We heard rumblings that Verizon Wireless will be killing its unlimited data plans by the end of the month and the folks over at Droid Life have received the alleged script that Big Red is sending out to squash concerns.
Thanks to “blog activity,” Verizon is coaching its customer service representatives to deflect customers who are asking about the future of its unlimited data plans.
“Thank you for your inquiry but I have no information on any pricing change at this time,” customer representatives are supposed to say. “I’d be happy to review your current plan and let you know what your options are.”
This doesn’t really give us hints at what Verizon is planning to do, as the company doesn’t comment on rumor and speculation and this line fits into that philosophy. But I don’t think it’s too crazy to believe that Verizon will move away from unlimited plans to a tiered-pricing model.
AT&T recently axed unlimited plans and now users can pay $15 a month for 200 MB or $25 for 2 GB. If Verizon moved to tiered-data pricing, I would expect it to have similar rate plans.
Why would Verizon do this? Well, the simple fact is the carrier never really wanted to offer “unlimited” data. Sure, a few years ago, Verizon could get away with charging you $30 a month for that BlackBerry and most users would use a paltry amount of data. But with devices like the Motorola Droid X and the explosion of data-intensive apps, Verizon customers are sucking down data at a rate that doesn’t gibe well with Verizon’s business model.
Big Red has already said that its 4G network based on LTE will have tiered-pricing. The company plans to offer “buckets” of 4G data for a variety of consumer devices.
The carrier is supposed to implement these changes July 29, so we’ll know for sure in a week. What do you guys think of Big Red ditching unlimited data plans?
[Via Droid Life]