Bryan did a great job discussing the details of Verizon’s new Share Everything Plan that was rolled out at the end of last month. He also dove into the fact that Verizon is doing their best to kill off Unlimited Data Plans with their most recent service. He also looked at how this new plan would affect him if he chose to switch from his ‘grandfathered in’ unlimited data plan to their new shared data plan. Considering all of the negative chatter going on about the new plan, I just wanted to throw in my two cents on why I switched to Verizon‘s new Plan.
Verizon’s new Plan is certainly receiving a great deal of scorn throughout the media (to include, many of the comments Bryan received on his write up). But I agree with Bryan, whether we like it or not, tiered data plans are here to stay and the (magical, someday I am sure they will be mythical) unlimited data plans are quickly going the way of the dinosaurs. However I would argue that, while it is nice to have, few people actually use the true perk of unlimited data on their smartphones and only a relatively small percentage go over 2gb, much less 10gb a month. That debate not withstanding, the reason I switched my family over to the new Plan came down to, black and white, dollars and cents.
Our old Family Plan included 900 shared minutes for two iPhones both with 2gb of data. That plan also included unlimited texts but no tethering. In addition, I had the $30/month pay as you go data service for my 4G iPad3. From a data perspective, those smartphones together, rarely exceeded 1gb of data and my iPad consumed about the same. Now I grant you, we do our best to not stream video on the cellular network and save that for while on WiFi. But we freely use data for dancing the net, receiving emails, play games, etc.
By switching to the new Share Everything Plan, we get unlimited voice / texts, tethering, and 6gb of data for $50 LESS per month. In my opinion, that is a pretty good reduction in cost for, in our case, greater service. I did my best to compare apples to apples and believe the old and new services mirror each other relatively well. In fact, depending on how much of the 6gb of data we really use, I may ratchet our service down to 4gb, for an even larger saving per month. In addition to that, due to the unlimited voice, we are considering dropping our home phone line to bring our total telecommunication costs down even further.
Now I grant you, we never had the Unlimited Data Plan (and most likely never will) and that the new Verizon Share Everything Plan is tailored for the modern day family (vs an individual). That being said, I am in no way shape or form a ‘Shill for Verizon‘ (like someone accused Bryan of being)…..just calling it like I see it. Take it for what it is worth, do the math (from both a cost and usage standpoint) and decide for yourselves. Even though Verizon is making it more difficult, you still have choices in this arena. 😉
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The problem with the new Verizon plan is they are gearing everything towards a bundled group plan. Not taking into account the individuals out there that do not have a family and are now going to see their plans get more expensive.
An individual person wanting a smartphone and a modest 2Gb plan is now going to be paying $100 per month($60 for the plan and $40 for the phone) and that’s before the taxes and fees.
I don’t stream much either, but I have 6 email accounts and use the web a bit. I generally use around 2 – 2.5 GB of data. I’ve got 4 smart phones on my plan, with my one son using 6 GB of data each month due to netflix and youtube. I tether my phone to my laptop on occasion, but not very often, so I just use the open source wireless tether that is free. (no monthly fee). Verizon’s new plan that would replace my unlimited data plan that I switched to from my grandfathered alltel plan which was also unlimited. It cost me about $50 more to go from the alltel to Verizon…Now it would cost me about $50-60 more total before taxes to switch to Verizon’s new plan, but then I constantly have to worry about going over the 10 GB plan I would purchase…We would probably end up spending a ton more each month. I don’t think the amount of data we are using is unreasonable. I have read of users who have LTE like we do using 20-30 GB at home because their tethering and have no home isp. We do have a home isp and try to use wifi whenever possible. I would say that an average of 4 GB per phone is reasonable for 4G/LTE. I could accept 16 GB for 4 lines, that is more reasonable to me. When you’re on 3G like with the apple 4S, you don’t use as much data because it is slower. When you experience the fun of 10-15 mb/s, you use your apps more. I just think these companies that think you can get by on 1 -2 GB are rediculous.
Looks like some single people are going to have to get married and have kids, or adopt.
I am single, no kids and will NEVER give up my Unlimited Plan. Ever. I’ll never be a grandfather but I’ll be grandfathered in. Take that, Big Red!
Going from tiered data plans to the new plans was never an issue because you are not being FORCED to change your plan. Grandfathered unlimited data users are being forced to change.
The fact is the average unlimited data plans will see an increase in cost by switching. Heres a simple example.
Family of 2 with unlimited data and 2 smartphones
$60 for share plan
$30 for first line data
$10 for 2nd line
$30 for 2nd line data
Total cost $130 + taxes
Same family on shared data
$40 for first smartphone
$40 for 2nd smartphone
$50 for 1gb shared data
Total cost $130 + taxes
Given the fact that the average smartphone user exceeds 0.5gb the above plan is not sufficient and the cost will go up $10/month.
That being said here’s my issue with these plans. Verizon claimed the reason they created these plans was to simplify things and SAVE THE AVERAGE CUSTOMER MONEY. If the average customer’s cost is going up $10/month where is this savings they were talking about?
I think people would be less upset if they had just come out and said “we are raising prices so we can make more money.”
What I want to know; I hear that data is the problem and that voice and text messages are no longer stressing the wireless network but to move my 3 basic phones I now have to pay $30 a month for them rather than $10 each. but I can add a data only divice for $10(tablet) or $20(hotspot or modem).
seems to me the new plan is all about getting everyone on a smartphone with metered data, encourage eveyone to buy hotspots or tablets so they over use their data and get billed overage charges everymonth!
Guess I’m just getting too old, since I remember when companies valued their individual customers.
The plan worked out good for me, couldn’t be happier with switching. I’m not an extreme data user, but I do use it, and my unlimited data plan was throttled nearly every month, rendering my phone nearly useless when on certain towers. Now I have 6GB of data, and I generally use only 5GB. That leaves 1GB for my wife, who never exceeds 500MB due to most of her data consumption being done over our home wifi. We moved from 750 shared minutes to unlimited, 250 texts each to unlimited, we can both hotspot, and my bill went down by about $10 per month. I’m getting more services for less money, and I no longer have to worry about being throttled every month. Since my wife uses her phone as a phone A LOT, I tried to not use mine as much as possible to stay under our minute plan. Now I can use it as a phone should be used, any time I want to. I seem to enjoy my iPhone 4S much more now, since I’m no longer worried about those couple shackles. I even use my iPad tethered much more now that I don’t have to worry about that 2GB hotspot cap. Netflix looks much better on that bigger screen…
Scott, can you share the open source tether software? It’s not so easy to find for an iPhone, and I’d love to give up the tether plan, considering I almost never use it. TIA
When I asked Verizon WHY they were getting rid of the “unlimited data plan” He told me, “because noboby wanted it”
THAT IS WHAT HE SAID. So you are telling me that noone wanted to pay one price for unlimited access?? WHAT A LINE OF CRAP. That is a BLAINTENT LIE.
This is also the same reason they gave me, 5 years ago when I asked WHY they got rid of unlimited texting. (Some of you might not remember when the texting was unlimited, and pissed off a lot of people when they got rid of it) So it looks like NOW they are just bringing it back so they can charge a fortune for the data. They dont give a crap about saving the customers money,, they only care about making money.
First of all, this is a company and like every other company out there, the only thing they care about is how much money they are taking in monthly.
Second of all, an individual can also greatly benefit from this plan. Lets take a look at one of AT&T’s plans.
70.00 for unlimited calling
20.00 for unlimited texting
30.00 for 2gb of data
Thats 120.00 a month before taxes
Also for AT&T
40.00 for 450 min
20.00 for unlimited texting
30.00 for data
That’s 90.00 a month before taxes.
Now, an individual on this new “Share everything plan” isn’t going to need 10gb or anything of that sort, especially with wifi being so common. I say an individual can suffice with 1gb or even 2gb
That means Unlimited texting/calling + 1gb saves you 30.00 dollars a month from the first AT&t plan and puts you at the same level as the second At&T plan. BUT you benefit from unlimited calling and texting!!
The unlimited texting/calling + 2gb STILL saves you 20.00 dollars from the first AT&T plan, and ONLY puts you over 10.00 from the second AT&T plan. Wow! A whole 10.00 dollars I would rather take that and benefit from unlimited calling than 450 minutes.
As you can see….These new verizon plans can work just as well for an individual when shopping between cell phone providers.
Dave sounds like a “shill” for verizon. Did anyone notice the bloody huge Verizon ad for the “Share Everything” plan at the beginning of the article?
While I was in our local vw store a few weeks ago; I listened to the sales reps give their spill to a single mom and a family of four on the benefits of the share plan, both mother and family shot the sales pitch down like a hot air ballon. Mark my words, Verizon will walk this plan back. $40 for each smart phone per month to be in the plan plus the cost of the shared data, really? What a rip off! I hope Google gets wise and builds out a wireless ip cloud over major US cities and eats the telecom companies lunch. Google is sitting on billions of dollars in reserves as is Apple, pull the trigger!
Thanks Dave Rees, you shill.
@Robert I assure you that Dave is not a shill. The only relationship that The Gadgeteer has with Verizon is that they offer us loaner devices to review on a regular basis. I don’t see how offering an opinion on why you switched to a different cell plan makes a person a shill. Everyone’s usage patterns are different, so the new plan isn’t for everyone, but I’m also thinking about switching to the Share Everything plan because I know it will save me some $’s too.
Let us be honest. The claim that the “share” plan will save money for the customer base in aggregate is a travesty. User demand is shifting from conventional voice to DATA. The drive is to commoditize bandwidth and its usage. While I’m not opposed to the basic structure of the “share” plan, I do object to. its pricing. Verizon is charging too steep of a premium for monthly access as compared to thier historical rates. Verizon is positioning itself for the larger change of trend for data usage. When I see spade, I call it a spade. Maybe Dave isn’t a “shill”, however, his analysis of the plan is incomplete and too narrowly focused. Let us wait a few quarters and see what the earnings look like from Verizon.
I’ve been with Verizon Wireless for four years. Their service and coverage have been outstanding. I currently have two galaxy s iii’s with unlimited data, one conventional flip phone (dumb phone) with 1400 minutes, unlimited text, insurance on both smart phones and my mothly bill is $195.00.
Together we consume 3-4 GB of data each month. The share plan offers me zero savings.
Thanks,
Robert
@Robert the new plan would save me $20 a month. It’s not right for everyone… but I’ll be switching soon.
Now for Verizon to say “it will save you money” is a bunch of unicorn sh*t! I currently pay 86.79 a month 450 mins, unltd, text and Data. So for me to switch over I wouldn’t save anything at all. I did the share everything calculator they have on Verizon’s website, well I would end up spending 90.00 before taxes and fees. My current bill of 86.79 (which is every month) is the price after fees and taxes. I will pay for a phone full price because in the long run its just not worth me changing my plan to something that doesnt fit my individual needs. These days voice isnt used nearly as much as text and data. So once Verizon announced that its going to offer unltd voice and text, I literally laughed because as someone who is single with no kids I dont use many of my mins. So as a family you may save money but on a individual basis your getting the green weenie.
what no one is looking at is if you have the grandfather unlimited data and want to keep it you are forced to pay full price for a new phone to keep the unlimited data when your contract is up for renewal… looking at their new plan it would cost us more to switch to their new share plan and i use about 2 gb alone… we have 2 basic phones and my smartphone w/700 min shared, all 3 unlimited txt and my unlimited data.. contracts almost up and i need to goto 2 smartphones and one basic and its going to cost a fortune with this new plan
I was informed today, but the VW store that all Alltel plans will be FORCED to switch to a Share Everything plan by Jan. 1st. We have 5 phones on our plan, 2 smart, 3 basic. We have 900 minutes, each smart phone has 2 GB, 1 basic has 250 texts. We pay a base monthly fee of 190 before taxes & fees. To switch to a Share Everything plan for 2 smartphones, 3 basics and 4GB, it will cost $240 before taxes & fees. WHERE is the SAVINGS? If Verizon is going to FORCE Alltel customers to this new plan, it should void our contracts and let us switch provides without penalty. I am shopping for a new provider.
I currently have 2 unlimited smart phones, 1 2gb phone, and 2 basic (non smart) we don’t use that much data and could get by with a 3 gb plan my bill will go up about 60.00 a MONTH, and I lose my unlimited plan, i am not quite sure how anyone would pay less with the plan unless they were overpaying for something. Offering unlimted text and voice is really pretty funny since they say they can’t offer unlimited data anymore so it seems they will give you all you want of something you don’t use, but overcharge you for what you do want to use. I would be more than happy to pay by the minute for phone calls.
I would like to know if my taxes and fees per phone line will change by changing to the share everything plan.
Currently we have 5 basic phones on the 700 min family share plan. There is a lot of pressure from our kids to change to all smart phones. Currently taxes and usage are based on the $9.99 per phone line charge and come to approximately $7 per line. I am concerned that the taxes and usage will increase on the share everything plan if the “line charge” is now $40 per phone instead of $9.99
I was told that if we have 3 smart phones and 2 basic ones then the cost is about the same for the two plans but if you have more than 3 smart phones in the family then you are better off with the new plan. I think that may depend on whether the taxes and usage fees go up as well on the new plan.
Does anyone know?
Ok so this article is a year old but I just had to comment:
The author is a shill for Verizon. My guess is the whole blog is, but I won’t bother to look into it further because I won’t ever be visiting this site again.
I understand the need to eliminate unlimited data as the network becomes more clogged and more people use LTE for their home network, but the new pricing is outrageous considering they are demanding unlimited data consumers give it up. I did the math Dave, it doesn’t add up.
Verizon just announced that unlimited data consumers are eligible for their Edge program and are offering 6 GB of LTE data for $30 and 8 GB with mobile hotspot for $50/month; that’s 6 times the data over the $50 share everything plan for $30 and LTE access. Verizon knows they are ripping off the consumer, especially those with unlimited data plans. If Verizon truly believed that people weren’t using much data, the plans would be cheaper. The price of the time limited Edge promo for current unlimited data users is what their tier pricing should be for everyone.
I’m sick of these national cell phone cartels and their bought and paid for American government (and internet blogs).
@Brendan Nope, we’re not a shill, but thanks for visiting…
Yeah… clearly Verizon started The Gadgeteer a decade and a half ago (when they weren’t even “Verizon”, and the concept of a “smartphone” didn’t exist yet), and maintained it through three software platform changes, sent out thousands of gadgets to be reviewed by hundreds of different writers, including many phones and PDAs that don’t work on CDMA networks and never will, and made tens of thousands of comments on the related blog and forums, all because they knew that in 2013, lots of people would be unhappy with their pricing and they wanted to be able to counteract that with a massive wave of astroturf consisting of… two whole blog posts.
Umm, no. It’s called Google… learn to use it before you make unfounded accusations.