but they didn’t want to turn customers away. He reportedly said that “everyone knows that [the $30 unlimited data plan] isn’t long term.” We first caught wind of Verizon’s plans to at least consider this structure last summer. Then-CFO John Killian said:
We have indicated in the past, as we move to an LTE world and LTE pricing, we will probably look very hard at tiered pricing, and that continues to be our thinking right now. So more to come on that. By the way, I should say that all of our efforts, all of our plans on getting LTE launched in the fourth quarter are on schedule.
The difference between then and now is that 3G data may be subject to whatever new terms Verizon’s looking to impose, as well. There’s no word on what exact structure they’ll be using, but all signs are pointing to unlimited data soon going the way of the dodo. You had to expect that this was coming, folks. [Fierce]