Verizon's Share Everything Plan is a total rip

[Silent Bob]

So here's the situation:

I currently have a 4G Android Razer smartphone with unlimited data (grandfathered in), 700 minutes, 250 text and an additional phone that my wife uses. I currently pay 105 bucks a month (with my employee discount) for my cell phone bill.

My wife is interested in getting a smartphone for herself, and I thought, " wow, great timing Verizon has this share plan deal going on." Yeah, no.

We discussed this before and If I wanted to I could simply buy her a smartphone and replace her current phone on my plan for the same price (9.99), but that smartphone would need its own data plan (30 bucks). That jacks my bill up to 135 a month.

I just looked up the family share plans Verizon is offering with the hope that I could grandfather in my current unlimited data plan and essentially pay the 40 bucks a phone they advertise. Nope. I'd have to get a tiered 2 gig a month plan to share for two smartphones all for the low, low price of 140 bucks in the end.

So let me get this straight. I would pay more for an advertised share rate with less data usage allowance than I would simply tacking on a smartphone to my existing service with a 2 gig plan (one phone with unlimited data and the other with 2 gig allowance).

 

[Ravenpoe]

*puts on salesman hat*

The Old Plans

700 minutes talk and text: $80
2 Phones: 2x($9.99) = $19.98
2 Data plans: 2x($30) = $60 (one of these is a grandfathered unlimited plan, so admittedly that's not available anymore)

Total Plan Price: $159.98

Share Everything Plans:

2 Smartphones: 2x($40) = $80
4 GB shared data (average user uses a little under 2GB per smartphone)= $70

Total Plan Price: $150


Please note that under the share everything plans, you no longer have minute usage limits. Talk and Text are both completely unlimited to any phone (cellular or otherwise) within the United States.

Really, the only time the share everything plans are worse than the old plans are if you have a grandfathered unlimited data plan and are using a billion gigs a month on it.

 

[Covar]

*puts on salesman hat*

The Old Plans

700 minutes talk and text: $80
2 Phones: 2x($9.99) = $19.98
2 Data plans: 2x($30) = $60 (one of these is a grandfathered unlimited plan, so admittedly that's not available anymore)

Total Plan Price: $159.98

Share Everything Plans:

2 Smartphones: 2x($40) = $80
4 GB shared data (average user uses a little under 2GB per smartphone)= $70

Total Plan Price: $150


Please note that under the share everything plans, you no longer have minute usage limits. Talk and Text are both completely unlimited to any phone (cellular or otherwise) within the United States.

Really, the only time the share everything plans are worse than the old plans are if you have a grandfathered unlimited data plan and are using a billion gigs a month on it.

Or you don't currently have a texting plan (was on an old $5 for 200 texts, but I drop it and still pay less), and get by just fine on less than 450 minutes of talk.[DOUBLEPOST=1345723651][/DOUBLEPOST]I pay about $70 a month for my cell phone (I to have unlimited data, that AT&T now throttles at 3GB, so I'm probably switching soon) and whats even more ridiculous about the share anything plans is that if I switched I'd need even less minutes due to most the people I call already being on Verizion.

 

[Dei]

I'm pretty sure I never use my cell minutes because literally everyone I call uses Verizon. I suppose when I have to call doctor's offices or the school I use minutes, but I'm pretty sure it adds up to less than an hour a month.

 

[PatrThom]

I'm still on a pay-as-you-go plan and probably pay $2.00/month for the maybe 20-25min I use each month. The first carrier to add a $20/mo 2GB data plan but let me keep my PAYG voice will get my business and an absolute butt ton of free word-of-mouth advertising.

None of 'em will touch something like this right now, though. All of 'em too interested in "seeing what the market will bear."

--Patrick

 

[sixpackshaker]

It just floors me that the US's cellphone rates are so high compared to the rest of the world, yet the price keeps spiraling up...

 

[Bubble181]

It just floors me that the US's cellphone rates are so high compared to the rest of the world, yet the price keeps spiraling up...

...You're not very aware of prices around the globe, are you? The highest ultimate blahblah plan we have for everything - unlimited everything but still only 10 GB/month - is €125 a month. That's about $180. Not including a phone. Soooo.....
(we do have, comparatively, dirt cheap broadband internet, so that's good )

 

[sixpackshaker]

http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/an_international_comparison_of_cell_phone_plans_and_prices

Conclusion
It is clear that some countries offer service at consistently lower prices than others. The United States tends to fall in a band of countries that charge higher prices to individual wireless consumers for everything except pure voice service where prices are comparable. Cost structures and business models undoubtedly vary as a result of the level of competition and innovation in each country and it is essential that in the countries that have high prices such as the U.S., we carefully consider additional steps that could be taken with respect to encouraging competition or imposing regulation such that the US becomes an engine of innovation for better and more competitively priced service offerings.
Well you do get 5 times the data that my Grandfathered Unlimited Plan gets. Well mine gets throttled back at 2GB, I can download all I can at half speed after that.

Yes the US is expensive. Especially on data and text.

 

[Silent Bob]

*puts on salesman hat*

The Old Plans

700 minutes talk and text: $80
2 Phones: 2x($9.99) = $19.98
2 Data plans: 2x($30) = $60 (one of these is a grandfathered unlimited plan, so admittedly that's not available anymore)

Total Plan Price: $159.98

Share Everything Plans:

2 Smartphones: 2x($40) = $80
4 GB shared data (average user uses a little under 2GB per smartphone)= $70

Total Plan Price: $150


Please note that under the share everything plans, you no longer have minute usage limits. Talk and Text are both completely unlimited to any phone (cellular or otherwise) within the United States.

Really, the only time the share everything plans are worse than the old plans are if you have a grandfathered unlimited data plan and are using a billion gigs a month on it.

My plan is really, really old. I pay 700 minutes 80 bucks, 10 bucks for 2 phones to have 250 text message each, and 30 bucks for my unlimited data plan, plus a 20 dollar discount from work and 10 bucks for my wife's phone. Grand total of 105 bucks.

 

[LordRendar]

I pay 60 euro for a SMS/Talk flat,2GB Internet and an Iphone.I think Germany is so much cheaper because we got a buttload of providers,which keeps the price down.

 

[Bubble181]

http://newamerica.net/publications/policy/an_international_comparison_of_cell_phone_plans_and_prices

Yes the US is expensive. Especially on data and text.

1. 11 countries aren't exactly representative. Especially if you're going to compare yourself to Scandinavia and the Far East. And double the US prices because you pay for receiving calls as well.
2. I didn't say you weren't expensive - you're clearly more expensive than India, for example - but "so high compared to the rest of the world" is a bit of an exaggeration and implies you're one of if not the highest in the world. Germany adn France might be a bit cheaper, but Belgium, the Netherlands,... are far more expensive (despite being much smalelr and being able to ask sometimes ridiculous prices for calling abroad).
That study seems to be intent on making the US out to be expensive. If you compare their own data, the US is amongst the cheapest for texts, in the middle range for voice, and in the most expensive group for data.
Besides that, it doesn't even begin to factor in or mention cost-of-living and average wage. Converting everything to dollars sounds nice, but even for India, the cheapest "all in" package in the group at $13, the pack is comparatively a larger part of the average monthly income. Average income in the US for 2006-2010 was $28,000. Average income in India was under $1,000. A pack that's 5x as expensive, but having 28x as much money to spend, does not make your packs expensive, comparatively.

 

[PatrThom]

(we do have, comparatively, dirt cheap broadband internet, so that's good )

Amen to that. We pay about $40/mo for 12/1 service when you can get that price.

--Patrick

 

[grub]

I get 2Gb data, unlimited local and long distance, and unlimited text for $15 (with employee discount). I used to pay $70 for a "family plan" that had no data and no text, and only local evening, but we could call each other for free.

 

[HowDroll]

The Share Everything plan saved me about $20/month, and then I got to add my iPad on for only 10 bucks a month (when before I would have had to pay $40+ to add it to my plan.) We have 4GB data plan and have never even gotten close to maxing it out with three devices.

Unlimited data is one of those things that everyone wants in theory, but there was a Nielsen study done in 2009 that showed that 98% -- yes, 98% -- of smartphone users use less than 2GB data each month. Unless your smartphone data plan is your primary internet source, you're probably not even getting close to the cap.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Currently grandfathered into unlimited data but with the new tablet I have, I'm starting to wonder if the Everything plan wouldn't be better.

 

[PatrThom]

I'd be really happy if every device I own didn't have to order up The Minimum in order to be allowed to drink at all.

--Patrick

 

[Bones]

I am pretty happy with my plan and phone through work, 45$ a month gets me 3000 minutes, unlimited local and long distance to all mobile phones with nights and weekends starting at 7 pm, unlimited SMS(both standard and multimedia), unlimited 3G/4G(LTE) data, and complete insurance on the phone a brand new Samsung Galaxy S3. Needless to say, I tend to agree that Verizon's everything share data plans are a better deal with an increasing number of devices since the pool is shared with up to 10.