AT&T eliminated their unlimited plans close around the release of the iPhone 4, once they realized they couldn’t handle infinite amounts of iPhone data on their network. Now it appears that Verizon is getting ready to follow suit.
I suppose it was inevitable – Verizon just isn’t prepared to deal with the onslaught of data use that will come with the iPhone 5. Thus, the word on the street is that they are preparing to eliminate unlimited data packages for the iPhone.
According to scuttlebutt, the source of this report, the $30 unlimited data plan will kiss the world goodbye, to be replaced by a tiered data plan ranging between $30 for 2GB of data to a more extreme $80 for 10GB of data. Overages will reportedly cost $10 per gigabyte, and tethering will continue to cost $20 a month.
This actually concerns me to some degree – I have said it before in reference to AT&T, and now I’ll say it about Verizon: They have no right to charge an addition tethering fee when they’re capping data usage. It does not take any more time, effort, or resources for Verizon to allow you to tether your 2 or 8 GB of data to a PC than it does for them to have you use them strictly on your device.
It’s your data, and you should be able to use it how you please. Charging $20 and offering, in all essence, nothing in return is pathetic, asinine, and thoroughly anti-consumer. Not to mention the fact that $80 for 10 gigs of data, even mobile data, is obscene, and Verizon (and AT&T for that matter) are laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of consumers who think they have no choice but to pay up.
At any rate, this is just a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt, but it’s really like If you want unlimited data on your Verizon iPhone, you’d better act now and get yourself grandfathered in to the unlimited plan.
Your thoughts? Sound off in the comments!