Verizon Launches New Prepaid Unlimited Data Plan

[Beerstalker]

Nobody sells unlimited water and throttle their pressure. This is the dumbest analogy I've ever read in my entire life. SMH!

I didn't say there was a water company that did this, I said IF there was. IF there was a company that did that would you consider it "unlimited water"? I sure wouldn't, and I find it hard to believe that the people here arguing that Verizon's plan does give "Unlimited Data" would feel the same if they had a water company giving them "Unlimited Water" in the manner I mentioned.

 

[31 Flavas]

I've always thought the best analogy would be a water company. If a water company sold you a plan with "unlimited water" but in the fine print told you that for the first 200 gallons it would be a 60 psi, but for anything over that is will be at 5psi.

The reality of the matter, now that Verizon and AT&T aren't desperately trying to convince us that Unlimited plans are dead, would be more along the line of this:

Said water company will sell you a plan with "unlimited water" but with the stipulation that after 200 gallons, if they can't provide 60 psi to everyone because of demand, local to your area, they'll deliver water to you at 5 psi (or whatever), until demand levels off and they can deliver water to everyone at 60 psi again.

How happy are you going to be partway thru the month when you can no longer take a shower because the water just dribbles out of the faucet. You want to take a bath? Just turn the water on before you leave for work the tub will be full when you get home.

22, 24, 26 GB, or whatever the cap for your particular carrier is, isn't a lowball data amount. For T-Mobile their threshold represents how much the top 3 percent of data users on our network consume. That is they are looking to accommodate the other 97% of their customers who use less data first before offering extra unlimited data to the 3 percent consume more. Moreover, T-Mobile adjusts the limit every three months in accordance with overall customer data habits. They've raised their cap to 30GB / mo, right now, from it's starting point of 22GB a year or two ago.

So in your water analogy the 200 gallons (or whatever the water company chooses as the threshold) would represent the level they could provide 60 psi of water pressure to 97% of their customers inside of the month. Water is a finite resource just like bandwidth, like it or not, believe it or not. In some areas it'll be way more abundant and in some areas there will be more demand for less. There for under such a system Water would to be available to the majority who uses less first. Just as cell carriers are doing with their unlimited data plans.

On the other hand, if you're arguing that AT&T and Verizon where right and unlimited data should not be offered and data should only ever be metered and and that everyone should have to pay strictly for their use -- Then I'll let someone else discuss that with you.

 

[iOSFangirl6001]

"may prioritize your data behind other customers during times/places of network congestion"

replace "may" with "will"

lol yep

Lol @ $80/month. Verizon you so crazy.

They've been crazy for nearly 2 or 3 decades so why stop now lol

I think it's hilarious how Verizon gets forced, kicking and screaming, to offer more value as its competitors pinch them. Like other concessions from the old V, these are half of what they need to accomplish, to stem the tide.

Verizon can try to respond to pinching all they want but they seem destined to miss the mark in some regard or another

Verizon - where unlimited isn't unlimited, 1GB Fiber isn't 1GB and you as a customer aren't treated like a customer....

FACT: "Unlimited" is an age old myth and misused jargon among ISP's and phone companies

True unrestricted uninhibited no fine print no strings attached unlimited DOES NOT EXIST

Myth busters was probably too afraid to tackle that myth but good god they should have.

EVERY Aspect of "unlimited" has a catch 22

Unlimited Data - Yea right enjoy hidden caps, throttles or more courtesy of fine print


Unlimited minutes- pffft find inside men or women willing to blow the whistle or past plan definitions and then find a way to use say 20,000 to 99,000 minutes via Call Waiting, 3 way calling and call forwarding simultaneously on a capable device in a bill cycle and see how they respond about the "unlimited"


Unlimited messaging - again try say 20,000 to 99,000 in a cycle a few times and see how they respond


Sure it's harder to envoke carrier concern over minutes and messages and data as their money maker is the larger concern but never ever trust , assume or believe for a minute ANY Company truly grasps the concept of unlimited by its purest definitions

 

[Porco]

The noun part though isn't the part that, IMO, you care about really. Like you said, anything else could be attach to the plan as a name "T-mobile ONE" or "XL" or "AT&T super premium" or "Sprint ALL-IN" or whatever. The removal of the literal word unlimited is easy. But, it's the adjective part, correct me if I'm wrong, that you care about. The concept. You don't want any of the preceding plans described as unlimited when there are caveats or rules applied to the delivery of said service. I seriously don't have any problem with this viewpoint.

However, how do you describe these "not actually unlimited, yet not limited inside of rules plans". S, M, and L can be given numbers, X gb, but how do you describe the top "unlimited" plan simply -- with out using the adjective of unlimited. I mean, you're objecting to the fact that after a certain about of data use you -may- be subject to throttling. Which makes it not unlimited. But calling it throttled unlimited isn't accurate as you aren't always going to be throttled and not always even after you pass the de-prioritization threshold. I'd like guidance or insight from you on how to describe these plans in a manner that is acceptable to you.

Well it is the noun, the name of the plan I object to the most. I think that is where the disingenuous part is, that creates the (false) impression that you get truly, actual unlimited data - and I mean it feels ridiculous to me having to add superfluous words like 'truly' and 'actual' to a word like 'unlimited' which is absolute in nature to begin with (!).

As for how to describe such plans after the headline name of the plan - well you've done a fairly good job yourself whilst arguing against yourself that it's difficult to do! I mean "the fact that after a certain about of data use you -may- be subject to throttling" is fairly near and doesn't use the word unlimited does it?

There are lots of ways it could be phrased, but I just think it's self-evidently silly to say 'unlimited - but with limits'!

How about, just for example, 'XL Plan - The plan with no 'hard cap' on the amount of data, 4G/LTE speeds whenever network is capable, network management measures may apply under significant load (see more detailed explanation in terms and conditions).'

Then in the terms and conditions it can be explained that: 'if lots of uses all try to use the same tower at once, physics and technology mean that not everyone will be able to get as fast speeds as we will otherwise deliver to you on the XL plan. If this happens, the users who have used less than our 'soft cap' of (e.g.) 22GB will be given the priority, but rest assured that you will be provided service as quickly as these measures will otherwise allow'.

That's just off the top of my head, anyone is feel free to pick holes in it or suggest better wording if they like. But I come back to my initial point - I just don't think they should use the word unlimited (most importantly as a name, but also in the description if they can avoid it) because really it isn't unlimited. Maybe better terms than 'hard cap' and 'soft cap' could be come up with in the descriptions and T&Cs - but a soft cap, or level of data use where the service may change is in itself a kind of limit, which underlines my central point.

And kudos to you for engaging in a positive, sensible and reasonable debate on the subject!

 

[WRChris]

Spectrum and bandwidth. Where as terrestrial ISPs can offer hundreds or a thousand+ gigs to their consumer customers or literal unlimited data (usually to their business class customers). Just don't bet the house on being able to pull multiple petabytes (if that) or an exabyte. Without needing to re-negotiate service delivery or rate. You'd likely need to move to your own fiber tap in that case.

You'd crush any cell carrier under the data demands that terrestrial ISPs deal with. Verizon is especially feeling the pinch following having to re-offer unlimited data to remain competitive and stem the bleeding and exodus of customers.

Like it or not Unlimited is never based on whether an unlimited amount can always be handed out. When "Olive Garden" says their dinner entrées come with "Unlimited Salad and Breadsticks" you'll be disappointed to find out they aren't actually going to provide you unlimited amounts. They have a literal limited amount and many other dinner customers to serve.

Customers like to hear that they don't have to worry hard limits or per unit transactions if they like something. Businesses like to offer that flexibility where it makes sense. Since most of the time they can make more selling unlimited as most customer don't use that much.

Funny, my home isp doesn't call their plan "literal unlimited". Instead of building the network to be able to handle unlimited, they just leave the network as is and imply true unlimited data. I'm aware you think throttled internet speed is unlimited but it's not. I'm lucky and can get decent internet at my house. If I couldn't and had to use cellular, I would just drop off the grid lol. There's no need in food analogies when talking about data. Just call it what it is, misleading the consumer into thinking they are getting unlimited. Sure, they tell you it's throttled but they also say that only 1% of users reach the throttle threshold and you shouldn't worry about it. Just complete nonsense and companies shouldn't be able to mislead its (potential) customers.

Unlimited is not impossible, it's just not pursued by cell companies because they can already say they offer it, even though they do not.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Some of you need to stop with the fake news type spin. Verizon does offer unlimited data. Just because said data may not be LTE 100% of the time does not negate the fact that the cellular data is unlimited.

Learn to read. Facts are important.

practicality is important too

i went to japan last year. i bought a sim card. the sim card came with 5GB of LTE data and unlimited data thereafter.

that unlimited data was unusable. the speed was extremely slow and i couldn't use google maps to navigate. eventually bought another SIM card with 10gb instead.

 

[Beerstalker]

22, 24, 26 GB, or whatever the cap for your particular carrier is, isn't a lowball data amount. For T-Mobile their threshold represents how much the top 3 percent of data users on our network consume. That is they are looking to accommodate the other 97% of their customers who use less data first before offering extra unlimited data to the 3 percent consume more. Moreover, T-Mobile adjusts the limit every three months in accordance with overall customer data habits. They've raised their cap to 30GB / mo, right now, from it's starting point of 22GB a year or two ago.

I'm not saying these new plans are a bad deal for everyone. If I used more data I would be tempted.

What I am saying is they shouldn't be able to advertise it as unlimited. They should have to advertise it as a 22GB plan with no overage charges or something like that, since 22GB is all they guarantee you will get.

 

[joueboy]

I didn't say there was a water company that did this, I said IF there was. IF there was a company that did that would you consider it "unlimited water"? I sure wouldn't, and I find it hard to believe that the people here arguing that Verizon's plan does give "Unlimited Data" would feel the same if they had a water company giving them "Unlimited Water" in the manner I mentioned.

Nobody will ever sell unlimited water and throttle the pressure. Even IF!

 

[JordanTracer]

What ***** are you talking about unless you're here to defend your network. Unlimited is unlimited that's how it's all started. No throttling of service to begin and that was my case. Obviously since they can change terms of agreement they decided to start milking about it. I used to remember when voice was their focus, then people don't talk anymore. They started milking text messages that uses your own data that you paid. Then people start using messaging apps and sharing on networking sites. Yeah find ways to limit so their online activities so they can milk more from customers. Network congestion that's not a real thing AT&T unlimited watching TV shows on DIRECTVNOW and T-Mobile Binge-On. They handled those things flawlessly.

I have ATT's new Unlimited family plan. Had it about 2 months and I'm in love. The throttling is almost no existant. I went through 400 gigs on just my phone in the last 2 months. 6mb/s seems to be my top torrenting speed but when throttled I'm still getting no less then 700kb/s. My buddy with TMobile gets capped to about 10kb/s when his runs out and his friend on Verizon was being capped at about 200kb/s after there's ran out.

ATT unlimited for the win.