Next, they will take away texting... then in a couple months, add it back for $20/mo. What a great business model. Take away, then put back, but at a higher price. Devils all of them.
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Verizon to Lift Video Streaming Restrictions for Unlimited Plans With Extra $10/Month Payment
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I always had the feeling VZW was going to bait n switch on how their "unlimited" data plans worked. Had 8GB prior to switching in February and speeds have been comparable to 4G/3G ever sense. The other annoyance is that corporate/employee discounts are voided when switching to "unlimited".
I can't agree with those that say its to counter congestion. Wireless Carriers are receiving revenue and traffic from more than just our personal devices. Practically everyone/everything uses cellular in some way: Retail POS systems, Security cameras, RedBox, Fedex/USPS/UPS, Alarm Systems, Automotive Hotspots, Law Enforcement equipment, (you get the point)
Pure.Greed.
I can't agree with those that say its to counter congestion. Wireless Carriers are receiving revenue and traffic from more than just our personal devices. Practically everyone/everything uses cellular in some way: Retail POS systems, Security cameras, RedBox, Fedex/USPS/UPS, Alarm Systems, Automotive Hotspots, Law Enforcement equipment, (you get the point)
Pure.Greed.
They might as well change that red check-like V in their logo to a $ sign.
Plan A: unlimited
Plan B: really unlimited
Plan C: no honestly, it’s really really unlimited plus unlimited
I’ll never do business with Verizon.
Plan B: really unlimited
Plan C: no honestly, it’s really really unlimited plus unlimited
I’ll never do business with Verizon.
They advertise unlimited data, not unlimited LTE. You can use 10,000GB but probably* not at LTE speeds.
Used to be you didn't have to get a data plan. Many people bought smartphones with WiFi, and just used them on WiFi for data.
Then along came the iPhone and its mandatory data plan with AT&T. Once other carriers saw that customers would put up with such a requirement, they began making us get data plans as well.
All hail Apple for changing the way carriers worked
You can still buy those plans. They're mostly prepaid plans or through MVNO's.
For example, Cricket (AT&T MVNO) gives you unlimited talk/text and no data for $25/mo.
Verizon prepaid is $30/mo and gives you unlimited talk/text and no data.
For $15/mo, Mint Sim (TMobile MVNO) gives you unlimited talk/text and 2GB of data.
H2O wireless (AT&T MVNO) gives you unlimited talk/text and 3GB of data for $30/mo.
Total wireless (Verizon MVN) gives you unlimited talk/text and no data for $25/mo ($23.70 with auto refill)
You just have to provide your own device.
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It doesn't violate net neutrality because Verizon has their former lawyer (Ajit Pai) in charge of the FCC now. Soon enough, Ajit will have eliminated net neutrality.
That's what a lot of companies like to do. Impose restrictions (in some cases where there were none before), take something away, etc. and then after a certain amount of time has passed, miraculously offer whatever it was they took away, better quality, restore service, whatever and expect you to be grateful to have it back despite the additional cost. I'm thinking of airlines mostly at the moment, but it's prevalent elsewhere as well.that sounds awesome.
good thing they restricted the quality so they can then offer you to pay more for better quality.
Superb!
It probably would have changed to that with the rise of smartphones even without the particular iPhone requirement. As I recall BlackBerrys already had a similar requirement even prior to iPhone, they just weren't as ubiquitous as the iPhone fairly quickly became.Used to be you didn't have to get a data plan. Many people bought smartphones with WiFi, and just used them on WiFi for data.
Then along came the iPhone and its mandatory data plan with AT&T. Once other carriers saw that customers would put up with such a requirement, they began making us get data plans as well.
All hail Apple for changing the way carriers worked
As soon as there's a service that gets more usage and there's more of a consumer base to make money off of it the cost model switches to that. Talk minutes were like that originally. Texting was like that even though it didn't even require extra resources or anything at all.
I’m not sure if I want to like your comment or not. I have polarizing opinion about T-Mobile knowing their coverage is good and bad at the same time, Legere likes to exaggerate things. AT&T has really good coverage but they’re just naturally an evil company. I would say anything in disguise are the most trusted one like Criket and Straight Talk.
Verizon makes way more than enough money to pay for any increases in network demand.
Verizon reported earnings for their 3rd quarter on Oct. 19, 2017. Their net income for the quarter was $3.62 billion.
Their free cash flow from operations totaled $17.2 billion during the first nine months of 2017.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/verizon-continues-to-win-wireless-subscribers-1508417409
Net income means what they get to keep minus cost of goods sold, expenses and taxes for an accounting period.
Free cash flow is the money left over after all capital expenditures.
Capital expenditures is the money spent by a company to acquire or upgrade physical assets such as property, industrial buildings or equipment.
Verizon can afford to include this 4K unlimited streaming feature for free with both of their current unlimited plans and still make a crap ton of money.
While that's mostly the case, some part of it does have to do with the resources that are available and basically supply and demand. If more and more people use data and more and more of them use more data and "heavier" data then more of the bandwidth gets used up at any given time, which wasn't the case before. That's not to say that companies aren't to make money off of anything and everything and often enough for no real reason, but in a lot of cases there's at least something to it to one degree or another.
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And on the other side of it all--the side that ultimately has the bigger controlling effect on companies--stockholders and the market essentially demand more and more increases nonetheless (unfortunately).
But the whole point of a Blackberry was to communicate with corporations via special carrier centers and servers that helped with security and comm speed. (For example, if you forwarded a huge file, it did not actually come down to your Blackberry and then get sent up again. Instead, a command was sent to the server and IT did all the grunt work. That saved hugely on data costs and speed.)
Ha, yeah, I think you're right.
No sir, texts are not free by any means. They still require a call and a connection, and worse, they require being stored to be forwarded later on, if the recipient isn't online. With billions of texts being sent each day, they are a storage and computing and network expense.
But Verizon unlimited didn't have this 2 months ago, nor did they have this 8 months ago when they first brought back their unlimited plan. This $10 feature is for 4K video.
Back in August and in February, you were paying for HD (720p) video.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/12/14592822/verizon-unlimited-data-plan-announced-2017
Verizon is already pitching its unlimited plan as superior to T-Mobile's, noting that it includes HD video as opposed to the 480p/DVD-quality video that T-Mobile One customers get by default. However, Verizon specifying only “high definition” leaves room for the carrier to limit users to 720p video.
No, because almost nobody knows what net neutrality is, why it matters to individuals and small businesses, or why violations of it can ruin the Internet down the road. Here's what it looks like in Mexico: https://imgur.com/yYobj7x
They just think it means affordable Internet service because stupid activist websites keep pushing it as such and/or blasting gimmicky generalizations about it. Looking at you, Reddit.
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Well, even BlackBerrys were being used more and more by teens and outside of corporations by regular consumers as we were getting closer to iPhone's launch, and even for those generally a data package was needed (granted it was at least partially because there was a backend BlackBerry infrastructure involved for various services, but the data model was already starting to engrain itself even prior to the iPhone, just to a smaller and slower degree).
As for texts, as far as storage and all that, there's probably something to some additional infrastructure there. But as far as sending and receiving them, they were basically part of the same packets that were already being sent to and from phones, so not much in the way of additional bandwidth was really being involved. I probably should have phrased it a bit better saying that the small amount of resources that it involves doesn't even come close to the astronomical (in comparison) rates that were being charged for them.
I am going to guess that the network is simply overcrowded. I live in Phoenix and over 50% of the people here use Verizon. When they did nothing but provide “phone service” they were great. When they had to start providing data, the Verizon network became overloaded. LTE speeds near one of our malls called Arrowhead Towne Center are often below 3G speeds! T-Mobile and AT&T consistently have great speeds in the Phoenix Area, Verizon is hit-and-miss. Sprint has too many holes in their coverage. I can’t wait for John Legere from T-Mobile create a video to rip this new plan.
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Free markets are a myth. Without well-regulated, level playing field enforced rules consolidation has created the new Robber Barron class of the 21st century. Not surprising the last one was just over 100 years prior.
The annual session on how to pay for the bonuses for the year. They just need 1M of you loyal Verizon subscribers to sign up to meet the year’s goal. $10x1Mx12 months should just about cover it for their top 5 execs.
