“As the number of smartphones, tablets and connected gizmos per household explodes, the way you pay for all those gadgets is about to change dramatically,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney.
“Verizon Wireless on Tuesday announced its new ‘Share Everything’ plan, allowing customers to share data allotments across multiple devices. Starting June 28, individuals and families will be able to buy one data plan encompassing all of their smartphones, feature phones, tablets, netbooks, USB modems and Mi-Fi devices,” Goldman reports. “That means some customers — particularly those on low-priced plans who don’t have multiple devices — are going to have to pay more.”
“As part of its revised pricing structure, Verizon gave tiered voice and texting plans the boot. All plans now have unlimited voice and texts. That makes the monthly data allotment (and the number of devices they choose to connect) the only measure that customers can control to raise or lower their monthly bill,” Goldman reports. “Here’s how it works: An individual user with a smartphone and an iPad would be able to choose a data allotment — say 4 GB per month — and every download on every device would count against that shared 4 GB. A family of four could buy a plan with 8 GB per month and share that allotment across all their phones and connected gadgets.”
Goldman reports, “That convenience comes with a higher entry-level price tag. The cheapest possible monthly bill for a Verizon Wireless smartphone customer will become $90, which includes unlimited voice, texts and 1 GB of data. Today, Verizon’s lowest-priced smartphone plan is $70, consisting of 450 voice minutes, no texts and 2 GB of data… Verizon’s rivals are expected to follow suit and unveil their own data-sharing plans.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Data is data. Finally, at least one carrier gets it now, too (even if their pricing needs work).
Thanks, Apple. iMessage probably helped the dumb pipes arrive at their ultimate destination that much more quickly.
Verizon has an online calculator to help existing customers find out what they’d pay under the new set of plans here. Good luck!