Starting this Thursday (7/7/11), Verizon is going to start charging by the gig on it's data plans.

Verizon Wireless To End Unlimited Data Plans For Smartphones - WSJ.com

One article I read said that existing smartphone customers who upgrade their phone after 7/7 will still be on the unlimited plan, another article said may still be on the unlimited plan. Anybody got a sense what the deal is on that?

 

I have had Sprint for about 12-13 years. I have been thinking about changing providers. I have a friend who has Verizon. I know Sprint has made some changes in their plans recently. I have one that is no longer available. I am thinking about going with one of the pre paid phone plans. Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon all have prepaid plans that are much cheaper than their regular billed plans. I am tired of all their add on charges. With the pre paid you only pay the monthly fee plus sales tax. If I go with a pre paid plan through one of Sprints subsidiaries I can cut my phone bill in half. Verizon has an unlimited talk, web and text for about $65/month if you use the pre paid.

 

It sounds like it's only going to affect new customers to Verizon just like AT&T did. I'm still unlimited there but my brother has a limit on his since he came to AT&T after they stopped the unlimited offering. Verizon does have a tendency to be different than the others, it would not surprise me if they did away with everyone's unlimited data plans. That would be a foolish thing to do as it could infuriate existing customers to go elsewhere.

 

I was reading the news on this just a few minutes ago. Looks like current customers with the unlimited plan will continue to receive it. New customers, or anyone that's already a customer and changes their plan, it's not available.

I'll stick with Sprint.

 

So if you're on the unlimited plan you're ok but a guy like me doing the $40 special won't fare so well? Same old, same old, the little guy takes the hits.

 

Pretty much. I think I saw that if you wanted 10gig/month it was $80.

 

This could help Sprint. I think they are the only provider who really still has unlimited.

 

Yup - Sprint is the sole provider of unlimited data plans now.

 

I'm a little less worried. I went to Amazon and put a phone in the shopping cart. The bot asked if I was an existing customer and I said yes. I was then offered different plans and I selected the $39.99 special. And then asked me to select a data plan and the $30 unlimited is still available.

 

I'm thinking I'll wait a couple of months for the 4g with dual-cores to come out.